Apple considers OpenAI partnership after Siri AI failures

Apple is reportedly considering partnering with OpenAI or Anthropic to power Siri after its own AI development efforts have failed spectacularly, according to Bloomberg reporting. The tech giant faces multiple lawsuits from shareholders and customers over misleading promises about AI-powered Siri features that were supposed to launch with the iPhone 16 in September 2024 but have been delayed until at least 2026.

The big picture: Apple’s potential pivot to third-party AI represents a major admission of defeat for one of the world’s largest tech companies, signaling it may be stepping back from the AI arms race into a more supportive role.

What you should know: Apple promised customers a suite of “Apple Intelligence” features when it launched the iPhone 16 for $799, including an AI-powered Siri that could autonomously complete “mundane tasks” for users.

• The company has repeatedly delayed these features, first pushing them to “later this year and in the months following,” then officially delaying Siri’s AI upgrade until at least 2026 in early June.
• Multiple lawsuits have been filed against Apple by shareholders and customers for misleading claims about the iPhone 16’s AI capabilities.

Who’s involved: Anonymous sources told Bloomberg that Apple has asked both OpenAI and Anthropic to train versions of their large language models to run on Apple’s cloud platform for potential mass adoption.

• Anthropic appears to be the unofficial favorite, with sources noting that Siri chief Mike Rockwell and his fellow executives felt Anthropic’s Claude would best align with Apple’s needs.
• Apple hasn’t officially chosen which direction to pursue, but any third-party partnership would be viewed as a significant failure by investors and customers.

Signs of broader retreat: Apple’s moves suggest the company is second-guessing the AI hype that has dominated the tech industry.

• In February, Apple announced a $500 billion investment in US tech manufacturing over four years, including a 250,000 square foot server-building facility in Houston and an engineering academy in Detroit.
• In June, Apple’s Machine Learning Research lab released a white paper declaring that the broader AI industry was massively overhyping the abilities of top AI models, including OpenAI’s claims that its chatbots can “reason.”

Why this matters: Apple’s potential retreat makes it the largest tech company to start questioning the red-hot AI hype, though whether this serves as a bellwether for further industry decoupling or stands alone remains to be seen.