ChatGPT is baked into Apple Intelligence

As rumored, Apple confirmed at WWDC 2024 that it’s made a deal with OpenAI to bring ChatGPT to the iPhone and other devices. GPT-4o will power cloud-based Apple Intelligence queries in iOS 18, iPadOS 18 and macOS Sequoia.

Apple’s Craig Federighi said the new AI-powered Siri can (with your permission) tap into ChatGPT’s knowledge base “when it might be helpful.” Examples include asking for menu ideas for an elaborate meal with specific ingredients. You can also include photos with your questions, like asking for advice based on a detail in the picture. In addition, you can ask Siri about documents, presentations and PDFs.

ChatGPT will integrate with Apple’s system-wide writing tools with its new Compose feature. It lets you tap into ChatGPT to create content for anything you’re writing about. One example Apple included was creating a custom bedtime story that incorporates a child’s specific interests.

Notably, Apple mentioned that you’ll want to “check important info for mistakes.”

Apple says you can access ChatGPT for free without creating an account, and the company says your requests and user info won’t be logged. If you already subscribe to ChatGPT (Pro, Teams or Enterprise), you can connect your account and access extra paid features via Apple Intelligence experiences. Apple hammered home the point that the user is in control of when it’s used, and you’ll be required to grant explicit permission for each cloud-based ChatGPT request.

ChatGPT integration will be available in iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia, but the OpenAI goodies won’t arrive until “later this year.” Apple said it will add support for other AI models in the future, which apparently confirms that it doesn’t have a long-term exclusivity deal with OpenAI.

Catch up here for all the news out of Apple’s WWDC 2024.