Apple is exploring a partnership with Google to power a long-promised Siri overhaul using Gemini AI, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. The move signals Apple's acknowledgment that its internal AI capabilities are falling critically behind competitors, forcing the iPhone maker to consider working with its biggest smartphone rival to salvage its voice assistant.
Apple just made its most surprising strategic pivot yet. The company is exploring a partnership with Google to power its long-delayed Siri overhaul using Gemini AI, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, who broke the story Thursday evening. The development marks a stunning reversal for Apple, which has spent years positioning itself as the privacy-focused alternative to Google's data-hungry ecosystem.
The talks reveal just how far behind Apple has fallen in the AI assistant race. While OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Bard have transformed user expectations around conversational AI, Siri remains largely the same voice assistant Apple launched over a decade ago. Consumer frustration has reached a tipping point, forcing Apple to consider what was once unthinkable: partnering with its biggest smartphone competitor.
According to Gurman's reporting, Google has already begun training a specialized version of Gemini that could run on Apple's servers, addressing some of the privacy concerns that would inevitably arise from such a partnership. This server-side approach mirrors the strategy Apple has used with other third-party integrations, maintaining some control over user data while leveraging external AI capabilities.
The Google discussions aren't Apple's first attempt to find an AI lifeline. The company previously approached both OpenAI and Anthropic about similar partnerships, suggesting a systematic evaluation of the AI landscape rather than a hasty decision. Anthropic, makers of Claude AI, and represent different philosophical approaches to AI development, but Apple's willingness to court all three major players underscores the urgency of its situation.
