Apple in Talks With Google to Bring Gemini AI Features to iPhone

[MacRumors]

Apple is in discussions with Google to integrate its Gemini AI engine into the iPhone as part of iOS 18, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.

In a report citing people familiar with the situation, Gurman claims the two companies are in "active negotiations" to let Apple license Google's generative large-language models in order to power some new features coming in iOS 18.

"The two parties haven't decided the terms or branding of an AI agreement or finalized how it would be implemented," according to the report's sources.

With the release of iOS 18 later this year, Apple is rumored to be bringing major new AI capabilities to its iPhone operating system. According to Gurman, however, Apple is focusing on features that operate on-device and do not require an internet connection.

To power additional cloud-based generative AI features, such as the ability to create images and write essays based on single prompts, Apple is seeking a partner that has the necessary large-scale hardware infrastructure and compute capabilities already in place.

According to previous reporting by Gurman, Apple has been internally testing an "Apple GPT" rival that could compete with OpenAI's ChatGPT. The company has also been designing an "Ajax" framework for large language models, and is said to be spending millions of dollars a day on conversational AI research as training language models requires a lot of hardware.

However, the technology is still not as advanced as tools from Google and other rivals, making a partnership look like the better option, according to the latest report.

If the negotiations come to nothing, Apple could seek another generative AI provider such as OpenAI or turn to multiple partners. But if the talks bring about a deal, it could make up for any losses that result from the regulatory pressure facing the two companies' existing search partnership.

Google has paid Apple billions of dollars for several years to keep its search engine the default option in Safari browser on Apple devices. However, the existing deal is facing regulatory scrutiny from the U.S. Department of Justice and the European Commission over concerns that it helps Google maintain a search monopoly.

Both The Information and analyst Jeff Pu claim that Apple will have some kind of generative AI feature available on the ‌iPhone‌ and iPad around late 2024, which is when iOS 18 will be coming out. However, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said in August that there is "no sign" of generative AI technology coming in 2024, and he claimed that Apple's work on generative AI is "significantly behind its competitors."

Article Link: Apple in Talks With Google to Bring Gemini AI Features to iPhone

 

[MakeAppleAwesomeAgain]

Apple has completely missed the AI train. It’s probably gonna hurt them enormously in the long run.

 

[System603]

To power additional cloud-based generative AI features, such as the ability to create images and write essays based on single prompts, Apple is seeking a partner that has the necessary large-scale hardware resources and compute capabilities already in place.

Hopefully this would be really just about advanced tasks like image/video generation and temporary before Apple comes up with their own 🤔

Privacy will always be a concern and I'll feel better when it's all under Apple. Then again if Apple's solution would be like Siri vs other assistants, I'm glad they're reaching out for help.

The infrastructure is completely understandable. The essays's part less so as there were rumors about their own capable models.

From what we know about Gemini (newer, long context models) vs eg. ChatGPT (v4 Turbo 128K), it is miles ahead especially with length of context. This rumor is about "single prompt" but they may very well use previous interaction or wide array of user's metadata, including temporal and geographic.

 

[Zest28]

In the long run, I believe that Google will beat Open AI as Google does have the most expertise in this field, despite their failed AI attempt.

So it could not be a bad idea for Apple to rely on Google in the end.

 

[i.am.lost]

It won’t paint a clear picture on user privacy if Apple implement their own first-party AI for on-device processing and license Gemini for cloud processing — how do they make it obvious when each one is being used?

 

[madmin]

It's the company that you keep that makes you who you are

Anyhow, Apple's AI testing has advanced quite a lot, Tim is now free to go around doing public events while AI does all the bean counting

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

Google is writing some big checks to Apple if this is true, similar to being the default search engine. However, MS Copilot is much better.

 

[contacos]

Google is writing some big checks to Apple if this is true, similar to being the default search engine. However, MS Copilot is much better.

You mean the other way around? why would Google pay Apple to use THEIR technology since Apple does not seem to think they can come up with a competitor in time on their own. In this case, Google has the upper hand

 

[vegetassj4]

come on Apple, “don’t be evil”

 

[UltimateSyn]

I'm confused at why Apple needs this - haven't they already developed a supposed boatload of AI features into iOS 18?

 

[Riovfo]

It won’t paint a clear picture on user privacy if Apple implement their own first-party AI for on-device processing and license Gemini for cloud processing — how do they make it obvious when each one is being used?

It will probably be easy to tell, based on the output.
If it’s reasonable and helpful it’s Gemini, if it’s some Siri-Grade garbage it’s from Apples System

 

[Promostyle]

Bravo! Anything that keeps SiriGPT from becoming a thing is a huge plus. Would be great if Gemini was the human interface acting as an interpreter for Siri on the back end. So I could have a normal conversation with Gemini on my iPhone / Macs / HomePods and Gemini could work with Siri to get the work done. SiriKit for Gemini pls

 

[tomekwsrod]

Has Apple tried to pull a wool over our eyes about it having its own Apple AI?

 

[Motawa]

this is no good news at all for apple

 

[matrix07]

You mean the other way around? why would Google pay Apple to use THEIR technology since Apple does not seem to think they can come up with a competitor in time on their own. In this case, Google has the upper hand

Apple also doesn’t have any search yet Google pay Apple big money for the privilege on iPhone.
This will be the same. They will pay to prevent Apple to adopt OpenAI or Microsoft’s on iOS.

 

[xiJulian_]

i thought apple cared about privacy..?

 

[JPack]

Looks like Apple has smartened up after the Apple Car and 5G modem fiasco.

Seems they've finally realized they can't do everything all the time and now willing to ask for help when appropriate. The reality is, other AI companies are a few years ahead of Apple. They invested early in terms of hardware and software. Apple can pretend like they've got it, but the result would be another iOS 6 Maps disaster.

 

[wanha]

My read on this is that Apple will have their on device AI that is trained on synthetic data on particular topics.

When a query comes in that is outside of the scope of Apple AI, Siri will punt them to Gemini saying "here's what I found on Gemini" and then Gemini takes over.

This way, all the risk of inaccurate or inappropriate responses is "outsourced" to Google.

Also, Google will probably pay an unimaginable money to Apple for this.

Note: This does not mean Apple isn't doing this because it has to. It very well might be the case that Apple doesn't have a good enough LLM to deploy at this time, but this doesn't refute the point made above.

 

[HDFan]

I'm confused at why Apple needs this - haven't they already developed a supposed boatload of AI features into iOS 18?

My assumption is that an unlimited AI experience requires a huge database which would only fit on a server farm not an iPhone. For example "generate a lease agreement for my rental home with the following conditions ..." might have a different results based on the language, country, region or even city in which you reside as just one example.

Too early to say how far behind Apple is in AI. They sometimes work on things for years, up to 10 for the VP?, before they feel a product is ready for release. We will have to see what they say in June.

 

[AppZ.Zero]

Really gives us a clear picture, how far Apple has progressed regarding AI compared to its competitors.

 

[wanha]

i thought apple cared about privacy..?

Surely it all depends how this is implemented. What data does Google get? How anonymized will it be?

Those are much more relevant questions to explore before even attempting your question.

 

[wanha]

Really gives us a clear picture, how far Apple has progressed regarding AI compared to its competitors.

It actually doesn't, because we don't know what Apple is planning or why they made this decision.

All we can do is extrapolate on a single rumor.

 

[dannyyankou]

Wait... I think these features are what Apple was trying to develop?

 

[MayaUser]

Apple has/had a car?!
I think a Chinese announced an electric car and not apple

 

[AppZ.Zero]

@wanha

Oh come on. Apple wouldnt buy Googles AI-Services if they had a competitive usable product.