SAN FRANCISCO — Apple and Google unveiled Monday a new partnership in which the iPhone maker will use the search giant’s Gemini artificial intelligence technology to power future Apple Intelligence features, including a long-awaited Siri revamp.
“After careful evaluation, Apple determined that Google’s AI technology provides the most capable foundation for Apple Foundation Models and is excited about the innovative new experiences it will unlock for Apple users,” the companies said in a joint statement.
Apple’s embrace of Gemini is a rare moment of public clarity for the Cupertino company’s strategy in AI. The first wave of Apple Intelligence features debuted in 2024 to a subdued response, mostly because the tools on offer — summaries of news articles and notifications, photo retouching, a text rewriter — felt distinctly underwhelming and made notable mistakes.
Apple’s AI track record since has similarly failed to excite people. Apple launched more vaguely helpful AI tools, including a highly limited image generator, then pushed back its star Apple Intelligence feature — an upgraded version of the Siri virtual assistant that can see what a user is doing on a device’s screen and can perform actions inside other apps — to launch this year.
Most recently, John Giannandrea, Apple’s senior vice president in charge of AI strategy, stepped down from his position in early December, raising questions about the company’s next steps. He was replaced by Amar Subramanya, a respected researcher who previously held high-ranking AI roles at Google and Microsoft.
While Monday’s statement sets a direction for Apple’s AI plans, the company offered no other detail on what features Gemini might power for users of iPhones, iPads and Mac computers. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The choice to use Gemini is a key vote of confidence in Google’s AI capabilities. In The Washington Post’s tests, Gemini performed better than OpenAI’s ChatGPT in image editing and search tasks, but OpenAI has enjoyed a head start in terms of consumer awareness and reach. (The Post has a content partnership with OpenAI.)
Though Apple and Google have long been considered rivals in the hyper-lucrative smartphone market, Apple and Google’s stewardships of software platforms with billions of users have at times made them natural allies.
For example, during covid-19 pandemic, Apple and Google collaborated on a cross-platform contact sharing feature to help track the spread of the coronavirus, saying at the time that “there has never been a more important moment to work together to solve one of the world’s most pressing problems.”
Since then, Apple grew to embrace a richer, more modern flavor of text messaging that Google pushed the company to adopt; collaborated with Google on tools to prevent people from being tracked by AirTags and other Bluetooth tracker devices without their consent; and tolerated a wave of commercials depicting iPhones and Google Pixel phones as BFFs.
Most recently, the two companies said they worked together on software features to make it easier for users of one company’s smartphones to switch to the other — a rare public concession of the value of the others’ platform.
This growing closeness between the two companies, each with sway over billions of people around the world, drew some criticism after the deal was announced.
“This seems like an unreasonable concentration of power for Google, given that [they] also have Android and Chrome,” Elon Musk said in an post on X, his social media platform.
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