by Dan Moren
Apple no longer taking OpenAI board seat
Camilla Hodgson and George Hammond, writing at the Financial Times (paywalled):
Apple had also been expected to take an observer role on OpenAI’s board as part of a deal to integrate ChatGPT into the iPhone maker’s devices, but would not do so, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. Apple declined to comment.
Microsoft, which has held a non-voting board seat since the Sam Altman fiasco last year, has also given up its position. Instead, both companies will be part of “regular meetings with partners”, along with some of OpenAI’s major investors. This seems to be, at least in some part, due to increased scrutiny related to antitrust concerns in both the European Union and U.S. Given that Apple and Microsoft have been subject to plenty of antitrust attention, especially in the EU, it’s reasonable they wouldn’t want to open themselves to more.
But this does make for a wild ride for Apple. It was just a few days ago that it was reported that Apple Fellow Phil Schiller would be taking the observer role as part of the company’s deal with OpenAI, but I guess Phil can go back to sparring with Epic in Europe full time.