In an earlier report, Apple was said to be in talks with Meta to bring it on board as a third-party artificial intelligence (AI) partner to power new features for its devices. However, a new report now claims that the two companies held brief talks months ago, where the social media giant proposed integrating its AI chatbot into iPhone, iPad and Mac devices, but the tech giant with headquarters in Cupertino rejected the proposal. The sticking point was said to be Meta's privacy policies, which Apple was not convinced about.
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman notes in a report that Apple and Meta are not currently in talks to forge an AI partnership. Citing unnamed people with knowledge of the matter, the report claimed that Meta approached the iPhone maker in March to become an AI partner and integrate its Llama 3 AI model into the operating systems of Apple devices.
However, the discussions were held briefly and did not reach any formal stage, according to the report. The key stumbling block is said to be Meta's privacy policies, which the tech giant didn't find strict enough. In particular, Meta has admitted that it is collecting user data to train its AI models.
Notably in 2018, after a whistleblower revealed that consulting firm Cambridge Analytica collected user data from millions of Facebook users, Apple CEO Tim Cook said in an interview with Recode's Kara Swisher and Chris MSNBC's Hayes: “The truth is, we could make tons of money if we monetized our customer, if our customer was our product. We've decided not to.”
Gurman points out that Apple is not currently looking to build a partnership with Facebook's parent company.
However, there is truth to reports that Apple is looking for third-party AI partners to integrate its AI models into its devices. After reporting the same earlier this month, Gurman reiterated that the iPhone maker is currently exploring a deal to bring Google Gemini into its product ecosystem. Separately, it is also said to be in discussions with Anthropic to add Claude AI to the list of AI models it aims to offer users.
