Apple's Phil Schiller to Join OpenAI Board as Observer

Apple Fellow Phil Schiller is set to become an observer on the OpenAI board, as part of a deal that will integrate ChatGPT at a system level in Apple's forthcoming operating systems. The arrangement, announced at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2024 last month in Cupertino, will see ChatGPT integration in iOS 18, iPadOS 18 and macOS Sequoia.
Schiller, formerly Apple's senior vice president for worldwide marketing, currently oversees the App Store. In 2020, he was named an Apple Fellow, an honour previously bestowed only upon Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.

Long considered one of the closest confidants of the late Steve Jobs, Schiller has been a staunch advocate of Apple's vertical integration strategy. He frequently stood in for Jobs during Apple keynotes when the former CEO was unwell, and was responsible for unveiling several iPhone models following Jobs' passing, including the iPhone 3S, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPhone 5S, and iPhone 6 -- essentially all iPhones after Jobs' death until 2019.

Since 2020, when his long-time deputy Greg Joswiak was elevated to senior vice president of worldwide marketing, Schiller has focused on the App Store. In this role, he has made a number of contentious decisions which have led to disputes with many developers and resulted in regulatory scrutiny from the European Union.

According to Bloomberg, Apple's observer role on the OpenAI board will be similar to that of Microsoft, despite the latter's significant investment and 49% stake in the AI startup. Bloomberg reports: "The board observer role will put Apple on par with Microsoft Corp., OpenAI's biggest backer and its main AI technology provider. The job allows someone to attend board meetings without being able to vote or exercise other director powers. Observers, however, do gain insights into how decisions are made at the company."

This arrangement is expected to commence later this year, with Schiller attending board meetings in due course. It's worth noting that Apple's deal with OpenAI appears to be a barter arrangement, allowing Apple access to OpenAI's technology on a system level in a private manner.

At WWDC, Apple unveiled 'Apple Intelligence', a suite of on-device large language models (LLMs) and a new cloud processing infrastructure called Apple Cloud Compute. This system promises enhanced privacy for cloud processing. The ChatGPT integration will be implemented privately, with OpenAI having no access to user data and users not required to log in.

Schiller had a brief appearance in the WWDC keynote, which was produced in a Hollywood style. As the head of Apple's events, Schiller played a role in the production. He appeared as the pilot in the opening sequence, which featured an aircraft flying over Apple Park carrying Apple executives like Craig Federighi and Mike Rockwell, who skydived into Apple Park. This led into CEO Tim Cook's opening greeting for WWDC, delivered from the top of Apple Park.

Apple Intelligence is even coming to India in the next couple of months. What’s notable is that with iOS 18, Apple has announced support for 12 Indian languages, added a multilingual keyboard, Siri will also add support for 9 Indian languages, and the voice mail feature will transcribe Indian English voice calls. This shows a growing focus on India, while the core suite of Apple Intelligence is not going to be launched in the EU, because Apple is unhappy with the DMA rules and is having to face anti trust scrutiny in the region.