• by Laurie Sullivan , 11 hours ago

Apple has picked Google to power its artificial intelligence (AI) features, including future Apple Intelligence features like a more personalized Siri expected later this year.

The multiyear partnership will rely on Google’s Gemini and cloud technology for future Apple foundational models.

“After careful evaluation, we determined that Google’s technology provides the most capable foundation for Apple Foundation Models and we’re excited about the innovative new experiences it will unlock for our users,” Apple said in a statement Monday

Apple Intelligence will continue to run on Apple devices and Private Cloud Compute, while maintaining Apple's privacy standards.

"I'm excited to see us partner with Apple to bring Gemini models to Apple users, powering Apple Intelligence features!" Jeff Dean, chief scientist at Google DeepMind & Google Research Gemini lead, wrote on X.

Elon Musk, founder of xAI -- the company that developed the AI chatbot Grok -- did not see it that way. "This seems like an unreasonable concentration of power for Google, given that the also have Android and Chrome," Musk wrote on his X account. 

Despite some setbacks by Google, the deal presents an indicator of growing trust in Google’s AI technology, as well as rivalry against OpenAI. 

In November, Google launched an advertising campaign with Apple that hinted at a bigger collaboration. The campaign drew a parallel between the Google Pixel 10 Pro and Apple iPhone 17 Pro.

In the ad campaign, the iPhone tells the Pixel it draws inspiration from Google's phone, telling it: “You do things first that show me the way like fixing photos, screening calls, or building an AI assistant that you can have real conversations with.”

The campaign, which is running across social media, confirms -- without actually acknowledging -- that Google Gemini will power Apple Intelligence, the company's AI assistant.

Bloomberg in August also reported that Apple was in early talks with Google to use a custom Gemini model to power a new iteration of Siri.

It also was discovered that Apple planned to pay about $1 billion annually to use Google AI.