Apple and Google have signed a multi-year deal under which the Cupertino-based manufacturer will use Gemini models as the basis for its own AI models. It has also been announced that Siri will receive the long-delayed AI upgrade later this year.
In a brief joint statement, both companies announced that they have entered into a multi-year partnership. Google’s Gemini models will be used as the basis for Apple’s Foundation models. These are the iPhone maker’s ‘core models’ for artificial intelligence, also known as Apple Intelligence.
Among other things, the new, personalized version of Apple’s assistant, Siri, will be based on this. The new version will be released later this year and will be available on the company’s iPhones, Macs, and iPads, among other devices. Exactly when we can expect the new Siri has not yet been announced.
The statement says that, after careful research, Apple has decided to join forces with Google because Google’s AI technology is the most suitable foundation for Apple’s Foundation Models.
What does this this mean for the end user?
The end user will probably not notice anything immediately because Gemini will not be visible or noticeable. Everything will be packaged in an Apple flavor, and Apple’s own servers may be used to run the AI model instead of Google’s. Gemini is a closed-source model that typically runs only on Google Cloud, but there may be room for an exception here.
The upgrade will likely allow Siri to work with a larger language model than before. This will make the assistant smarter, tasks will be performed faster, and all output will be much more personalized.
Exactly how this works is not yet known. Apple could use Gemini to train its own smaller models. This process is called “distillation,” in which a compact model learns from the complex answers of a large model. Apple could have reached an agreement with Google through an official license.
That brief statement about Gemini being the “foundation for foundation models” could also simply be a marketing strategy. Apple then uses Gemini’s technology in its own cloud, but calls it a “foundation” to make it seem as if they still have a big say in the matter.
Big money involved
It makes sense that this deal also involves a lot of money, but no details are known. Earlier, Bloomberg suggested that Apple would pay Google a billion dollars a year for this. Although the companies are major competitors in many areas, they cannot do without each other and already collaborate in many other areas. For example, Apple’s own Safari browser has officially featured the Google search bar for years.
It is often the case that competitors strengthen each other and help one another out. Samsung, for example, is said to have chosen Google Gemini again as the basis for their AI integration. And while the South Korean smartphone and tablet giant is a major competitor to Apple, the two parties (at least through Samsung Semiconductor, a separate division of Samsung Electronics) are said to have signed a deal to supply RAM.