In early October 2024, a rumor circulated on social media that tech giant Apple is adding ChatGPT, a generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) program, to every iPhone.
One X account claimed: “Apple is adding chat GPT to every iPhone, meaning your personal data is about to be analyzed like never before.”
(@Illuminatibot on X)
Another X user replied: “I’m shocked that anyone would still be using ‘smart’ phones. NOTHING on your home computer, let alone your phone, is safe or secure when you have a smartphone.”
In sum, it is indeed true that Apple is integrating GenAI, including ChatGPT, into their products. However, not “every iPhone” will be impacted by the rollout, thus this claim contains a mixture of true and false information.
What Is True?
Apple Intelligence Launch
At their Worldwide Developers Conference in June 2024, the company announced Apple Intelligence, which they described as “the personal intelligence system that combines the power of generative models with users’ personal context — at the core of iPhone, iPad, and Mac to deliver intelligence that’s incredibly useful and relevant.”
As of now, Apple has not confirmed an exact release date, but news agency Bloomberg reported the update would go live on Oct. 28, 2024. Regarding which devices Apple Intelligence will be available on, Apple stated:
Apple Intelligence will be available as a free software update. The first set of Apple Intelligence features will be available in beta next month as part of iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1, with more features rolling out in the months to come. It will be available on iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, iPhone 16 Pro Max, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and iPad and Mac with M1 and later, with device and Siri language set to U.S. English. Additional languages and platforms are coming over the course of the next year.
CNN said Apple Intelligence — the collective brand name for the corporation’s AI tools — is “intended to be more of a personal assistant than anything else, with an emphasis on ‘personal.'” The article added:
It takes in specific information about your relationships and contacts, messages and emails you’ve sent, events you’ve been to, meetings on your calendar and other highly individualized bits of data about your life. And then it uses that data to, Apple hopes, make your life a little easier — helping you dig up a photo you took from that concert years ago, finding the right attachment to put on an email, or ranking your mobile notifications by priority and urgency.
ChatGPT Integration
As part of the broader AI initiative, Apple is indeed introducing a partnership with OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, a GenAI chatbot.
While Apple Intelligence is focused on the personalized user experience, third-party ChatGPT’s integration is intended to give users faster access to the GenAI chatbot tool, which assists with more extensive searches, prompts, or the composition of documents that require knowledge beyond the users’ personal experience. Apple stated:
With ChatGPT from OpenAI integrated into Siri and Writing Tools, you get even more expertise when it might be helpful for you — no need to jump between tools. Siri can tap into ChatGPT for certain requests, including questions about photos or documents. And with Compose in Writing Tools, you can create and illustrate original content from scratch.
You control when ChatGPT is used and will be asked before any of your information is shared. Anyone can access ChatGPT for free, without creating an account. ChatGPT subscribers can connect accounts to access paid features within these experiences.
Elsewhere, the corporation said: “For users who choose to access ChatGPT through Siri or Writing Tools, privacy protections are built in — their IP addresses are obscured, and OpenAI won’t store requests … ChatGPT’s data-use policies apply for those who choose to connect their account.”
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, said in a June 10, 2024, news release: “Apple shares our commitment to safety and innovation, and this partnership aligns with OpenAI’s mission to make advanced AI accessible to everyone. Together with Apple, we’re making it easier for people to benefit from what AI can offer.”
Therefore, it is true that Apple is integrating ChatGPT into their Apple Intelligence products, but only for more recent models of their devices.
What Requires More Context?
The claim that customer data will be “analyzed like never before” requires additional context. A statement from the tech giant, in which it said it will treat user data with the utmost care, opposed this element of the claim: “Apple Intelligence is designed to protect users’ privacy at every step. A cornerstone of Apple Intelligence is on-device processing, and many of the models that power it run entirely on device.” This technology will ensure users’ data “is never stored or shared with Apple,” the company added, “it is used only to fulfill their request.”
However, data privacy does get murkier with Apple Intelligence’s expanded features due to the optional integration of ChatGPT.
Apple claimed to be taking measures to protect customer data and to only use it for its personalized Apple Intelligence features, saying: “You control when ChatGPT is used and will be asked before any of your information is shared. Anyone can access ChatGPT for free, without creating an account. ChatGPT subscribers can connect accounts to access paid features within these experiences.”
However, when a user connects their device to ChatGPT for expanded functionality, they are then agreeing to ChatGPT’s liberal use of their customer data.
OpenAI’s data-use policy reads in part:
We continuously improve our models through research breakthroughs as well as exposure to real-world problems and data. When you share your content with us, it helps our models become more accurate and better at solving your specific problems and it also helps improve their general capabilities and safety. We don’t use your content to market our services or create advertising profiles of you — we use it to make our models more helpful. ChatGPT, for instance, improves by further training on the conversations people have with it, unless you opt out.
Opting out of ChatGPT’s AI training is possible, and can be done by going into your ChatGPT account settings on iOS or the web, selecting Data Controls and disabling the default “Improve the model for everyone” option. This setting syncs between devices, according to OpenAI.
Therefore, Apple said the company will not be analyzing customer data through their Apple Intelligence products, but once a user agrees to OpenAI’s terms in order to use ChatGPT, their data when using that specific tool could be accessed.
In short, Apple is adding integrated ChatGPT access to particular iPhone models, and if users don’t opt out, their data and queries when using ChatGPT could be used by parent company OpenAI to help train its artificial intelligence models. However …
ChatGPT and Apple Intelligence, Apple’s new personalized AI features, will only be available on newer devices, not all devices as is claimed. Further, Apple said it would protect user data by using a combination of on-device processing and secure external processing called Private Cloud Compute that would not store any user data.
