OpenAI hires two executives to reach a cooperation agreement with Apple

According to Zhitong Finance APP, OpenAI announced on Monday that it has hired two executives and reached a cooperation agreement with Apple (AAPL.US), including the integration of ChatGPT and Siri. The company stated that Sarah Friar will serve as Chief Financial Officer, who was previously the CEO of Nextdoor and CFO of Square. Friar also co-chaired the Stanford Digital Economy Lab. In a blog post, OpenAI wrote, "She will lead a finance team to provide ongoing investment in our core research capabilities, ensuring that we can expand to meet the growing needs of customers and the demands of the complex and global environment we are in." OpenAI also hired Kevin Weil as the new Chief Product Officer. Weil was previously the President of Planet Labs and has also served as Senior Vice President at Twitter, as well as Vice President at Facebook and Instagram. The company stated that Weil's product team will focus on "applying our research to products and services that benefit consumers, developers, and businesses." As the importance of large language models in the tech industry grows, and competition intensifies in the rapidly evolving generative AI market, OpenAI is strengthening its executive team. Since the launch of ChatGPT at the end of 2022, the company has been in a high-growth mode, but has also faced continuous controversies and seen many employees resign. In May of this year, a group of current and former OpenAI employees published an open letter expressing concerns about the rapid development of the AI industry, lack of regulation, and lack of protection for those who wish to speak out. They pointed out, "AI companies have a strong economic incentive to avoid effective regulation, and we do not believe that a customized corporate governance structure is sufficient to change this." On Monday, OpenAI also announced a new cooperation agreement with Apple, planning to integrate ChatGPT in the upcoming iOS, iPadOS, and macOS updates later this year. In another blog post, OpenAI stated that this integration will allow users to access ChatGPT features such as image and document understanding, text generation, and image creation, which will be integrated into Apple's writing tools. "Siri can also leverage ChatGPT when needed, and before sending any questions, documents, or photos to ChatGPT, Apple users will receive prompts, after which Siri will provide direct answers."