June 24 (Reuters) - Apple ( AAPL ) has rejected

overtures by Meta Platforms ( META ) to integrate the social

networking company's AI chatbot into the iPhone months ago,

Bloomberg News reported on Monday, citing people with knowledge

of the matter.

The companies are not in discussions for an AI partnership

involving Meta's Llama chatbot and only held brief talks in

March, the report said.

Discussions about a potential partnership did not reach a

formal stage and Apple ( AAPL ) was not actively planning on integrating

Llama into iPhones, because it does not consider Instagram owner

Meta's privacy practices stringent enough, according to

Bloomberg News.

The preliminary talks took place around the time Apple ( AAPL )

started hashing out deals to use OpenAI's ChatGPT and Alphabet's

Gemini in its products, the report said.

Apple ( AAPL ) unveiled its long-awaited AI strategy at its annual

developer conference earlier in June, bringing OpenAI's chatbot

ChatGPT to its devices and integrating its new "Apple

Intelligence" technology across its suite of apps, including

virtual assistant Siri.

Apple ( AAPL ) and Meta did not immediately respond to Reuters

requests for comment.

On Sunday, the Wall Street Journal was the first to report

the news of the talks between the companies.