Dec 11 (Reuters) - Apple ( AAPL ) on Wednesday started

integrating OpenAI's ChatGPT into its devices, delivering on a

long-awaited feature that investors hope will help drive sales

of its latest iPhones.

The rollout is part of a wider deployment of artificial

intelligence-powered tools in the latest updates to the

operating systems for iPhones, iPads and Mac computers.

The ChatGPT integration, announced in June as part of the

Apple Intelligence unveil, will allow the company's Siri voice

assistant tap the chatbot's expertise including on user queries

about photos and documents such as presentations.

Users can also ask ChatGPT to create written content in any

app that supports the new Writing Tools feature. They can use

the chatbot's image generation capabilities to add images.

The move comes during the peak holiday shopping season, the

company's most lucrative sales period of the year. The slow

rollout of Apple Intelligence features so far has raised some

investor worries about the strength of the iPhone 16 sales

cycle.

The AI features will be available on the latest iPhone

series, as well as the Pro and Pro Max versions of the previous

iPhone 15 line-up. Users of iPad with A17 Pro or M1 chips and

later, and Mac with M1 chips and later can also access the

tools.

(Reporting by Aditya Soni in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil

D'Silva)