Report: Apple Rejected Integration of Meta AI After Brief Talks

Meta’s offer to integrate its artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot into Apple’s iPhone was reportedly a nonstarter.

Apple rejected Meta’s overtures after the two held brief talks in March, before any formal discussions were held, Bloomberg News reported Monday (June 24), citing unnamed sources.

Neither Apple nor Meta immediately replied to PYMNTS’ request for comment.

This report comes a day after The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) said that Apple has held discussions with Meta about partnering on AI.

Like other companies working on generative AI products, Meta hopes to tap into Apple’s massive distribution, WSJ reported Sunday (June 23).

At the same time, Apple has said that it plans to work with partners for more complex AI tasks, per the report.

According to the Monday Bloomberg report, Apple talked briefly with Meta at the same time it was making deals with OpenAI and Alphabet.

The iPhone maker has since announced an agreement with OpenAI and said it expects to offer Alphabet’s Gemini in the future. However, Apple is not currently talking with Meta and has no active plans to integrate Meta’s Llama AI, the report said.

Apple doesn’t think Meta’s privacy policies are strict enough, it has criticized the company’s technology for years, and it views Meta as a competitor in fields like AI, home devices and mixed-reality headsets, per the report.

In a long-awaited announcement, Apple unveiled its suite of AI features called “Apple Intelligence” on June 10 at its Worldwide Developers Conference, promising to use the technology to revolutionize the iPhone, Mac and iPad experience.

In Apple’s partnership with OpenAI, that company’s ChatGPT 4o will be integrated into iOS, macOS and iPadOS. Apple added that while it was starting with OpenAI, it would add other AI models down the line.

The Apple and OpenAI partnership is designed to give Apple’s digital assistant Siri and its writing tools a shot in the arm with advanced AI capabilities, PYMNTS reported June 12.

While Apple could have used its own AI capabilities, the company realized that its customers may want to use other AI solutions.

For OpenAI, the deal provides an opportunity to expose its brand and AI product to hundreds of millions of users of Apple devices.