Apple Fellow and the current chief of App Store operations Phil Schiller will serve as an observer on the OpenAI board as part of the deal that saw ChatGPT integrated with Apple Intelligence on iOS 18, according to Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman.
The observer role at OpenAI’s board will give Apple insight into the decision-making process inside OpenAI. Schiller will be able to attend board meetings at OpenAI, but he won’t be able to vote on decisions like full-fledged directors with executive powers. The report notes that Schiller has yet to attend any OpenAI board meeting, with his first board attendance expected to occur later this year.
Microsoft, OpenAI’s biggest backer, also possesses a board observer role at OpenAI. Schiller’s appointment means Apple will enjoy equal insight inside OpenAI as Microsoft. However, Microsoft will be able to exclude Schiller from sensitive board meetings that discuss private deliberations between itself and OpenAI.
Apple and OpenAI inked a deal that will see ChatGPT deeply integrated with iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia as part of Apple Intelligence. The partnership, announced at WWDC 2024, is the first of many to bring third-party chatbots to Apple’s platforms. The company is also in talks to integrate AI models from Google and Anthropic.
