Google Gemini to Provide Foundation for Some Apple Intelligence Features ⇥ ft.com

Samantha Subin, CNBC:

Apple is joining forces with Google to power its artificial intelligence features, including a major Siri upgrade expected later this year.

The multiyear partnership will lean on Google’s Gemini and cloud technology for future Apple foundational models, according to a joint statement obtained by CNBC’s Jim Cramer.

Apple and Google, in the statement that still has not been corrected to change Al to AI, but I presume it is about artificial intelligence rather than Google’s Albert technology:

After careful evaluation, Apple determined that Google’s Al 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.

Michael Acton, Stephen Morris, and George Hammond, Financial Times:

The deal would be structured in the form of a cloud computing contract, which could lead to Apple paying several billion dollars to Google over time, a person familiar with the agreement told the FT.

[…]

“I think that the ChatGPT integration is going to die on the vine … having two large models, given the economies of scale, wouldn’t make a ton of sense for Apple,” said Gene Munster at Deepwater Asset Management, who estimated the Gemini contract could be worth $5bn for Google.

Or, to put it another way, Gemini is worth to Apple roughly what a few months of default search placement in Safari are to Google, assuming these figures are in the right ballpark.

This announcement is vague. It seems to imply the Siri features that were supposed to roll out last year have been rebuilt on a new architecture that, turns out, has Gemini at its foundation. Apparently some other features are coming in mere months, like an ability to “tell more stories”, which will be a welcome distraction while Siri fails to text the right person in my contacts. Max Weinbach, of the well-connected Creative Strategies analysis team, is optimistic for what this means. I think it is super weird that Apple has teased Gemini integration alongside OpenAI’s ChatGPT since WWDC 2024, but it is unclear whether this deal will include that capability.