Author of this article: Li Dan.

The weather is good today The weather is good today.

The collaboration between Apple and OpenAI is not only allowing iPhone users to directly use ChatGPT, but it may also allow Apple to get the same status as Microsoft, a major shareholder of OpenAI's board of directors, for "free".

On Tuesday, July 3, Eastern Time, the media learned that as part of last month's milestone agreement, Apple will receive an observer position on the OpenAI board of directors, which will be filled by Phil Schiller, Apple's App Store manager and former marketing chief, but he will not serve as a formal director. Schiller has not attended any OpenAI meetings to date, and this OpenAI board arrangement may take effect later this year, with specific details possibly subject to change in the future.

The media stated that it was once believed that Apple and OpenAI were unlikely to work together, and allowing Apple personnel to enter OpenAI's board of directors would further strengthen the cooperation between the two companies. The position of observer on the board of directors will enable Apple to stand on equal footing with Microsoft, the largest supporter and main AI technology supplier of OpenAI. In January of this year, it was reported that Dee Templeton, a Microsoft Vice President who has worked for the company for 25 years, joined the OpenAI board of directors as an observational member without voting rights and has begun attending board meetings. Wall Street sees that allowing Microsoft and Apple to attend OpenAI's board of directors concurrently may create trouble for the two tech giants, who have been competitors as well as partners for more than a decade. Some OpenAI board meetings may discuss AI projects that OpenAI and Microsoft will jointly undertake in the future, and Microsoft may hope that Schiller from Apple will not attend these discussions. And if the meeting agenda is deemed sensitive, observer members usually do not attend the relevant meetings.

The media believes that allowing Microsoft and Apple to attend OpenAI's board of directors concurrently may create trouble for the two tech giants, who have been competitors as well as partners for more than a decade. Some OpenAI board meetings may discuss AI projects that OpenAI and Microsoft will jointly undertake in the future, and Microsoft may hope that Schiller from Apple will not attend these discussions. And if the meeting agenda is deemed sensitive, observer members usually do not attend the relevant meetings.

At last month's highly anticipated Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), Apple announced its partnership with OpenAI, integrating ChatGPT into iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and the new version of macOS, allowing Siri to access ChatGPT for advice when needed.

Neither Apple nor OpenAI have disclosed the financial terms of their collaboration, but there is widespread speculation. Some media reported last month that in their cooperation agreement, Apple did not make any direct payments or rewards to OpenAI. Instead, Apple believes that integrating ChatGPT into hundreds of millions of Apple devices could help OpenAI attract new users and may also bring in subscription revenue. The value generated is equivalent to or even greater than the benefits ChatGPT brings to Apple.

After the news that Apple will receive an observer position on the OpenAI board of directors, some investors joked that Microsoft paid $15 billion to obtain this position, while Apple got it "for free." Jokes aside, this is truly crazy news.

One netizen left a comment under this joke, stating that it is indeed interesting and OpenAI seems to attach great importance to this relationship with Apple.

Another netizen disagrees, stating that this statement is incorrect. Apple may ultimately have to pay Microsoft a large sum of money, tens of billions of dollars, because OpenAI's products can all run on Microsoft's Azure cloud.

One netizen put forward an uncertain analogy: by next year, Apple may become the largest customer of OpenAI.