Apple, Meta not in talks currently for AI partnership, Bloomberg News reports

(Reuters) - Apple has rejected overtures by Meta Platforms to integrate the social networking company's AI chatbot into the iPhone months ago, Bloomberg News reported on Monday, citing people with knowledge of the matter.

The companies are not in discussions for an AI partnership involving Meta's Llama chatbot and only held brief talks in March, the report said.

Discussions about a potential partnership did not reach a formal stage and Apple was not actively planning on integrating Llama into iPhones, because it does not consider Instagram owner Meta's privacy practices stringent enough, according to Bloomberg News.

The preliminary talks took place around the time Apple started hashing out deals to use OpenAI's ChatGPT and Alphabet's Gemini in its products, the report said.

Apple unveiled its long-awaited AI strategy at its annual developer conference earlier in June, bringing OpenAI's chatbot ChatGPT to its devices and integrating its new "Apple Intelligence" technology across its suite of apps, including virtual assistant Siri.

Apple and Meta did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

On Sunday, the Wall Street Journal was the first to report the news of the talks between the companies.

(Reporting by Juby Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Pooja Desai)