Apple Inc. is in early discussions about the use of Google Gemini to provide a renewed version of the Siri Voice Assistant with power, so that an important potential step is marked in the direction of outsourcing more of his artificial intelligence technology.
The iPhone maker recently approached the Google of Alphabet Inc. To explore the construction of an adapted AI model that would serve as the basis of the new Siri next year, according to people who are familiar with he is important. Google started training a model that could run on Apple’s servers said that the people who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private.
The work is part of an attempt to catch up in generative AI, a field where the company arrived late and then had trouble getting a grip. Earlier this year, Apple also investigated partnerships with anthropic PBC and OpenAi, with a weight or claude or chatgpt as Siri’s new brain.
Apple is still a few weeks away from making a decision to continue to use internal models for Siri or to move to a partner. And it does not yet have who that partner can be. Apple and Google spokesperson refused to comment.
The possible pivot follows delays to a long -praised upgrade of Siri, which would fulfill assignments by drilling personal data and having users navigate completely through speech devices. The Siri update was planned for last spring, but was postponed by a year due to technical setbacks.
The failure led to Apple AI chef John Giannandrea from Siri Development is an additional activity. The project is now under the supervision of software boss Craig Federghi and Vision Pro Headsetmaker Mike Rockwell, who weigh the use of external help as a possible path forward.
The Siri update was originally designed around technology developed by the Apple Foundation Models team. That group also created the large language models on the device that Apple Intelligence functions from Stroom from, such as summarizing text and making adapted emoji.
Federighi, Rockwell and Apple’s Corporate Development Team, run by Adrian Perica, who had a meeting with Anthropic and OpenAi by Adrian Perica about a potential deal.
Internally, Apple holds a bake-off to see which approach will work best. At the same time, the company develops two versions of the new Siri: one called Linwood that is powered by its models and another code-mentioned Glenwood that runs on external technology.
Managers had long seen anthropically as the leading candidate for a partnership, but the financial conditions that were required by that company to broaden Apple the search and bring others to the mix. Apple has certainly not excluded that he is sticking to his own models.
These conversations are separate from other deals to integrate chatbots into Apple Intelligence. Last year, Apple chatgpt added as Siri Fallback for General Kennisqueries, an area where the assistant has long left. And both Apple and Google have already publicly indicated plans for a similar Gemini integration.
Although Apple and Google Rivals are in smartphones, operating systems and services, they already have a search partnership. Google pays billions of dollars per year to turn its search engine into the standard option on Apple products. But that deal is under antitrust research by the US Department of Justice and can ultimately be undone.
The conversations about the use of Google Gemini models to Power Siri remain exploratory, without formal commercial negotiations that are currently underway. Google has rather closed similar deals and feeds a lot of the AI ​​functionality on telephones that are sold by Samsung Electronics Co.
Apple’s AI Models Group continues to undergo a revolution. In July, Rooming Pang – the most important architect of the team – left for Meta Platforms Inc. He was lured by a package of $ 200 million and a senior role in the new Superintelligence Labs unit.
Several colleagues followed him quickly, and many of those who continue to interview Apple for jobs elsewhere because of the possible shift to technology from third parties or to cash in for millions of dollars.
Some software engineering leaders have driven a related idea to also replace the models used for non-SIRI AI functions on Apple devices.
That would be a break of Apple’s preferred approach. The company has generally tried to maintain the ownership of the AI ​​functions that are performed on the machines of consumers, with the aim of guaranteeing security and privacy. This includes Apple Intelligence options such as writing aids.
However, such a plan is not something that the company actively works on. In the case of a Siri partnership, third-party models would be performed on Apple’s private cloud calculation servers, who use MAC chips for remote processing. That means that the external Siri models would not be performed on devices themselves.
Apple remains behind his rivals in AI for years, and that has encouraged management to consider a series of options. In a recent All-Hen meeting, Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook told employees who should win Apple in AI and drive up his investments. He took an optimistic tone and noticed that Apple is rarely to new markets, but in the end still offers a superior product.
During a quarterly call for profit that same week, Cook refused to comment on the use of third-party models and said that every discussion would reveal the plans of the company. But that in itself was a signal that Apple considered an external approach.
Apple has already started engaging partners for some consumer functions and internal activities. In the iOS 26 operating system, the company offers a chatgpt option for generating images and it has killed a publicly announced project to develop its own generative AI-based coding system. The company uses chatgpt and claude instead.
At the same time, the work within Apple’s Foundation Models team continues. The company recently started testing its first trillion parameter model, a large leap of the 150 billion systems currently being performed in Apple’s AI data citers.
Parameters are a measure of complexity and learning capacity for artificial intelligence models. Based on this, Apple is still far behind the AI ​​leaders. OpenAi uses an approach to several trillion parameter.
In any case, Apple is not yet plans to offer this more powerful system to customers. For the time being it will at least be used for research.
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Published on August 23, 2025
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