Jan 12 (Reuters) - Apple (AAPL.O), opening in a new tab, will employ Google's Gemini models in its updated Siri, expected later this year, in a multi year agreement that extends the partnership between the technology leaders in this new age of artificial intelligence.
The agreement reached on Monday is a profound vote of confidence in Google. While its technology powers most of Samsung's “Galaxy AI” today, this agreement gives access to a vast market through Apple's install base of more than two billion active devices.
“After a thorough analysis, Apple decided that the current state of Google’s AI technology is the best possible foundation for Apple Foundation Models,” a spokesperson at Google said, “Our models will also drive the functionality of future Apple Intelligence features,” the spokesperson added.
Alphabet (GOOGL.O) was competing with OpenAI for the contract with Apple, the terms of which were not made public.
The iPhone producer in the late 2024 rollout of ChatGPT in their devices enabled their voice assistant, Siri, to leverage the knowledge of the chatbot to provide responses to intricate questions. Apple reported that there were no significant developments in ChatGPT integration, and OpenAI declined to comment when requested to do so by Reuters.
"This appears to be an unreasonably large concentration of power for Google to wield, considering that they have Android and Chrome," Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in a post on the social media platform X.
Musk went on to found his own AI company, xAI, which has been trying to compete with other major entities in this space by developing basic models and investing billions of dollars in infrastructure.
The collaboration on Monday may spark questions about the deal between OpenAI and Apple. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was said to have given a "code red" following Gemini 3, as a reaction to the need for acceleration, towards the end of last year.
“Apple has started using Google’s Gemini models for Siri, which has pushed OpenAI into a secondary role with ChatGPT being primarily used for complex and opt in queries as opposed to being a default smart layer,” Parth Talsania, CEO of Equisights Research, added.
Google has been firing on all cylinders to counter OpenAI's early lead in the industry by doubling down on frontier models, and image and video generation.
After Apple was late to the race, it suffered a spate of setbacks on the AI front: its upgrade for Siri was delayed, there were top level executive changes, and the first rollout of its generative AI tools received a lukewarm reception.
The new deal extends a multiyear partnership making Google the default search engine on Apple devices in a lucrative arrangement that drives traffic for Google, while generating tens of billions in annual revenue for Apple.
News of the deal helped power Alphabet's market valuation above $4 trillion on Monday. The stock jumped 65% last year on growing investor optimism about its AI efforts.
"Apple Intelligence will continue to run on Apple devices and Private Cloud Compute, while maintaining Apple's industry leading privacy standards," Google said, trying to appease privacy concerns on Monday.
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