Apple is in preliminary talks to leverage Google Gemini for a revamped Siri voice assistant, signaling a potential shift toward outsourcing more of its AI technology. Bloomberg News reports that, according to sources familiar with the matter, Apple has engaged Alphabet subsidiary Google to explore developing a tailored AI model to underpin the updated Siri, slated for release next year. Google has begun training a model that could operate on Apple’s servers, the sources said, requesting anonymity due to the confidential nature of the discussions.
Mark Gurman for Bloomberg News:
The work is part of an effort to catch up in generative AI, a field where the company arrived late and then struggled to gain traction. Earlier this year, Apple also explored partnerships with Anthropic PBC and OpenAI, weighing whether Claude or ChatGPT could serve as Siri’s new brain.
Apple is still several weeks away from making a decision on whether to continue using internal models for Siri or move to a partner. And it hasn’t yet determined who that partner may be.
The possible pivot follows delays to a long-touted upgrade of Siri, which would fulfill commands by tapping into personal data and let users navigate devices entirely via voice. The Siri update was scheduled for this past spring but was postponed by a year due to engineering setbacks.
The failure led Apple to sideline AI chief John Giannandrea from Siri development. The project is now overseen by software boss Craig Federighi and Vision Pro headset creator Mike Rockwell, who are weighing the use of outside help as a possible path forward.
Executives had long viewed Anthropic as the leading candidate for a partnership, but the financial terms demanded by that company led Apple to broaden the search and bring others into the mix. Apple certainly hasn’t ruled out sticking to its own models either…
The talks about using Google Gemini models to power Siri remain exploratory, with no formal commercial negotiations currently underway. Google has made similar deals before and powers much of the AI functionality on phones sold by Samsung Electronics Co.
MacDailyNews Take: Google Gemini? Why not just get a Samsung Galaxy phone which already integrates Google’s Gemini AI as a core component of their AI-powered features?
Google Gemini on an iPhone offers precious little differentiation from Samsung, the chief iPhone knockoff peddler.
If you’re going to with an external AI partner, why not choose the smartest one? We find xAI’s Grok to be more accurate and useful than Google’s Gemini, ChatGPT, and the rest. – MacDailyNews, July 21, 2025
Apple would likely need a CEO who is more open to thinking outside the box than the one with which it’s currently saddled.
Google Gemini. Puleeze. OpenAI’s ChapGPT or Anthropic’s Claude would be better choices. Even better would be for Apple to allow users to choose – gasp! – which AI model they’d like to underpin Siri.
Regardless of what Apple chooses, they will at least be safely behind Apple’s privacy wall.
The issues are: Google’s Gemini is not the best and everyone knows it, Google has a poor reputation for privacy that will tarnish Apple’s, and Google, hello, ripped off the iPhone with Android. Enough with the Google, Apple!
The day Grok is as integrated as Siri in Apple’s operating systems is the day the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, HomePod, Apple TV, Apple Vision immediately go from clueless to genius! – MacDailyNews, June 4, 2025
2015: Google it.
2025: Grok it.— MacDailyNews (@MacDailyNews) June 3, 2025
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Who is the impatient child posting their temper tantrums at MDN these days? The tone and personality have drastically changed. No source is completely neutral but this poster’s bias clearly has an agenda. I’m finding myself drawn to other Apple news aggregators more and more for their ability to show all Apple news without limitation or biased commentary. Its no longer fun here.
Been here since the early 2000’s.
No it hasn’t
I see that you’re just kiddin there, Wink…or is there a specific poster you can point to?
I like Grok but there’s too much bad blood between Apple and Musk for that deal to happen. Musk is also unstable and erratic, Apple needs a rock-solid corporate partner not a never-ending sideshow.
Cut the GOOG cord. Their malfeasance is never ending.
It’s long past time for Apple to cut ties with Google and Cook. Unfortunately, I think they are a package deal.
Google is pure evil and Apple needs to cut ties.
Apple doesn’t need to differentiate with AI. As long as it doesn’t suck, all is fine — nobody would switch to Android to get the SAME AI, so that’s perfect way to lose zero current customers, and differentiate with everything else. In order to win the war, this is not a battle Apple needs to win — it just needs to not lose. Trying to make the best and falling behind because of that is what could ruin Apple, just like it did to Nokia (they failed because they tried to make something better than the iPhone, while they could have just taken the “good enough” Android, and still be the biggest and most profitable Android manufacturer today). If Apple has the same AI, they still lead in everything else. Sure, Apple wants to own their core technologies, but you need to pick your battles and the timing. Apple e.g. designs it’s own CPUs, but it’s still based on the same ARM architecture as the competition. Because there is no inherent moat in AI, the base models may stay unprofitable infrastructure for perpetuity and the UX layer is where the value will be created, and that’s where Apple can and should differentiate. They may build their own AI or buy one someday, but as of now they are so far behind, and the field is moving so fast, making it on their own or buying a losing horse creates a huge risk of falling behind at a time when “good enough” really is good enough.
“Because there is no inherent moat in AI….” What?
AI is the moat and it maybe the biggest moat most have seen in their lifetime.
So far, AAPL don’t have one. iPh used to be….
If any iOS users switch to Android due to Gemini, it would be because of how much more useful Gemini will be on Android with how deeply it is integrated into the OS and Apps running on the platform.
i like grok
If Apple used Google’s AI wouldn’t Google make sure Android devices always had a better implementation?
Highly possible and not entirely due to Google’s efforts that Gemini will always have a better implementation on Android. Unless Apple suddenly decides to allow Google the same level of integration that Gemini has in Android in iOS. As that is a very unlikely scenario, iOS using Gemini will always be of a lower usefulness on iOS.
As for Grok, the lack of experience in fully being integrated into any OS, let alone iOS or Android, may be ‘smarter’ but will always be of less usefulness on the devices it gets used on.
Apple should not get in bed with the devil that is Google. Do not choose Gemini. Roll your own.