Apple's Phil Schiller Joins OpenAI as Board Observer Amid iOS 18 Deal
Apple Fellow Phil Schiller takes an informal board observer role at OpenAI as part of the agreement to integrate ChatGPT into iOS 18. The non-voting position puts Apple on equal footing with Microsoft, though potential meeting conflicts may arise.
Apple Fellow Phil Schiller takes on an informal board observer position at OpenAI as part of the agreement to integrate ChatGPT into iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia. In this non-voting role, Schiller attends and contributes to board meetings without having any actual control over the company's decisions. This arrangement puts Apple on equal footing with Microsoft, which already holds a similar observer seat on the OpenAI board.
The shared board presence creates the potential for awkward interactions, as future meetings could cover private arrangements between OpenAI and its primary financial backer, Microsoft. If sensitive topics arise, Microsoft retains the right to request that Schiller steps out of the room. Despite his new appointment, Schiller does not attend any meetings immediately and is not expected to participate until later in the year.
The underlying partnership allows Siri to hand complicated user requests over to ChatGPT, but only with explicit user permission. Interestingly, no money changes hands between the two tech giants under the current terms of the arrangement, meaning neither Apple nor OpenAI pays the other for this high-profile operating system integration.