As AI technology makes its way into the enterprise, Apple is rolling out new tools that will give businesses more granular control over where and how their employees can tap into artificial intelligence. With the release of Apple’s software updates arriving in September, the tech giant is adding another option for enterprise customers: the ability to configure the use of an enterprise version of OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Apple has already seen the demand for ChatGPT for Enterprise, which OpenAI says now has over 5 million business customers. These companies use the AI service to connect with their own internal data when using AI agents.
However, what’s interesting about the way Apple’s integration with ChatGPT for Enterprise has been structured is that it’s not hard-coded to only restrict or allow ChatGPT itself.
Instead, Apple’s support documents indicate that IT administrators will be able to restrict or allow any “external” artificial intelligence provider, not just OpenAI’s technology. That leaves the door open for Apple to forge other deals with large AI players used in the enterprise environment, without having to recode things at the protocol level.
As Apple has rolled out new AI features aimed at its devices’ end users — like writing tools or visual intelligence, for example — it’s also rolled out ways for IT departments to control access to those features.
While the company fully believes in its Private Cloud Compute architecture, it knows that it can take time for companies to agree to make changes to sensitive systems and data. That’s why it leaves it up to businesses to decide if data should be processed in the cloud or on the device, for example.
In addition to letting businesses pick and choose which AI features to enable, this setup allows businesses to decide whether employees’ AI requests c …