Apple’s ChatGPT tools ‘dramatically underperformed’, OpenAI claims

Apple’s partnership with ChatGPT to add AI features to iPhones “dramatically underperformed” after it launched in 2024, according to court documents that shed light on how their relationship unravelled.

OpenAI, in legal filings, said it was disappointed by how little interest Apple generated from iPhone users after the two companies struck a deal in 2024 for ChatGPT to power ‘Apple Intelligence’.

Apple has positioned itself as a potential kingmaker in AI developers’ battle to put their models into the hands of more consumers. But in its first public comments on the partnership, OpenAI claims there was little benefit after the ChatGPT integration was rolled out on millions of Apple devices.

The relationship between two of Silicon Valley’s most prominent companies has since descended into an acrimonious trade secrets lawsuit brought by the smartphone maker.

Apple partnered with Google in January to use its Gemini models for the completely rebuilt “Siri AI” after an embarrassing two-year delay.

When the 2024 deal was agreed, OpenAI expected a “halo effect” from promotion and brand association with Apple, as well as more subscriptions coming from Apple Intelligence users, Wednesday’s court document says.

But a month after the ChatGPT integration launched, it “appeared to be off to a slow start” and OpenAI was cutting its forecasts for how many weekly active users it expected to attract, it said. By the summer of 2025, “it was clear that Apple’s integration of ChatGPT was dramatically underperforming”.

OpenAI executives also worried that Apple would “want to move faster” to secure another AI partner, denying them a head start in reaching Apple’s billions of global users, the document says.

Parts of the document detailing extensive exchanges between executives at the two companies as the relationship frayed have been redacted. But the filing notes the default setting for the ChatGPT integration was ‘off’, requiring iPhone users to activate it through a multi-step process as one reason for the poor uptake.

The lack of commercial success contributed to a breakdown in their partnership. The FT in May reported OpenAI was considering legal action against Apple for failure to deliver on the promise of the agreement. The smartphone maker filed a blockbuster lawsuit against OpenAI in July claiming large-scale trade secret theft.

Wednesday’s filing is part of litigation brought by Elon Musk’s xAI, now part of SpaceX, in August 2025, challenging the Apple-OpenAI agreement on antitrust grounds. The iPhone maker resolved the litigation with Musk last week, and OpenAI has filed legal motions to see the terms of the resolution.

OpenAI claims that, rather than unfairly boosting its market position, the Apple integration coincided with a general decline in its market share as rivals such as Google, Anthropic, Meta and Grok gained traction with users.

ChatGPT is still integrated into the iPhone’s software, offering the ability to route queries to the chatbot when using Siri or deploy it as a writing aid.

But it has been overshadowed by the Google-powered “Siri AI” launched last week, though initially only in English and still carrying a “beta” tag.

Apple’s foundering AI efforts have become a major point of concern for investors. It has no launch date for its new “Siri AI” on iPhones in the EU, blaming the bloc’s competition rules for the delay.

Tim Cook, executive chair, met European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen this week during her visit to the US, where the topic was discussed, according to people familiar with the talks.

Additional reporting by Barbara Moens in Brussels