Apple eyes Google’s AI
The two technology giants intend to form a new partnership. But their current tie-up has already irked regulators. Matthew Partridge reports
Apple is contemplating integrating Google’s artificial intelligence (AI) model into the iPhone, a potential alliance that “would shape the future of the technology”, says Katie Prescott in The Times. A tie-up with the world’s leading smartphone maker would be a “boon” for Google, as Apple’s products are so popular. An alliance between the two companies would also help them “steal a march” on Microsoft. But Apple is also in talks with OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT and Microsoft’s key partner, about a possible deal.
Investors are likely to have mixed feelings about Apple’s latest move, says Samantha Murphy Kelly for CNN. On the one hand a partnership with Google “would catapult Apple into the growing AI arms race” at a time when Apple has largely been “left out of the conversation”, with many other tech companies already making “big strides” in the sector.
But the fact that Apple is even talking about licensing and building Google’s Gemini AI engine (which includes chatbots and other AI tools) into upcoming iPhones and its iOS 18 features suggests that its own AI efforts “are not quite where they want them to be yet”.
Siri, you’re fired
Apple’s voice assistant Siri, in particular, has been “widely criticised” for being less able to respond to more complex requests than newer AI assistants, says Benj Edwards in Ars Technica. While Apple has been trying to bridge the gap by developing its own AI models, including a largelanguage model code-named Ajax and a basic chatbot called Apple GPT, the firm’s technology is “said to lag behind that of its competitors”. This makes a partnership with Google or another AI provider a “more attractive option” than trying to create the necessary expertise on its own.
A partnership certainly makes sense given that the two companies already work together, says Anita Ramaswamy on Breakingviews. In return for funnelling “a huge volume of traffic to Google and its advertisers” by making Google the default search engine on the 2.2 billion devices that run Apple’s operating systems, Alphabet paid Tim Cook’s company $20bn in 2023 alone. With chatbots like ChatGPT putting this revenue stream under threat, both companies have a lot to lose, although Apple holds the upper hand. Still, a link-up could create antitrust problems.
Google’s current deal with Apple for search is already the focus of a lawsuit by the US Department of Justice, which has alleged that the companies “have operated as a single entity to corner the search market on mobile devices”, says Mark Gurman on Bloomberg. The pair have justified the deal by saying Apple thinks Google’s search quality is “superior” to rival versions and that it’s “easy to switch providers on the iPhone”. However, the EU is “forcing Apple to make it easier for consumers to change their default search engine away from Google”. So, while a new agreement around AI could help “make up for that”, any deal would be likely to “draw the eye of regulators”.