Apple No Longer in Talks to Invest in ChatGPT Maker OpenAI

https://www.macrumors.com/2024/09/30/apple-no-longer-investing-openai-chatgpt/

by Kye • 2 years ago

178 74 2 years ago

macrumors.com

gnabgib• 2 years ago

Discussion (68 points, 3 days ago, 82 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41677333

throwaway3141553• 2 years ago

Weird. Somehow missed this one on the day. Was it visible on the front page?

exitb• 2 years ago

Posts that generate more comments than upvotes tend to fall off the front page quickly.

ChrisArchitect2• 2 years ago

[dupe] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41677333

JKCalhoun• 2 years ago

Seeing that there might be downsides to support OpenAI, is there any harm in Apple sitting out "this round"? Are there not future rounds where Apple can reconsider talking with OpenAI?

Just taking a guess: the recent high-level exits from OpenAI may have contributed to Apple's backing away from talks with OpenAI.

blitzar3• 2 years ago

Just taking a guess: OpenAi wanted a trillion $ valuation.

j454• 2 years ago

Does this mean it's no longer integrated into the iPhone, or can be turned on/off?

pchristensen• 2 years ago

It will still be integrated, and it will still require user confirmation for every request sent to ChatGPT.

j454• 2 years ago

It would be great if I could point it at any model/endpoint I wanted as long as it was OpenAI API compatible.

That will help support Apple's privacy supports and brand promises too.

ndegruchy• 2 years ago

"Apple Intelligence" was never ChatGPT. You would be prompted (if the app is installed, IIRC) to ask ChatGPT if the Apple Intelligence system was unable to process the request, or needed a larger set of expertise. It would then prompt you for permission to confer with it.

j454• 2 years ago

I understand Apple Intelligence is separate from ChatGPT in my device.

Not clear if Apple Intelligence on server side (Siri, etc) uses OpenAI or not in the background, even a private instance.

As for prompting for permission to confer with it on device, it would be great if I could point it at any model/endpoint I wanted as long as it was OpenAI API compatible.

dcreater• 2 years ago

Good! Someone in Apple's leadership is clairvoyant

sitkack• 2 years ago

As clairvoyant as leaders get! If only we could all be so lucky.

mise_en_place• 2 years ago

Even with the 50 bps rate cut, everyone is still very tight with their money. It makes sense that Apple would back out in this high rate environment.

blitzar3• 2 years ago

Apple has ~66 billion in cash sitting around. A 50bps rate cut costs them houndreds of millions a year.

cj• 2 years ago

Apple also has $100b of debt, so maybe it's a wash?

KaiserPro• 2 years ago

looking at the numbers that have been published, openai is loosing money hand over foot, has suspect leadership.

Not only that OpenAI has lots of competitors that could be hoovered up at a 90% discount once the first big AI company goes pop.

ljm• 2 years ago

I get the impression that OpenAI’s growth has made it harder to move at the pace of the market, both with competitors and in open source, to speak nothing of the internal drama with Altman’s leadership.

They’re not exactly short of funding, and it’d hardly be wise for big tech to consolidate all its funding on a single player. Hell, Claude has shaped up really well and it doesn’t have that distinct GPT flavour to its output.

airstrike2• 2 years ago

Despite being known for making big bets on products, Apple has historically not really been big on huge M&A bets or financial investments into other companies.

Also from my experience it's the counterparty that should feel honored to be working with Apple rather than the other way around, which I suspect played a role here too.

dfex2• 2 years ago

Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre have entered the chat...

airstrike2• 2 years ago

Yeah, they've spent those $3bn in 10 years, which is a rounding error for M&A for a company of this size

insane_dreamer• 2 years ago

And that was Apple’s biggest purchase ever at only $3B.

shreezus• 2 years ago

Apple is well aware of Altman's intent to build consumer AI hardware (additionally, Altman is allegedly collaborating with Jony Ive on the project).

jsheard2• 2 years ago

What's that OpenAI hardware even likely to be? The attempts at consumer AI hardware so far have had no compelling answer to "why isn't this an app on the phone I already have".

Lalabadie• 2 years ago

Same strategy as a Kindle, Fire TV or a Portal – a proprietary gateway to services they sell, probably sold at or below cost. It's in line with their work on ChatGPT voice mode and such.

m4632• 2 years ago

Why do you need an app? Couldn't you just call an AI and talk to it?

tough2• 2 years ago

the only AI hardware that matters are the GPU´s

if altman gets his billions he can buy or build some maybe

empath75• 2 years ago

Spend a few minutes with the multi-modal models and you can figure it out. It'll probably be closer to the humane AI pin, but with a better design (no stupid projector) and a better version of the model backing it.

singularity2001• 2 years ago

A device which constantly listens and chimes in whenever you ask it to, or whenever it thinks it can contribute (if set to do so)

azinman2• 2 years ago

Let’s say that’s true. Wouldn’t it be a useful edge?

daedrdev• 2 years ago

It should be clear that OpenAi wants to be as important as the other tech giants (MAGMA? I don't know the new acronym), not just a large tech company

zexbha• 2 years ago

Didn't go for the obvious 'GAMMA'?

datadrivenangel• 2 years ago

I assume OpenAI wanted too much investment, and it makes sense to just pay them as a supplier instead of as an investment.

daghamm• 2 years ago

What would GPT do in consumer products anyway?

Edit images? Answer incoming calls? Make reservations? Phones have that and tons more already.

lurking_swe• 2 years ago

ideas:

• sentiment analysis on text messages and the notifications to determine if they are urgent or high priority (apple is working on this actually for ios 18.1)

• summarize many emails or notifications, at a glance.

• improve siri. instead of transcribing the users request, and asking siri to take action right away, feed that transcription through an LLM first to fix grammar issues. Or correct words that don’t make sense in the context. This could reduce errors when asking siri to do something.

• have siri support handling multiple requests in one shot. An LLM can trivially pick apart a run on sentence and structure it into an actionable array or siri requests. Like “hey siri turn off all the lights and close the garage door. Oh also please let my wife know that i’m on my way. Actually, let my kids know too. Also i need navigation to the party today, i think it’s in my calendar.”

There’s many subtle ways to improve the user experience here. It seems like you’re expecting this to change your life lol. Don’t believe the hype, there is no AGI anytime soon. But let’s not pretend there’s no value here. You just have to be a bit creative…

LarsDu88• 2 years ago

Perhaps the elimination of the most of the original leadership team along with the board of directors was seen as a red flag.

Alternatively, Apple could just invest in Anthropic instead which seems to have had less drama and a lot of the same talent.

m4632• 2 years ago

Investment of Theseus.

advisedwang• 2 years ago

Anthropic already has very large investment from Amazon. I doubt Apple wants to tie their AI future to Amazon so closely.

candiddevmike• 2 years ago

Google has also invested in Anthropic. I forget if the investments by AMZN and GOOG are cash or credits though.

pmlnr• 2 years ago

Or they could simply skip this hype and wait for the next.

interstice• 2 years ago

What's next on the list of last century sci-fi that hasn't had 100 billion dollars of investment yet?

ashconnor• 2 years ago

'AI' makes NFTs look like a good investment

golergka• 2 years ago

“Open” in OpenAI stands for the open door that all leadership and talent is walking out through, I guess.

mmaunder• 2 years ago

The DD revealed what we're all sensing: Innovation has stalled.

bnchrch• 2 years ago

Honestly, I don't care who's involved.

But, please make Siri less of a steaming pile.

It was embarrassing a decade ago, now it's bordering absurd how a product with so much visibility and importance by a company who typically is extremely perfection orientated is so behind the competition.

fkyoureadthedoc2• 2 years ago

I don't think Siri users get a lot of exposure to the competition. I've never used whatever Google's version is. I remember when Cortana came out on PC and I was like wtf is this, idk what it's called now, probably just Copilot which I imagine is useful because ChatGPT.

ninkendo• 2 years ago

I’m of the opposite opinion: make Siri dumber please, make sure it does a handful of things reliably. I want voice control to my phone, I don’t want a chat bot. Siri is… okay at voice control, but if they just threw in the towel and admitted that it is really just voice control, they could stick to a finite list of things it supports, and that’s it.

Imagine, you could actually get a documented list of the things Siri supports. And phrases that activate them, and always activate them. No fuzzy AI baloney, just “these phrases do these things.”

Save the “unlimited knowledge chatbot” feature for another app please.

ChrisArchitect2• 2 years ago

Actual article: https://www.wsj.com/tech/apple-no-longer-in-talks-to-join-op...

Actual discussion earlier: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41677333

butlike• 2 years ago

Why would I invest in a company if I had the intention to buy it? I could give you $400, and hope you use it in the way I want, or I could buy you, and apply that $400 in exactly the way I want.

sub7• 2 years ago

Yeah given NotebookLM and Gemini are basically on par in every way, they would be wise to just expand their search deal with the Goog and not let a new entrant come and eat their food

Apple No Longer in Talks to Invest in ChatGPT Maker OpenAI

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