Apple and Google are weighing a potential deal to bring the search king’s Gemini generative AI offerings to the iPhone.
The negotiations, first reported by Bloomberg on Monday, aim to allow Apple to license Gemini’s set of AI models to drive some new iPhone features later this year.
While a deal would give Gemini a key advantage with billions of potential users, Bloomberg noted, it could also be a sign that Apple is not as far along in its AI efforts as some might have said. hope so.
“Apple appears to be lagging behind its competitors in generative AI, and part of the reason is that the pace of innovation has been so high that the times for its annual developers conference in summer and the launch of products in autumn have created a gap compared to the current pace. the race to AI,” said Paul Schell, an industry analyst with a global technology intelligence firm. ABI Search.
That’s not to say that Apple hasn’t been busy developing its AI capabilities. “Behind the scenes, Apple has been busy building out its generative AI capabilities on devices and acquiring companies that will help it advance this technology – most recently with the acquisition of DarwinAI,” Schell told TechNewsWorld.
“Apple also has a machine learning research division dedicated to developing its capabilities in the field, and Tim Cook has spoken about generative AI in anticipation of iOS 18,” he added.
Part of the overall AI strategy
“Apple is way behind in AI,” said Rob Enderle, president and principal analyst at Apple. Enderle Groupa consulting services company located in Bend, Oregon.
“It’s pretty surprising,” he told TechNewsWorld, “since Siri was one of the first digital assistants on the market, but once they launched it, they seemed to lose interest, That’s why they’re so far behind.”
A deal with Google could fit into Apple’s overall AI strategy, noted Apple equity analyst William Kerwin. Morningstar Research Services in Chicago.
“Apple has taken a slow approach to any generative AI announcements, which we view as its normal strategy,” he told TechNewsWorld. “Apple has always been a favored market follower, never focusing on being first place, but rather on bringing superior products to market. »
“We did not expect Apple to develop a proprietary licensed generative AI model, but we are focused on how to integrate generative AI into its products,” he said. “These could be small models built by Apple and living on the edge, or larger models based on the cloud.”
“A possible licensing deal with Google Gemini would align with this: outsourcing the model itself but focusing on integrating it into products like Siri.”
Beneficial for Apple and Google
Tim Bajarin, president of Creative strategiesa technology consulting firm in San Jose, California, pointed out that Apple has used AI in its products since the launch of the Knowledge Navigator in 1987. AI is the key to Siri and Maps, he said. he added, and Apple has technology developed in-house. to provide AI-based applications and solutions.
“However, providing deep generative AI architecture alone is expensive, and these basic AI architectures are already built and can be licensed,” he told TechNewsWorld.
“Even if Apple had its own Gemini-level model, it likely wouldn’t have the infrastructure to serve its enormous customer base,” he explained. “It is highly plausible that Apple could license core generative AI architecture from another company and build even deeper, more Apple-specific products on top of that AI engine.”
A Gemini licensing deal could benefit both Apple and Google.
“Licensing Gemini would allow Apple to make up significant lost time in its own AI development efforts,” said Charles King, principal analyst at Experta technology consulting firm based in Hayward, California.
Additionally, he told TechNewsWorld, “By using approved third-party technology to train its AI systems, Apple will be able to preserve its well-deserved reputation for respecting customer privacy.”
Rise of on-device AI
“Many AI models now require access to the cloud, so there are many concerns about disclosing private information,” added Ross Rubin, principal analyst at Crosshair searcha consumer technology consulting firm based in New York.
“Google has a version of Gemini – Gemini Nano – that might appeal to Apple because it can run locally,” he told TechNewsWorld. “It’s a way to preserve privacy and reap the benefits of generative AI.”
ABI’s Schell pointed out that Google is ahead of the pack with its Gemini family of models, which have already been rolled out to fully work on some of its Pixel phones, as well as some Samsung Galaxy devices. “By partnering with Google, Apple would be able to offer its customers a relatively mature generative AI model across all or some of its devices,” he said.
“All major chipset vendors and OEMs are moving toward generative AI on devices because its productivity-enhancing data privacy value proposition is very compelling, and this is particularly relevant given the “Apple’s legacy of data privacy leadership,” he added.
“As such,” he continued, “I expect a slew of important announcements regarding generative AI on devices at this year’s WWDC, applying to Apple’s offerings for PCs, tablets and smartphones.” Apple’s WWDC (World Wide Developers Conference) usually takes place in June.
A boon for Apple users
Apple users could benefit from a Gemini licensing deal because it integrates Google’s advanced search algorithms into their ecosystem, thereby enriching search functionality, argued Mark N. Vena, president and principal analyst at Smart Technology Research in San Jose, California.
“It promotes interoperability, enabling seamless integration between Apple’s ecosystem and Google services and driving convenience for users,” he told TechNewsWorld, “and this could potentially reduce development costs and time-to-market for Apple, as it could instead use Google’s proven technology to build a similar capability from scratch.
“This would obviously provide Apple with a host of features that it doesn’t currently appear to have, and Google would get revenue and a big-name licensing partner,” said Greg Sterling, co-founder of Near the mediaa news, commentary and analysis website, told TechNewsWorld.
How much revenue Google — which pays Apple billions a year to be the Safari web browser’s default search engine — would get from a licensing deal is an intriguing question.
“There may not be money for licensing,” Rubin suggested. “Google pays Apple for the privilege of performing searches on Apple platforms. The payment Google gets is access to anonymized data for iPhone users, giving them a holistic view of what people are doing on mobile. Perhaps Google would be willing to offer its technology for free so it can continue to update its AI engine.
Apple and Google did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
