Apple, which recently announced plans to incorporate artificial intelligence into iOS18 and the new iPhone16 and iPhone16Pro models, has started discussions with its potential generating AI partner, Meta.

According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, Apple reportedly held talks with Meta about integrating generated AI models used across platforms into Apple Intelligence, which was announced at WWDC earlier this month. 

Apple has previously reported that it has discussed becoming a partner in new AI capabilities with other major AI players such as OpenAI, Google and Anthropic. Since then, Apple Intelligence has integrated OpenAI's flagship GPT-4o into the ecosystem as its first official partner. 

Apple's software leader, Craig Federighi, said the company "wants to start with the best," noting that OpenAI's ChatGPT "represents the best choice for today's users."  According to the WSJ, "Meta and other companies that are developing generative AI want to take advantage of Apple's massive distribution via the iPhone, similar to what Apple offers in the App Store on the iPhone." The report suggests that if Apple strikes deals with partners beyond OpenAI, "customers can choose which external AI model to use in addition to Apple's internal systems."

  In 2023/7, Meta released its own large-scale language model Llama2, and in this year's 4, a new AI model llama3 was released.

Llama has been adopted by a large part of the technology community, but a deal with Apple could solidify its achievements in the AI space. However, the WSJ notes that these discussions have not yet been finalized and could go through the cracks. 

Discussions with Apple and Meta could form an "unlikely alliance" between the 2 chaebol, the WSJ says. The partnership with Meta will help boost Apple's efforts in the AI sector and represent a "rare olive branch between the social media giant and the iPhone maker." 

The two companies have been at odds with each other for quite some time, and the latest dispute reportedly revolves around privacy changes and advertising. In 2021, Apple introduced changes to its privacy policy, giving users more control over their data and making it more complex for advertisers.However, this change caused a loss ofド100 billion. In retaliation, Meta published a "workaround" to advertisers and was able to avoid paying Apple a 30% service fee for "boosted posts." 

That said, Apple has kept its AI options open by holding talks with several companies, including META. Federighi explained to WWDC participants that people prefer to use a large number of AI options for a variety of tasks, such as writing, editing, and researching. "People will want to take advantage of such expertise that may not be part of our core," he said. 

There is no actual confirmation of the subsequent partnership, and the fruits of the Apple-OpenAI pairing have yet to be seen, but it's not entirely clear how this will work.