Apple's Enhanced Siri Is Just Google Gemini in Disguise

When Apple finally rolls out its next-generation Siri this year, it won't actually be Apple's technology doing the heavy lifting. It'll be Google's.

Apple and Google today confirmed a multi-year collaboration under which Google Gemini will power Apple's revamped assistant, which is expected to be introduced with iOS 26.4 in March or April. "After careful evaluation, Apple determined that Google's AI technology provides the most capable foundation for Apple Foundation Models," the companies said in separate statements.

That could reasonably be read as a polished way of saying Apple's own efforts weren't cutting it. The company first announced these personalized Siri features at WWDC 2024, but then delayed them last year, after it admitted the work was "taking longer than we expected."

The deal costs Apple around $1 billion annually for access to a 1.2 trillion parameter model that "dwarfs" Apple's in-house capabilities, according to previous reporting by Bloomberg. Apple's current cloud-based AI uses just 150 billion parameters, which is nearly eight times smaller.

Apple has a long-standing strategy of controlling as many components of its products as possible through hardware, software, and services, rather than relying on third parties, so outsourcing a more capable Siri to its biggest rival is a remarkable concession. However, the deeper irony is that Google already pays Apple around $20 billion per year to remain the default search engine on iPhones, so now money is flowing in the other direction too.

Bloomberg's previous reporting suggests Apple plans to eventually transition exclusively to in-house models, with a trillion-parameter version that could potentially be ready later this year. Until then, any Siri request any more complex than starting a timer on your iPhone could well be powered by Google.