According to people with knowledge of the matter, Apple rejected Meta's proposals to integrate its AI chatbot into iOS devices several months ago. This was reported by Mark Gurman of Bloomberg.
The companies held brief talks in March, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the situation is private. The partnership dialog has not reached a formal stage, and Apple has no active plans to integrate Llama.
The negotiations took place around the same time that Apple started discussing agreements to use OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini in its products. The iPhone maker announced a deal with ChatGPT earlier this month and said it plans to offer Gemini in the future.
Apple has decided not to continue negotiations with Meta in part because people believe that it does not consider the company's privacy policy to be strict enough. Apple has been criticizing Meta's technology for years.
Apple considers ChatGPT to be a better offer. Meanwhile, Google is already a search partner in the Safari web browser. The future deal with Gemini will build on this relationship.
Apple unveiled a set of artificial intelligence features at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 10. The new technology, called Apple Intelligence, has its own tools for summarizing messages, transcribing voice notes, and creating custom emojis.
However, Apple's chatbot technology is not as advanced as that of its competitors, which is why it is looking for partners. The company also believes that customers will want to be able to switch between different chatbots depending on their needs, just as they can switch between Google and Bing for search.
Apple continues to negotiate with Anthropic, an artificial intelligence startup, to eventually add the company's chatbot as an option.
The current agreement with OpenAI does not provide for payment, but Apple will allow paid ChatGPT customers to use them on iOS. This can generate revenue for OpenAI, a percentage of which can be sent to Apple in the form of commissions from the App Store.