Back at WWDC 2024, Apple first revealed that Siri was set to receive a major upgrade. The company demonstrated use cases in which Siri could understand personal context and promised that these features would arrive by fall 2024. Apple later announced that the rollout was being delayed to 2025, and subsequent reports suggested that the demoed version of Siri never materialized.
Last year, Apple did not discuss Siri in detail at WWDC. Instead, the company briefly noted that it was continuing work on features that would make Siri more personal, adding that the effort required additional time to meet Apple’s quality standards.
Today, Apple announced a major deal with Google to power the upcoming version of Siri. As part of this multi-year collaboration, the next generation of Apple Foundation Models will be based on Google’s Gemini models and cloud technology. These Apple Foundation Models will power Siri and Apple Intelligence features this year. With this move, Apple has effectively acknowledged that it currently lacks frontier-class AI models at the edge to deliver its planned AI experiences on its own.
Explaining its decision, Apple said:
After careful evaluation, Apple determined that Google’s AI technology provides the most capable foundation for Apple Foundation Models and is excited about the innovative new experiences it will unlock for Apple users. Apple Intelligence will continue to run on Apple devices and Private Cloud Compute, while maintaining Apple’s industry-leading privacy standards.
According to Bloomberg"s report from late last year, Apple is going to pay about a billion dollars per year for this Gemini and Google Cloud deal. As the integration rolls out later this year, it remains to be seen how Apple will balance this reliance on Google"s technology with its rigorous privacy standards.
This partnership also casts doubt on the future of Apple"s existing integration with OpenAI, leaving it unclear if ChatGPT will remain a third-party option within iOS or be phased out in favor of the upcoming Gemini-powered Siri later this year.