In the ever-evolving world of tech partnerships, apple has recently made headlines with a *bold* move in the AI space. Come December, with the rollout of iOS 18.2, your iphone will get a little smarter thanks to a fresh new integration with OpenAI’s ChatGPT. That’s right, folks—Apple, the company that once told us "there’s an app for that," is now telling us "there’s a chatbot for that," too. And, oh, it’s a premium one.

If you’re a beta tester who’s been lucky enough to play around with the iOS 18.2 update, you’ve probably noticed that your Settings app now has a shiny new option: *Upgrade to ChatGPT Plus*. Yes, that’s right. apple is giving you a one-click gateway to OpenAI’s premium $20/month subscription plan, which unlocks all sorts of cool stuff—like access to the latest and greatest ChatGPT models (no more old-school, dial-up-speed GPT-3 for you), Advanced Voice Mode (because why wouldn’t you want your AI assistant to sound like it’s been to drama school?), and a few extra DALL·E image generation credits. All the features that make the free version feel like it’s still running on a pocket calculator.

It’s a move that could turn OpenAI’s relatively pricey ChatGPT Plus into an enticing upsell for apple users. After all, who wouldn't want to subscribe to a service that promises to give siri a major AI boost? You’ll have to pay for the privilege, though, because the free version of ChatGPT, as we all know, is... *charming* but a little limited. Expect restrictions on how many messages you can send, how many AI-generated pictures you can create, and the kind of advanced features you can access. So, you’ll either shell out $20 or just keep dealing with the kind of AI interactions that make you wonder if siri was developed in 2008.

But here's the kicker—OpenAI is betting that this partnership with apple will make them a ton of money. *In theory.* You see, apple isn’t exactly paying OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT. Nope. Instead, they’re offering *exposure*. That’s right, apple, the trillion-dollar company, isn’t about to drop any cash on this deal. Instead, they’re betting that by making ChatGPT Plus just a few taps away in the Settings app, they can drive enough subscriptions to make OpenAI's whole operation worth it. It’s kind of like saying, “Hey, we’ll give you the keys to our store, but we’ll also give you the bill for the lights.”

There’s another little mystery in all this: Will apple take a cut of the revenue generated from ChatGPT Plus signups? You’d think, right? After all, every new subscriber is one less coffee at Starbucks. But apple, in its infinite wisdom, has yet to clarify whether it will take a slice of the $20 monthly fee, or if it’s just in this for the *goodwill* of having cutting-edge AI on their devices. Maybe they figure that if enough people are signing up for premium ChatGPT, it will lead to, I don’t know, new iphone sales? Maybe? It’s a strategy, at least.

But the plot thickens. While apple is essentially *powering up* siri with OpenAI’s technology, they’ve made it clear that this isn’t an exclusive deal. No, no. apple will soon be integrating AI models from other developers too—potentially including Google’s new gemini AI. So, let’s just say this partnership might not have the shelf life of a New York minute. Just imagine the drama when siri starts flirting with Google’s AI. Is this the beginning of a tech love triangle? Time will tell.

And, lest we forget, OpenAI itself is going through some *growing pains*. The company is scrambling to raise money and facing a rapid exodus of key execs. apple, meanwhile, was allegedly supposed to join OpenAI’s latest funding round of $6.6 billion... but bailed out after OpenAI’s CTO Mira Murati left the company in a cloud of smoke. So, it’s unclear whether OpenAI will even survive long enough to make any real profit off this partnership, but hey, at least we have cool new features to test out in the meantime.

So, as apple continues to build its AI empire and OpenAI tries to patch up its executive drama, we can all look forward to a siri that’s, well, more talkative. And maybe a little more expensive too.

In conclusion, Apple’s gamble on OpenAI could be the smart move of the century… or it could be a glorified way to get you to pay for better answers from Siri. Either way, at least you’ll have advanced voice features when asking, “What’s the meaning of life?” and you won’t get an answer like, “42, I guess?”
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Sindujaa D N

05/11/2024 09:21 PM