Apple is going with the wind, allegedly confirming plans to integrate OpenAI’s latest GPT-5 model for ChatGPT within its 26 series of operating system releases for iPhones, iPads, and Macs. Apple Intelligence already integrates with ChatGPT, but only the 4o model. Apple allegedly told 9to5Mac that it intends to integrate GPT-5 when it ships its new operating systems, potentially next month.

OpenAI introduced GPT-5 in early August. “Our smartest, fastest, and most useful model yet, with thinking built in,” the company said.

GPT-5 a ‘significant leap,’ says OpenAI

The ChatGPT maker claims its new AI system delivers a “significant leap” above previous models, featuring a deeper reasoning model for harder problems and the capacity to filter enquiries to the relevant parts of the engine. GPT-5 outperforms previous models on benchmarks and answers questions more swiftly than before, the company also said.

It also hallucinates less, the company said, and “minimizes sycophancy.” (How reassuring.) It seems particularly strong on coding skills, health, and assisting you in creative writing — with or without an em-dash! You can read more about how OpenAI thinks GPT-5 is great in the company press release. The model is available to Plus, Pro, Team, and Free users, with different usage models depending on what you pay.

Apple, of course, provides integration with ChatGPT via Apple Intelligence, which sends requests to OpenAI’s system when Apple can’t handle them alone. Within this integration, users are warned if they are about to use the third-party AI service. Apple has also built in privacy protection so if you use ChatGPT through Apple Intelligence, OpenAI shouldn’t store requests and your IP address should be obscured. If you pay for ChatGPT access, then the service’s own privacy promises apply.

Apple continues to develop its own AI

While Apple has extended support to the new ChatGPT model, it continues to invest in developing its own more targeted AI solutions.

The upcoming operating systems will also introduce Live Translation and Visual Intelligence improvements, and the company has consistently said the contextual intelligence features it promised in 2024 will arrive eventually. Apple CEO Tim Cook recently confirmed the the plan is to introduce these features next year, saying the team is “making good progress on a more personalized Siri.”

Cook’s company is also working to introduce AI solutions for specific tasks. It allegedly intends to introduce a generative AI-powered support assistant tool within the Apple Support app, and may also be preparing to exploit the vast amount of data gathered by the Apple bot for use in a new Answers engine. The latter is described as a “stripped-down” version of ChatGPT, capable of crawling the web to answer questions, and is likely to be used to support Siri, Spotlight, and Safari, as well as being a standalone app. 

“We’ve rarely been first…”

One thing we do know is that Apple has no intention of giving up in the AI race. During a recent meeting, Cook stressed that Apple’s approach isn’t about being first but being best, and that the battle for dominance in the AI space isn’t over yet. Apple has time and power in the race.

“We’ve rarely been first,” he said. “There was a PC before the Mac; there was a smartphone before the iPhone; there were many tablets before the iPad; there was an MP3 player before iPod. But Apple invented the modern versions of those product categories. This is how I feel about AI.”

Cook also promised to make investments to get to where the company wants to get to. We’ve heard plenty of speculation concerning potential takeover targets. While big targets such as Perplexity are frequently mentioned, smaller AI firms such as Runway AI, Eleven Labs, and Pika AI may also prove attractive.

“We’re very open to M&A that accelerates our road map,” Cook said during Apple’s July 25 earnings call. “We basically ask ourselves whether a company can help us accelerate a road map. If they do, then we’re interested.” 

The flipside is that in the event Apple does successfully acquire a company and its talent, it may also need to figure out how to keep them, given the aggressive attempts competitors are making to poach its people.

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