【AI前沿】OpenAI feels “burned” by Apple’s crappy ChatGPT integration, insiders say

“Strained” relationshipOpenAI feels “burned” by Apple’s crappy ChatGPT integration, insiders sayJudge orders Apple to give Musk internal messages discussing secretive ChatGPT deal.Ashley Belanger–May 15, 2026 2:13 pm|66OpenAI CEO Sam Altman talks with Apple senior Vice President of Services Eddy Cue during the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 10, 2024, where Apple announced plans to incorporate ChatGPT into Apple software and hardware.Credit:Justin Sullivan / Staff | Getty Images NewsOpenAI CEO Sam Altman talks with Apple senior Vice President of Services Eddy Cue during the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 10, 2024, where Apple announced plans to incorporate ChatGPT into Apple software and hardware.Credit:Justin Sullivan / Staff | Getty Images NewsText settingsStory textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidthStandardWideLinksStandardOrange Subscribers onlyLearn moreMinimize to navOpenAI is reportedly exploring legal options after Apple’s ChatGPT integration into its products didn’t live up to the AI firm’s expectations.When the deal was announced, Apple likened features linking Siri to ChatGPT to itsnow-infamous deal embedding Google search in the Safari browser, insiders granted anonymity to discuss the “strained” partnershiptold Bloomberg. And the promise of that excited OpenAI, which expected the deal “could generate billions of dollars per year in subscriptions,” an OpenAI executive granted anonymity to discuss the partnership told Bloomberg.Instead, OpenAI suspects Apple intentionally failed to promote the integration and fears that the deal may have damaged the ChatGPT brand, sources said.Specifically, OpenAI hates how Apple designed the integration, sources said. Particularly bad was the choice forcing Apple users summoning Siri to also “specifically invoke the word ‘ChatGPT’ when speaking or typing a command,” sources said. That makes it harder for users to access the features, OpenAI apparently feels. And Apple’s other choices, like using small windows providing limited information when responding with ChatGPT outputs, seems to ensure that users can easily ignore the features, sources said.As the OpenAI executive explained, Apple didn’t fully explain how the integration would work when the deal came together, so OpenAI took a “leap of faith” it now appears to regret.“When we heard about this opportunity, it sounded amazing: being able to acquire a giant number of customers and have distribution in such a big mobile ecosystem,” the executive said, attempting to explain why OpenAI was willing to enter the arrangement blind. Since then, efforts to renegotiate the deal have “stalled,” Reutersreported. And, supposedly due to feeling “burned,” OpenAI has declined to enter other partnerships to work on Apple’s AI models, Bloomberg reported.According to the insiders, OpenAI is so disappointed in Apple’s work that the AI firm is now “actively working with an outside legal firm on a range of options that could be formally executed in the near future.”“We have done everything from a product perspective,” the OpenAI executive summed up OpenAI’s frustrations to Bloomberg. “They have not, and worse, they haven’t even made an honest effort.”Supposedly, OpenAI is still hoping to resolve its issues with Apple outside of court, if possible. But one option that OpenAI may pursue could be accusing Apple of a breach of contract. Going that route wouldn’t necessarily require filing a lawsuit right away, sources suggested.Apple and OpenAI did not respond to Ars’ request to comment.Musk may expose how deal was doneMost likely, OpenAI will delay approaching Apple until after its court battle with Elon Musk concludes, Bloomberg reported. A decision in that litigation is potentially coming next week.OpenAI also faces a court battle with Musk over its Apple deal. However, it may be inconvenient for Musk that tensions between OpenAI and Apple have grown sincehe filed a lawsuit last August.Musk alleged that the deal integrating ChatGPT into Apple products violated antitrust and unfair competition laws, supposedly propping up OpenAI to dominate the chatbot market and Apple the smartphone market.So far, Musk’s lawsuit has survived motions to dismiss, though the judge has yet to comment on its merits. That leaves Apple and OpenAI potentially stuck defending the deal at a trial scheduled for October, even if it falls apart.However, the partnership’s end may make it harder for Musk to uphold his claims of a conspiracy in his lawsuit.Due to Musk’s fury that his chatbotGrok has never been featured as a “Must Have” appin Apple’s App Store, the lawsuit alleged that Apple and OpenAI struck a deal as part of a giant conspiracy to lock out rivals developing chatbots that Musk claimed Apple fears could make smartphones obsolete. As Musk’s theory goes, Apple was so afraid ofMusk’s plan to turn X into an “everything app”that it partnered with OpenAI to supercharge ChatGPT as a market leader and constrain