Apple is looking into a possible collaboration with Google to include its Gemini AI system into Siri. This may significantly improve the iPhone’s digital assistant and change the tech giant’s approach to AI.
Google has been developing a model that can run on Apple’s servers after Apple approached Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company, about a custom model, according to people familiar with the business who spoke to Bloomberg.
Industry insiders claim that Apple has begun discussions with Google about licensing Gemini, the company’s flagship generative AI platform, as part of an attempt to improve Siri, which has fallen short of competitors like Amazon’s Alexa and OpenAI’s ChatGPT in terms of conversational depth and flexibility.
If it goes through, the agreement would be one of Apple’s largest outside technology collaborations in recent memory, after the company’s long-standing practice of using Google Search as the default search engine in Safari browsers.
However, analysts point out that the possible collaboration between the two tech companies would also highlight how urgent it is for Apple to catch up in the AI arms race.
“Apple prides itself on tight ecosystem control, so the fact that it’s considering outsourcing a critical AI capability to Google shows how seriously it views the risk of falling behind,” said Daniel Ives, senior analyst at Wedbush Securities.
