Apple is all-in on bringing generative AI capabilities to its devices. To do this, it’s angling to get a little help from its friends (read: a lot of help from one of its staunchest competitors).
What happened: Apple is reportedly in talks with its best frenemy Google to have the search behemoth’s Gemini AI engine built into the iPhone to power upcoming AI features. Apple, which is still working on an in-house AI model, also allegedly chatted with OpenAI.
- Google already has AI smartphone experience, rolling out Gemini-powered features on its own Pixel 8 phones and partnering with Samsung on Galaxy S24 devices.
Why it matters: AI features baked directly into the world’s most popular smartphone will expose the technology to people who haven’t gone out of their way to use it yet. This could help quicken AI adoption which, despite all the buzz, isn’t exactly moving at lightning speed.
- And any AI model that gets picked up by the iPhone will get an immediate leg up in the contentious AI wars by gaining immediate access to billions of potential users.
Big picture: If past relationships indicate the success of future ones, the pairing should be fruitful for both sides. Apple and Google’s pre-existing deal to have Search as the default search engine on the iPhone’s Safari rakes in billions for Apple while helping Google maintain its search market dominance.
Yes, but: The aforementioned Search deal is currently facing intense scrutiny from U.S. competition regulators. Any AI deal Apple signs could run into antitrust hurdles.—QH