Fierce Competitors Apple and Meta Hold Talks on AI Partnership

Long-time rivals Apple and Meta have held talks on a potential partnership in the development and integration of artificial intelligence. They discussed the integration of Facebook's generative artificial intelligence model into the iPhone manufacturer's Apple Intelligence AI system, WSJ reports.

Apple unveiled a set of AI features at its Worldwide Developers Conference on 10 June. The new technology, called Apple Intelligence, includes proprietary tools for summarising notifications, transcribing voice reminders, and generating custom emojis. 

Although Apple has developed its own smaller AI models, the company said it will turn to partners for more complex or specific tasks.

Startups Anthropic and Perplexity have also been in discussions with Apple about moving their generative AI to Apple Intelligence, the WSJ reported on Sunday, citing people familiar with the matter.

As Bloomberg previously reported, Apple will not provide users in Europe with access to its developed artificial intelligence technologies this year due to the Digital Markets Act in force in the European Union. It was about Apple Intelligence. 

The Digital Markets Act came into force in the EU in March. It covers services of six companies - in addition to Apple, these are Alphabet (owns Google), Amazon, ByteDance (owns TikTok), Meta Platforms (owns Facebook and Instagram), and Microsoft.

According to the EU law, platforms must share data with competitors, provide users with access to the data they generate, and provide advertising partners with verification tools. Failure to comply with the requirements can result in a fine of up to 10% of global turnover and up to 20% for repeated violations.

Apple Intelligence is a set of AI-based features for iPhone and Mac, as well as iPhone Mirroring, which allows you to broadcast what is happening on your smartphone screen to your Mac, and SharePlay Screen Sharing, which allows you to control another person's iPhone screen.