OpenAI has rolled out a new ChatGPT feature for Mac that allows the chatbot to interact directly with Apple’s Messages app, including reading, writing and sending iMessages. According to Bloomberg, the integration can also search through conversations and provide summaries or other information based on a user’s message history.
The feature was promoted in a post on X (shown below), showing ChatGPT suggesting follow-up messages based on conversations a user had received the previous day. While the functionality could make messaging more convenient, it also raises questions about how private conversations are handled when accessed by a third-party AI service.
Extensive Permissions
OpenAI says the integration requires the user’s consent and does not create an index of all their messages. The company also said the feature runs locally on the Mac and relies on existing macOS tools, including AppleScript and Accessibility, to interact with the Messages app.
Users will need to enable several permissions before ChatGPT can access their messages. These include Full Disk Access, access to contacts and automation tools, with an additional permissions screen in ChatGPT warning that the app will access the computer’s on-device message history.
The requirements are not entirely unusual, but the nature of the data involved makes this particular integration more questionable. This is especially when Apple has long positioned privacy as a key selling point for its products.
Ongoing Tensions
The timing is also interesting given the increasingly complicated relationship between the two companies. To recap, Apple sued OpenAI in July alongside two former employees, alleging that confidential information was obtained through former staffers and used to accelerate the AI firm’s push into consumer hardware. OpenAI rejected the accusation, saying it has no interest in other companies’ trade secrets.
The Messages integration also brings ChatGPT closer to an area Apple is trying to develop through its own AI efforts. The upcoming AI-powered Siri is expected to work across a user’s messages and other on-device content, which could give Apple an advantage over third-party assistants that do not have the same level of system access.
For Malaysian users, however, this may be less significant than it sounds since iMessage has relatively limited adoption here compared with platforms such as WhatsApp. That said, the bigger concern would arise if OpenAI eventually brings similar capabilities to other messaging services, as giving an AI system access to private conversations on widely used platforms would understandably be far more alarming.
(Source: Bloomberg)
