Last Thursday, OpenAI launched the official ChatGPT app for iOS 16.1 and later, allowing Apple device owners to experience OpenAI’s latest advancements “at their fingertips”. Apple stands to make millions of dollars per year from their 30% cut of a subscription component that grants access to ChatGPT Plus, an upgrade of the app’s services for $20/month.
The sheer scope of this development is incredible – OpenAI’s breakthroughs in the field of generative AI could be tapped into by Apple users around the world. It was also noted by analysts that, since users subscribe to the service directly within the app, Apple is getting their due share of the profits, suggesting a monopoly of sorts.
If 5 million users were to subscribe to ChatGPT Plus, Apple would rake in a yearly sum of $360 million from ChatGPT, a figure that demonstrates the company’s clout in the industry. Furthermore, when compared to the contributions OpenAI has made to public research in AI, this speaks volumes with regards to the power dynamics today.
OpenAI is a nonprofit research laboratory founded in 2015 that works with hundreds of researchers in the fields of machine learning and artificial intelligence with a mission to promote the safety and wellbeing of humanity through technological advancements. Aimed at the cultivation of large-scale and transformative AI systems, its multidisciplinary team has achieved several highly regarded achievements, including leading Autonomous Driving Technologies.
Maxwell, the team’s CEO, is an experienced entrepreneur who received his M.Sc from the University of Michigan. He is a strong believer in empowering a global network of AI researchers and working with them to work on new and innovative technologies. By working on projects with numerous universities and other research institutions, he has become a leading advocate for using AI to find solutions to global problems and promotes the use of machine learning as an effective tool for innovation.
