An old video of OpenAI's CEO, Sam Altman, at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) from 2008 has resurfaced on social media ahead of WWDC 2024. In the video, a 23-year-old Altman is seen presenting his friend-locating service, Loopt. This app aimed to help users find their friends' locations easily.
Loopt’s was one of the first companies to receive funding from the start-up accelerator Y Combinator. Although Loopt attracted partnerships with wireless carriers such as Sprint, it failed to attract users, and in 2012 it was acquired by the banking company Green Dot for $43 million.
In 2011, Altman began working part-time as a partner at Y Combinator, and the next year he founded the venture fund Hydrazine Capital with his brother Max Altman. Y Combinator founders Paul Graham and Jessica Livingston asked Sam Altman to succeed Graham as president, and he accepted the position in 2014.
Interestingly, almost 16 years later, Apple might bring back OpenAI CEO Sam Altman back on stage for the announcement of a new partnership with the company. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple will be partnering with OpenAI to introduce a chatbot on iOS 18. Apple is expected to introduce its own AI models for smaller tasks. Apple was also reportedly in talks with Google to incorporate Gemini. However, it didn’t come to fruition.
Apple will be introducing new AI features with the iOS 18 update, bringing it up to pace with competitors like Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy devices. However, not all Apple iPhones will get the entire array of iOS 18 features. Gurman claims that some features may remain exclusive to iPhone 15 Pro models. If the report stands to be true, iPhone sales might get an incredible boost.
Watch the video here.