Antitrust concerns mean Apple’s Phil Schiller will no longer have a place on OpenAI’s board as iOS 18’s ChatGPT iPhone integration nears

When Apple announced iOS 18 in June, it also announced Apple Intelligence and integration with OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot. That integration means that Apple has a vested interest in what OpenAI gets up to and, as a result, it was going to have an observer seat on the AI company’s board. But that’s no longer happening.

The seat would have allowed Apple to keep an eye on what OpenAI was doing and how it was going about it in terms of ethics and more while having no control over the company and no voting capabilities. Apple’s Phil Schiller was set to take the role, but those plans have now been shelved. A similar role held by Microsoft has also been canned.

The reason, a new report explains, is that Apple and Microsoft are both concerned about potential antitrust issues that the board seats could open up amid ongoing scrutiny over the way technology companies are investing in those that build AI software and features.

Artificial Apple Intelligence

The Financial Times reports that both Apple and Microsoft decided it wasn’t worth the potential scrutiny the board seats could bring. Instead, OpenAI will “host regular meetings with partners such as Microsoft and Apple and investors Thrive Capital and Khosla Ventures — part of ‘a new approach to informing and engaging key strategic partners’ under Sarah Friar, the former Nextdoor boss who was hired as its first chief financial officer last month, an OpenAI spokesperson said.”

Apple Intelligence will fall back to ChatGPT when Apple’s own in-house technology cannot answer questions posed by users when the feature launches later this year. It’ll be available in beta form alongside the release of iOS 18 this fall, likely alongside the release of the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro.