A partnership “below expectations”: iPhone users snubbed ChatGPT in Apple Intelligence

Apple and OpenAI announced their partnership at the opening of WWDC in June 2024: ChatGPT was set to assist Siri with questions that were too complex for it and with writing, directly from the iPhone, iPad, and Mac. The integration has been live since December 2024.Since September 23, a document filed in a Texas court case has recounted what happened next, and the story is considerably less flattering.

ChatGPT failed to win over Apple fans

The document was filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, where SpaceXAI, Elon Musk’s company behind Grok, accuses OpenAI of locking competing assistants out of the iPhone. In its defense, OpenAI chose to document its own failure: it is difficult, the company argues, to corner the market with a feature that users ignore.

By January 2025, one month after the launch, the integration gets a “strong start,” to the point that OpenAI revises its forecasts downward. It then becomes “well below expectations,” followed by “consistently disappointing” in March 2026. All three phrases come from OpenAI, in its own assessments reproduced in the document. Usage figures are redacted in the public version of the document, forcing us to take the lab’s statements at face value.

For reference, the redirect to ChatGPT can be found in Siri’s settings and only works once the user checks the box. Many people apparently never got that far. If you never saw it, there’s a simple reason: Europe was simply denied this integration.

Apple had kept an escape hatch

The article also revisits the 2024 negotiation in which OpenAI sought two years of exclusivity for Siri. A request Apple refused. The contract even allowed the Cupertino-based company to “integrate products or services offering identical or similar features.” The clause came into play on January 12, 2026: a multiyear deal signed with Google now places the Gemini models at the heart of Siri.

The two 2024 partners also find themselves in court. As early as May, OpenAI was considering taking the dispute to court; ultimately, it is Apple that is suing, for theft of trade secrets, as of July 10. SpaceXAI’s complaint on the other hand targeted both companies jointly, before the charges against Cupertino were withdrawn on September 14, leaving OpenAI as the sole defendant in the Texas case.

On the French side, the integration has been available in our language since March 31, 2025, but most of the new AI-powered Siri remains blocked at the borders of the European Union. The duel between assistants has therefore been fought, on our side, on a half-closed field.

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Source: Financial Times