Apple picks Gemini for next-gen Siri

Despite the Google collaboration, Apple claims privacy focus unchanged

Apple has announced a major deal with Google that will see the search giant's Gemini AI technology power new AI features across Apple devices, including a long-awaited upgrade to Siri expected later this year.

In a joint statement, the companies said the multiyear deal would allow Apple to use Google's Gemini models alongside Google's cloud technology as a foundation for future versions of Apple's own AI systems, known as Apple Foundation Models.

Apple said it chose Google after an extensive review of available technologies.

"After careful evaluation, we determined that Google's technology provides the most capable foundation for Apple Foundation Models and we're excited about the innovative new experiences it will unlock for our users," the company said.

Despite the collaboration, Apple stressed that its focus on privacy would remain unchanged.

Apple Intelligence features will continue to run primarily on users' devices and on Apple's own Private Cloud Compute servers, the company said, rather than directly on Google's infrastructure.

Analysts at Morningstar said the agreement should help Apple's reputation for security and privacy "remain intact".

They noted that Gemini will run on Apple-controlled servers in Apple datacentres, although users are expected to have the option to share prompts directly with Gemini if they choose.

The announcement formalises months of speculation.

Bloomberg reported last year that Apple was in early talks with Google about using a customised version of Gemini to overhaul Siri, and later suggested Apple could pay around $1 billion a year for access to Google's AI technology.

A familiar partnership

While Apple and Google are often seen as fierce rivals, the two companies have a long and complicated history of cooperation.

Most notably, Google has for years paid Apple to remain the default search engine on Safari, Apple's web browser.

Court filings revealed those payments reached as much as $20 billion a year at their peak and were responsible for a significant share of Google's search traffic.

Apple's former general counsel, Bruce Sewell, once described the relationship as "co-opetition", telling The New York Times: "You have brutal competition, but at the same time, you have necessary cooperation."

That arrangement was closely examined in a major US antitrust case against Google.

Although a federal judge ruled last year that Google could continue making the payments, some legal experts say the new AI deal could invite fresh scrutiny.

James Grimmelmann, a professor of digital and information law at Cornell Tech, said the court could have chosen to block similar agreements.

“I think that it was possible from the Google antitrust trial that Google could have been blocked in advance from making deals like this — [it’s] certainly a possible remedy that could’ve been on the table and was not adopted by the judge,” he told The Verge.

Catching up in the AI race

The move also highlights Apple's efforts to catch up in an AI race that has gathered pace since the launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT in late 2022.

Rivals including Microsoft, Meta and Amazon have invested tens of billions of dollars in AI models, products and infrastructure, fuelling expectations that Apple would soon deliver a major upgrade to Siri.

However, Apple delayed a promised AI-powered voice assistant last year, pushing its release back to 2026 despite having already advertised the feature. At the time, the company admitted it needed more time to meet its own standards.

Apple already works with OpenAI, using ChatGPT to handle complex queries within Siri and Apple Intelligence.

The company told CNBC that the new partnership with Google does not change that arrangement, though it remains unclear how the two AI systems will coexist in the longer term.