May 14 (Reuters) - Apple's two-year-old partnership with OpenAI has become strained, with the AI startup failing to see the expected benefits from the deal and now preparing possible legal action, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday.
OpenAI lawyers are actively working with an outside legal firm on a range of options, including potentially sending the iPhone maker a notice alleging breach of contract without necessarily filing a full lawsuit at the outset, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.
Apple and OpenAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Reuters could not independently verify the report.
In 2024, Apple announced integration of its "Apple Intelligence" technology across its apps including Siri and bringing OpenAI's chatbot ChatGPT to its devices.
Their partnership allows users to access ChatGPT results through Siri and iPhone users can also sign up for ChatGPT memberships directly from the iOS settings menu.
OpenAI believed that the deal would boost ChatGPT subscriptions and lead to deeper integration across Apple apps, but the relationship has deteriorated, the report said, adding that OpenAI's attempts at renegotiating the deal have stalled.
Bloomberg News reported earlier this month that Apple will allow users to select from third-party AI models and OpenAI could lose its unique role within Apple's software.
Apple is testing integrations with both Anthropic's Claude and Google Gemini as part of this push, the report said.
The Bloomberg report cited an OpenAI executive as saying that Apple's embrace of other AI providers is not driving the company's legal action since the partnership was not meant to be exclusive from the start.
The ChatGPT integration is separate from an effort to revamp Apple's underlying AI models with technology from Google's Gemini team, according to the report.
Google's Gemini is expected to power Apple's revamped Siri coming this year. Apple is scheduled to hold its annual software developer conference in June, where it is expected to reveal more details about its AI plans.
(Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar and Maju Samuel)
