ChatGPT has gained a new capability that could raise privacy concerns for Apple users. OpenAI has confirmed that its AI chatbot can now scan through your iMessages, provided you grant permission. Once enabled, it can also read, write and send texts on your behalf.
iMessage is the native messaging service for iPhones and other Apple devices. The new feature, known as the Apple Messages Plugin, is currently available only to users of ChatGPT Work and Codex on Mac desktops, and not on mobile devices. Adding the plugin is optional, but users must complete several permission procedures before it becomes active.
OpenAI has stated that ChatGPT will not store your messages and that the plugin will run only on your local Mac computer, rather than on OpenAI’s cloud servers. Despite these assurances, the feature could prove awkward for Apple, which has for decades marketed itself as a company protective of customer privacy.
A Partnership Under Strain
OpenAI and Apple originally launched a partnership in June 2024 to integrate ChatGPT into iOS, iPadOS and macOS systems. The relationship became strained in July of this year, when Apple sued OpenAI in federal court, alleging that Sam Altman’s company had stolen trade secrets and misappropriated intellectual property.
OpenAI can already access some Apple customer apps, although all require permissions. ChatGPT Health can analyse information in the iPhone and iPad Health apps, while the chatbot can also work with Mac apps such as Xcode, Notes and Terminal.
Growing Scrutiny of the AI Industry
The wider question is whether Apple users want OpenAI’s ChatGPT, the world’s most widely used chatbot, to have access to their messaging app. OpenAI has faced numerous lawsuits over recent years, with accusations that it misused customer data to train its AI models and shared it with other companies.
According to a class-action lawsuit filed earlier this year, OpenAI allegedly shared private ChatGPT customer data with Meta and Google. In 2023, the company was accused of taking large amounts of data, including medical records and information about children, to train ChatGPT. The New York Times, Encyclopedia Britannica and Merriam-Webster have also sued OpenAI, claiming it used copyrighted material to train its AI models.
Several enterprise AI firms are facing litigation. Well over 100 lawsuits have been filed for “training-data ingestion” against major technology names, including Google, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, Anthropic, Amazon, Adobe, Apple and ByteDance.
In Illinois, nine major companies, including Apple, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Samsung, are facing allegations of using thousands of hours of recorded human voices without permission for their AI systems.
