ChatGPT can now control iMessage, potentially raising Apple privacy concerns

• OpenAI's ChatGPT can now control Apple’s iMessage on Mac, allowing reading, writing, sending, and summarising messages with user consent and specific permissions.
• This new feature raises privacy concerns as it involves accessing sensitive Apple Messages data, challenging Apple’s strict privacy stance.
• The update comes amid ongoing tensions between Apple and OpenAI, including Apple’s recent lawsuit against OpenAI for alleged product information theft.

OpenAI rolled out support on Aug 20 for controlling Apple’s iMessage service via ChatGPT, a move with the potential to raise privacy concerns for the iPhone maker. 

The new feature, available for ChatGPT on the Mac, allows the OpenAI system to take actions such as reading, writing and sending text messages. It also can search through messages and get summaries and other information about conversations from the Apple Messages app. 

Apple has positioned itself as a staunch privacy advocate, and it is protective about the contents of users’ messages. An OpenAI tool that could upload Apple customer data to that company’s network is likely to spark questions.

An Apple representative did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The move comes at a time of broader tension between the two companies. Apple sued OpenAI in July, accusing the AI provider of stealing information about upcoming products. 

In response to questions about the new feature, OpenAI stressed that it requires a user’s consent and does not create an index of all someone’s messages. The plug-in also runs locally on the Mac and uses existing operating system tools, such as AppleScript and Accessibility, to work with the Messages app, OpenAI said.

There are several opt-in menus in both the ChatGPT app and Apple’s own operating system about the tie-in. When a user first sets up the integration, a permissions screen appears in ChatGPT that says the computer’s on-device message history will be accessed by the app. 

Users are also required to change privacy-related preferences within the Mac’s System Settings app. That includes enabling a feature named Full Disk Access. Moreover, users need to give ChatGPT permission to access the names of contacts and automation tools. It is similar to the settings that need to be enabled to turn on popular AI-based automation software like Codex Computer Use. 

OpenAI recently rolled out support for analysing information in a user’s iPhone and iPad Health app, but Apple’s iOS and iPadOS operating systems have a feature that requires customers to specifically approve their data being given to ChatGPT.

ChatGPT already works with other Mac apps, including the Xcode programming suite, Notes and Terminal, though those tie-ins are less likely to upset Apple’s privacy managers and marketing teams than an unofficial Messages integration. 

The new OpenAI feature also threatens to encroach on the territory of the upcoming Siri AI, which has the ability to comb through users’ messages and other content on devices. That capability is seen as a potential edge over third-party chatbots. 

In the past, Apple has sought to block similar types of features. In one recent example, Apple shut down an app called Beeper Mini that helped bring iMessage to Android. BLOOMBERG