Source: Hard AI, Author: Li Dan.
In January, a Microsoft vice president was reportedly appointed as an observer of the OpenAI board of directors. As part of last month's cooperation agreement with OpenAI, the person in charge of Apple's App Store will become an observer of the board of directors. Netizens joked that Microsoft spent $15 billion to get the observer position, while Apple didn't spend a penny.
$Apple (AAPL.US)$Collaboration with OpenAI is not only allowing iPhone users to use ChatGPT directly, but may also allow Apple to "freely" obtain the same status as Microsoft, a major shareholder of OpenAI, on the OpenAI board of directors.
On Tuesday, July 3, Eastern Time, media learned that as part of last month's landmark agreement, Apple will get an observer position on OpenAI's board of directors. Phil Schiller, Head of App Store at Apple, former marketing director will serve as the observer, but not as a formal director. Schiller has not attended any OpenAI meetings so far. The OpenAI's board's arrangement will take effect later this year, with specific developments that may still change.
According to media reports, it was once thought that Apple and OpenAI were unlikely to cooperate. Allowing Apple's executives to join OpenAI's board of directors will further strengthen the partnership between the two companies. The observer position of the board will make Apple sit on an equal footing with Microsoft, the biggest supporter and major AI technology supplier of OpenAI. Wall Street Observer notes that in January of this year, Dee Templeton, a Microsoft vice president who has served Microsoft for 25 years, joined OpenAI's board of directors as an observer without voting rights and has begun attending board meetings.
The media believes that allowing Microsoft and Apple to attend OpenAI's board of directors at the same time may cause trouble for the two technology giants, as they have been both rivals and partners for more than a decade. Some of OpenAI's board meetings may discuss AI projects that OpenAI and Microsoft will jointly engage in in the future. Microsoft may hope that Schiller from Apple will not participate in these discussions. If the agenda is deemed sensitive, board observers are usually not present at such meetings.
At last month's highly anticipated Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), Apple announced its partnership with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and the new version of macOS. Siri can access ChatGPT to provide advice when needed.
Neither Apple nor OpenAI have disclosed the financial details of their collaboration, but there are widespread speculations about it. Last month, some media reported that Apple did not directly pay OpenAI any fees or rewards in their cooperation agreement. Instead, Apple believes that integrating ChatGPT into hundreds of millions of Apple devices could help OpenAI attract more new users and potentially generate subscription revenues. The value it creates is equal to or even greater than the benefits ChatGPT brings to Apple.
After the news that Apple will get an observer position on OpenAI's board of directors, some investors jokingly commented that Microsoft spent $15 billion to get an observer position on OpenAI's board of directors, while Apple did not spend a penny. Joke aside, this is indeed crazy.
Some netizens commented under this saying that it is really interesting and OpenAI seems to value this relationship with Apple.
Some netizens disagree, saying that this is not the case. Apple may eventually have to pay a large sum of tens of billions of dollars to Microsoft because OpenAI's products all run on Microsoft's Azure cloud.
One netizen raised an uncertain analogy: next year, Apple may become OpenAI's biggest customer.
Editor/Lambor