Benj Edwards
On Monday, Bloomberg reported that Apple is in talks to license Google’s Gemini mannequin to energy AI options like Siri in a future iPhone software program replace coming later in 2024, based on folks accustomed to the state of affairs. Apple has additionally reportedly performed related talks with ChatGPT maker OpenAI.
The potential integration of Google Gemini into iOS 18 might carry a variety of recent cloud-based (off-device) AI-powered options to Apple’s smartphone, together with picture creation or essay writing based mostly on easy prompts. Nevertheless, the phrases and branding of the settlement haven’t but been finalized, and the implementation particulars stay unclear. The businesses are unlikely to announce any deal till Apple’s annual Worldwide Builders Convention in June.
Gemini might additionally carry new capabilities to Apple’s widely criticized voice assistant, Siri, which trails newer AI assistants powered by giant language fashions (LLMs) in understanding and responding to advanced questions. Rumors of Apple’s personal inner frustration with Siri—and potential treatments—have been kicking round for a while. In January, 9to5Mac revealed that Apple had been conducting exams with a beta model of iOS 17.4 that used OpenAI’s ChatGPT API to energy Siri.
As we’ve previously reported, Apple has additionally been growing its personal AI fashions, together with a big language mannequin codenamed Ajax and a primary chatbot referred to as Apple GPT. Nevertheless, the corporate’s LLM expertise is claimed to lag behind that of its rivals, making a partnership with Google or one other AI supplier a extra engaging choice.
Google launched Gemini, a language-based AI assistant just like ChatGPT, in December and has up to date it a number of occasions since. Many trade consultants take into account the bigger Gemini fashions to be roughly as capable as OpenAI’s GPT-4 Turbo, which powers the subscription variations of ChatGPT. Till only in the near past, with the emergence of Gemini Ultra and Claude 3, OpenAI’s high mannequin held a reasonably vast lead in perceived LLM functionality.
The potential partnership between Apple and Google might considerably impression the AI trade, as Apple’s platform represents greater than 2 billion lively gadgets worldwide. If the settlement will get finalized, it will construct upon the present search partnership between the 2 firms, which has seen Google pay Apple billions of dollars yearly to make its search engine the default choice on iPhones and different Apple gadgets.
Nevertheless, Bloomberg reviews that the potential partnership between Apple and Google is probably going to attract scrutiny from regulators, as the businesses’ present search deal is already the topic of a lawsuit by the US Department of Justice. The European Union can also be pressuring Apple to make it simpler for shoppers to vary their default search engine away from Google.
With a lot potential cash on the road, choosing Google for Apple’s cloud AI job might probably be a significant loss for OpenAI when it comes to bringing its expertise broadly into the mainstream—with a market representing billions of customers. Even so, any take care of Google or OpenAI could also be a short lived repair till Apple can get its personal LLM-based AI expertise on top of things.
