Apple Teams Up with Google for AI Enhancements
On Monday, Apple revealed a new partnership with Google aimed at enhancing its artificial intelligence capabilities, particularly focusing on a long-overdue revamp of its voice assistant, Siri.
This collaboration, described as a “multi-year effort,” will see Apple’s AI framework built on Google’s Gemini model along with its cloud technology, according to a joint statement from both companies.
“These models are set to enhance future features of Apple Intelligence, which includes a more personalized Siri launching this year,” the statement detailed. Apple stated that after careful consideration, it found Google’s AI technology to offer the most robust foundation. Importantly, Apple Intelligence will continue to function on Apple devices and private cloud services, all while upholding Apple’s strong privacy standards.
Shortly after this announcement, shares in Alphabet, Google’s parent company, experienced a boost of around 1%, fleetingly propelling it to a $4 trillion market cap, making it the fourth company to reach this milestone, alongside Apple, Microsoft, and Nvidia.
Alphabet’s stock oscillated around the $4 trillion mark during early trading, sometimes edging into both positive and negative territory, while Apple’s stock remained stable.
This partnership holds particular weight for Apple, which has faced significant challenges in incorporating AI into its devices. The company had previously postponed its highly anticipated Siri update due to numerous bugs and issues, with one executive reportedly calling the state of affairs “ugly.”
Analyst Dan Ives from Wedbush remarked that this deal is “essential” for Wall Street. He indicated that, for Cupertino, this has been an “elephant in the room” concerning a non-visible AI strategy. Ives believes this could lead to positive outcomes for both Apple and Google, with Google providing the best underlying model while Apple serves as a conduit to accelerate its AI initiatives into 2026 and beyond.
Last year, Bloomberg disclosed that Apple was negotiating with Google regarding the use of a tailored version of Gemini for a new Siri, mentioning that Apple was set to invest around $1 billion annually for access to this technology.
The latest announcement did not clarify any financial details about the deal.
Apple has also recently shuffled its AI leadership, appointing Amar Subramanya, a veteran from Google and Microsoft, as vice president of artificial intelligence. Meanwhile, John Gianandrea, who had been serving as Apple’s senior vice president of machine learning and AI strategy since 2018, has stepped down.
However, this alliance between Apple and Google may raise eyebrows among antitrust advocates who have long scrutinized the companies’ collaboration in online search. Controversy flared last year when U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled that while Google maintains a monopoly in the online search space, it could still compensate Apple for having its search engine as the default on iPhones.
For the fiscal year 2024 alone, Google reportedly paid Apple around $25 billion for this default search engine status.
The Post has reached out to both Apple and Google for further comments on this partnership.
