Sam Altman’s OpenAI is unhappy With Apple: Here are all the reasons that have made the ChatGPT-maker upset with the iPhone-maker
Publish Date: 2026-05-15 03:02:00
Source Domain: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
OpenAI is weighing legal action against Apple, and the frustration didn’t happen overnight. The AI company, which wove ChatGPT into Apple’s software back in 2024, now believes it was sold a vision that never materialised. Bloomberg reported Thursday that OpenAI has already brought in an outside law firm to explore its options—including the possibility of a formal breach-of-contract notice headed to Cupertino.No lawsuit has been filed, and OpenAI insists it would still prefer to resolve things quietly. Timing matters too: any formal move is expected to hold until the company wraps up its bruising courtroom battle with Elon Musk.
OpenAI thought it was getting the next Google-Safari deal. It wasn’t even close.
When the partnership was unveiled at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June 2024, OpenAI went in believing it had secured a transformative distribution deal—a foot in the door of one of the world’s largest consumer ecosystems. Apple apparently compared the opportunity to its legendary search arrangement with Google in Safari, a deal worth tens of billions annually to both sides. That framing, in hindsight, set expectations that were never going to be met.The mechanics of how Apple actually built the integration tell the story. Users who want ChatGPT through Siri have to explicitly name it in their query—there’s no seamless handoff. When a response does come through, it shows up in a constrained interface that strips away much of what makes ChatGPT compelling. According to internal research cited by Bloomberg, most iPhone users simply bypass the integration entirely and go straight to the ChatGPT app. Worse, OpenAI believes the watered-down experience has left some users with a skewed impression of what the product can actually do.OpenAI had projected the Apple partnership could unlock billions in annual subscription revenue. The reality has fallen drastically short.“We have done everything from a product perspective,” one OpenAI executive told…
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