Source: Sina Technology In 2023, 23-year-old Sam Altman (Sam Altman) spoke enthusiastically at the company's annual developer conference, praising the company's new app store for promoting his developed software (a friend positioning service called Loopt). "We think this is a new mobile era and we are excited to participate in it," Altman said. Today, 16 years later, Apple has invited this entrepreneur again - but the situation is different this time. Now the company needs his help, just as he needed Apple. Currently, the OpenAI startup run by Altman is at the forefront of the generative AI field. In order to catch up in this field, Apple has established a partnership with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into iPhone's operating system. Although the controversial Altman is unlikely to appear on stage at the press conference, this agreement will be the focus of next week's Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, indicating how much the power dynamics in Silicon Valley have changed in recent years. This agreement allows OpenAI to reach millions of Apple users, including those who may hesitate to use ChatGPT. For Apple, this collaboration brings the hottest technology of the artificial intelligence era - a chatbot with super powers that can be combined with its own services. Apple has been developing a series of artificial intelligence features, including features that run on its devices and other features that require cloud computing. Apple has also introduced artificial intelligence technology for the Siri digital assistant, but the company's self-developed chatbots have not yet met standards. Technology veteran Dag Kittlaus said that the collaboration with OpenAI is likely to be a "medium-term relationship" for Apple. Before Siri was acquired by Apple, he was co-founder and operator of Siri. "But one thing is certain, they will strive to cultivate their own capabilities in this regard. " On the morning of June 11th Beijing time, CEO Tim Cook will deliver a keynote speech at the Worldwide Developers Conference, which is considered the largest sales promotion of Apple in recent years. The company must convince consumers, developers and investors that Apple can thrive in the era of artificial intelligence. Due to the stagnation of Apple's existing businesses, five of its six quarters' revenue declined, and it faces greater pressure. In the field of artificial intelligence services, Apple once took the lead by releasing the Siri digital assistant in 2011, ahead of Amazon's Alexa and Google Assistant entering the market. But the company quickly fell behind its competitors, and the first appearance of ChatGPT in 2022 caused earth-shaking changes. In November 2022, OpenAI's chatbot inspired consumer imagination and prompted tech giants to compete to develop their own artificial intelligence services. Since then, Apple's main competitors have made progress. Gemini's chatbot is competing with ChatGPT for the dominant position in this emerging market. Microsoft is OpenAI's biggest supporter and has begun to integrate its AI-assisted Copilot into software. Amazon has also demonstrated an artificial intelligence-enhanced version of the Alexa voice assistant. In contrast, Apple has remained silent about its ambitions in artificial intelligence until now. Cook said last year that the company will act cautiously in new areas and will only add artificial intelligence technology on a "thoughtful basis." Recently, he believes that Apple will have an advantage in the field of artificial intelligence because the company can seamlessly integrate hardware, software and services together. Behind the scenes, Apple employees have been working hard to fulfill this promise. Before and after the release of ChatGPT, a small team in Apple's artificial intelligence and software engineering departments began using a framework called Ajax to develop ChatGPT's competitors. Apple software chief Craig Federighi urged managers to add as many artificial intelligence features as possible to the latest version of the iPhone and iPad operating system (internally referred to as "Crystal"). The service department led by Eddie Cue began to build the infrastructure of new data centers to support online artificial intelligence services. Employees also began researching how to apply artificial intelligence to Apple Music and the company's productivity applications.
After experiencing the turmoil caused by the brief dismissal of CEO Sam Altman, OpenAI reformed its board of directors, and its major partners gained observer seats without voting rights. $Microsoft (MSFT.US)$Apple will also receive an observer seat on the OpenAI board of directors, joining Microsoft. App Store director Phil Schiller will serve as the observer for Apple.
The 'Altman incident' was initiated by the old OpenAI board, which caught Microsoft off guard. However, obtaining an observer seat on the OpenAI board can ensure that Microsoft no longer experiences such an unpleasant surprise, given that Microsoft has invested $13 billion in OpenAI.
According to media reports, Apple will also obtain an observer seat on the OpenAI board of directors and will be on par with Microsoft. App Store director Phil Schiller will serve as the observer for Apple. $Apple (AAPL.US)$Unlike Microsoft's substantial investment, Apple has not invested any funds in OpenAI yet, but is integrating OpenAI's models into its devices for free.
It is not difficult to imagine how awkward the relationship among the three companies may become in the future. Microsoft and Apple are long-term rivals, but they will soon be using OpenAI's models to power their competing products' AI assistants. Even by the overly comfortable standards of the American AI industry, the relationship among these three companies is unlikely to be too comfortable. During some board discussions, there will have to be a lot of avoidance, and even then, conflicts may not be avoided.
Even if the possible future disputes are not considered, there are still many aspects that need to be digested by Apple's taking an observer seat on the OpenAI board of directors. First, and most obviously, the two parties in love, Microsoft and OpenAI, are increasingly hedging their bets. Microsoft has been doing this for some time. Considering the turmoil in the past year, this is not surprising.
However, taking into account the turmoil in the past year, this is not surprising.
In March of this year, Microsoft hired the co-founder of AI start-up Inflection AI and almost all of its employees, agreeing to pay $650 million for Inflection's software license. There are reports that Microsoft is currently developing an AI model that competes with GPT, and Inflection co-founder Mustafa Suleyman is leading the work.
At the same time, there are signs that OpenAI is also advocating for its independence while cooperating with Microsoft. Last week, there were reports that OpenAI's income from direct sales of access to its AI models is now more than that from licensing revenue from Microsoft.
Building ChatGPT into MacBook and iPhone is indeed a big deal, but granting Apple an observer role will confirm that OpenAI and Microsoft are no longer so tightly interwoven as they once appeared.
According to media reports, Apple may also not be monogamous when it comes to cooperation with OpenAI.
When Apple announced its partnership with OpenAI last month, OpenAI CEO Altman did not appear on stage at Apple's WWDC developer conference but sat in the audience.
However, if Apple does not plan to serve as an observer on the boards of these companies, it seems that Apple will grant OpenAI and its technology a higher status for a long time.
These collaborations will reflect Apple's progress in developing its own top-tier AI models. Once Apple launches its own AI model and proves its competitiveness, it will greatly reduce Apple's need for any such collaborations.
These partnerships will demonstrate Apple's progress in developing its own top AI models. Once Apple introduces its own AI model and it is proven to be competitive, it will greatly reduce the need for any such partnership.
Editor / jayden