Apple and Meta Are Reportedly Exploring an AI Partnership

Apple is keeping its AI options open

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What happens when onetime tech rivals collaborate?
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The era of AI in which we find ourselves has led to some unexpected business decisions — including the news earlier this year that Facebook parent company Meta had explored buying the publisher Simon & Schuster. That deal didn’t end up happening, but another partnership involving Meta may be in the works, and it involves them joining forces with another high-profile tech company.

The Wall Street Journal‘s Salvador Rodriguez, Aaron Tilley and Miles Kruppa reported that the two companies have led discussions about using Meta’s technology as part of Apple Intelligence. Apple Intelligence, which the company announced earlier this month, is said to play a large role in both upcoming iPhone features and in Apple’s virtual assistant Siri.

According to “people familiar with the talks,” Meta’s generative AI technology was one of several potential partners Apple has explored working with for its own foray into AI, along with Anthropic (whose latest model recently impressed The Verge) and Perplexity (whose data scraping has come under fire from WIRED). The Wall Street Journal also pointed to Apple’s already-announced deal with OpenAI and their stated interest in working with Google Gemini as evidence of how Apple devices might use AI in the coming months.

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If the deal does come to fruition, who knows what could come next? When two companies that have been the subject of Aaron Sorkin-penned screenplays team up, the possibilities are endless. Aaron Sorkin has said that he’s working on a sequel to The Social Network, after all…

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