Apple “in talks with Google” over iPhone AI
Apple is in talks with Google over potentially using its Gemini AI to power services on the iPhone, according to a prominent Apple watcher.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, one of the best-informed Apple tipsters, claims the “two companies are in active negotiations to licence Google Gemini”, the AI service formerly known as Bard.
However, Gurman claims that Apple has also held talks with OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, which has a strong partnership with Microsoft.
The talks with the two other companies suggest that Apple’s own AI project is not yet ready for prime time. The company admitted last summer that an increase in R&D spending could be attributed to work on its own AI technology.
“We’ve been doing research across a wide range of AI technologies, including generative AI, for years,” Apple CEO Tim Cook told Reuters last summer. “We’re going to continue investing and innovating and responsibly advancing our products with these technologies to help enrich people’s lives. Obviously, we’re investing a lot, and it is showing up in the R&D spending that you’re looking at.”
Related: Google Gemini is testing with 10 million tokens
Gemini or ChatGPT coming to iPhones?
While we wait to see what – if anything – emerges from Apple’s AI spending, it seems the company plans to plug the gap with a rival offering. It’s left with something of a dilemma.
ChatGPT is widely regarded as the most advanced chatbot on the market, but its ties with Microsoft pose a political problem for Apple. Although there’s not as much heat in the rivalry between Apple and Microsoft as there was at the peak of the PC era, Apple still wouldn’t want to be seen belatedly adopting an AI technology that Microsoft has built into Windows for close to a year now.
On the other hand, Google Gemini is not exactly blowing the doors off the industry. Bard made an underwhelming impact when it was first launched, prompting the hasty Gemini rebrand. Although the AI has improved and is beginning to find its way into more and more Google products – including Gmail and Docs – it’s still making embarrassing mistakes.
Last month, Google was forced to apologise after the AI depicted historical figures such as the founding fathers of the USA or Nazi soldiers as people of colour. “We’re working to improve this kind of depictions immediately,” Google tweeted in late February. “Gemini’s AI image generation does generate a wide range of people. And that’s generally a good thing because people around the world use it. But it’s missing the mark here.”
Such errors could prove unpalatable for a company as protective of its reputation as Apple is. Whether it’s genuinely seeking a deal with Google or using talks as a bargaining chip with the loss-making OpenAI or other potential rivals awaits to be seen.
Worth a read
Barry Collins
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