In Brief

Apple is nearing a deal with Google that would see the iPhone maker pay the tech giant roughly $1 billion a year for a custom version of Google’s Gemini AI model to power its overhaul of Siri, according to a new report from Bloomberg.

The move is a big one for Apple, which has traditionally relied on its own technology but plans to use Google’s model as a temporary solution until its own AI becomes powerful enough, including to power a slate of upcoming features for the voice assistant.

The custom AI model’s 1.2 trillion parameters — a measure of the software’s complexity and capability — would far exceed the level of Apple’s current models. For context, the current cloud-based version of Apple Intelligence uses 150 billion parameters, meaning Google’s model would be roughly eight times more complex.

Apple had also considered using AI models from OpenAI and Anthropic earlier this year. After testing models from all three companies, Apple chose to move forward with Google.

According to Bloomberg, the overhauled Siri is expected to launch next spring. However, since the launch is still months away, plans for the revamp could change.

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