When Apple unveiled its vision for Apple Intelligence at WWDC 2024, Craig Federighi said Apple chose ChatGPT as the built-in chatbot for Apple Intelligence. Needless to say, OpenAI’s genAI was the best solution available at the time. Apple’s software guru hinted at the time that other AI products might be added to Apple Intelligence, just as rumors swirled that Apple was negotiating with Google.
Fast-forward to late February, the first signs of Gemini integration in Apple Intelligence have now been discovered. It’s probably the best Apple Intelligence upgrade we’ll see this year.
A lot has happened since mid-June 2024. Both ChatGPT and Gemini got a lot better than they were back then, and I wouldn’t blame you if you were a loyal user of either platform.
Also, Apple Intelligence rolled out to iPhone 16 and iPhone 15 Pro users last fall, with Apple continuously improving it ever since. However, the most exciting part about Apple Intelligence is the vision that Apple demoed at WWDC.
Apple Intelligence is hardly the must-have genAI service that Apple fans want. The smarter Siri Apple showed off months ago is still not here. It’ll be available in Apple’s upcoming iOS 18.4 or iOS 18.5 update. Even then, you shouldn’t get too excited about Siri “just working” as your AI assistant. Apple Intelligence is still in beta. It’s a work in progress, as Apple needs more time to match offerings from AI rivals.
When the new Siri does arrive, it won’t have ChatGPT-like chatbot support. That’s supposedly coming in iOS 19, but not the initial version. Rumors say it won’t actually see a wide release until mid-2026.
Meanwhile, Siri can pass your questions to ChatGPT if it thinks it can’t answer them. You get better ChatGPT privacy if you use it through Apple without signing into your OpenAI account. But you can also do that if you wish.
ChatGPT support in Apple Intelligence is one of the highlights of Apple Intelligence. Seeing an option to have Gemini AI respond to your complex prompts instead of ChatGPT is something Google fans will certainly want.
It’s unclear when Gemini support is coming, but Aaron Perris posted a screenshot on X (via 9to5Mac) that shows Google showing up in a backend update that came with the iOS 18.4 beta. The other option is OpenAI. Therefore, Gemini might become a chatbot option inside Apple Intelligence, just like ChatGPT.
I assume access to Gemini would be similar to ChatGPT. You’ll use it through Siri, with Apple’s assistant passing questions to Google for more difficult tasks. Siri will ask permission to do it, assuming you have enabled that toggle. Apple will probably require similar privacy protections from Google, so using Gemini via Siri might be the best way your data doesn’t stay too long with Google or train its AI.
You’ll probably be able to sign into your Gemini account if you want to. Also, Apple will probably provide links to the Gemni app, like it does with ChatGPT.
It’ll be interesting to see whether you can enable ChatGPT and Gemini simultaneously. In that case, you might be able to pick up which AI answers which prompt, but I’m just guessing here.
Finally, there’s another benefit for Apple here. The company will give users a choice of third-party AI integration before it pushes a future version of Siri as the default chatbot in Apple Intelligence. This could help prevent issues with regulators down the road.
That said, I wouldn’t expect Apple to quietly enable Gemini support in Apple Intelligence. The company will probably announce the upgrade beforehand, so we should hear something official pretty soon.
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