Apple is in talks with Google to integrate Gemini AI into iPhones. Bloomberg reports, a move that will help both companies compete with OpenAI and its (heavily invested) partner Microsoft. While it may seem like an admission that Apple is lagging behind in AI, if you think of generative AI models as the evolution of web search, Google is already rolling them out to all Apple devices. According to the report, Gemini could be a cloud-based generative AI engine for Siri and other iPhone apps, while Apple models could tap the upcoming iOS 18 for on-device AI tasks.
Bloomberg notes that Apple has also had discussions with OpenAI about using its models, and that it may still partner with another AI outfit like Anthropic. Apple may even work with multiple partners until its own generative models are exhausted. But teaming up with Google makes the most sense, especially since the search giant is already paying Apple millions to bring search to its Safari browser.
Apple needs some sort of generative AI solution (its own Ajax model It will likely take years to match Gemini and OpenAI), and Google needs a quick way to bring its AI smarts to billions of devices.
There are regulatory concerns to consider – The Ministry of Justice has already sued Google for search preference, including how to pay Apple and other companies to use the search engine. But given the dream of a partnership between Microsoft and OpenAI, which turned the Bing search engine into an overnight AI hype machine and now powers all of Microsoft’s Copilot AI solutions, the potential gains may be worth the risk for Apple and Google.
There are still technical issues that Google needs to address: Gemini has been under fire recently due to inaccurate rendering of historical images. But even given the potential growing pains, the partnership with Apple helps both companies. It also allows Apple to develop its own models while OpenAI and Google deal with the growing pains of generative artificial intelligence.
