OpenAI Admits Almost Nobody Used ChatGPT Inside Siri

OpenAI has admitted in court that its partnership with Apple went badly. In legal papers filed as part of its ongoing fight with Elon Musk's rival AI company xAI, OpenAI says that by the time the lawsuit was filed, it "was clear that Apple's integration of ChatGPT was dramatically underperforming." In plain English: almost nobody was actually using ChatGPT through their iPhone's Siri assistant. The company called the impact "persistently" weak, and its own expert calculated that the share of AI users reaching ChatGPT through Apple was tiny. Much of that section is blacked out, so we can't see everything — but the message is clear.

Why did it flop? Blame friction. Apple let you use ChatGPT through Siri starting in December 2024, but only if you went into Settings, found the right section, and clicked through several steps to switch it on. Most people never bothered. Imagine a great restaurant inside a mall with no signs and a locked door — the food might be amazing, but nobody's eating there. A second theory is that Apple Intelligence itself, Apple's first big AI push, simply wasn't impressive enough to make people curious. If the free sample tastes bland, you don't buy the meal.

There's a bigger twist here for iPhone owners. The newer, smarter Siri — often called Siri AI — leans heavily on Google's Gemini instead of OpenAI's model. So if Siri has felt noticeably sharper lately, you've likely been getting Google's AI, not ChatGPT. From OpenAI's view, it backed the wrong horse: it was bolted onto an early, underwhelming version of Apple's assistant, then watched a rival take the starring role in the upgrade.

So what should you take from this? Three things. First, being built into your phone doesn't guarantee anyone uses you — convenience beats brand. Second, AI companies are now fighting over default spots on your devices the way soda brands fight over shelf space. Third, this whole spat is part of a lawsuit between OpenAI and Musk's xAI, so both sides have reasons to spin the numbers. Treat the "nobody used it" claim as persuasive, not proven.