(Reuters) – Apple plans to use a 1.2 trillion-parameter artificial intelligence model developed by Alphabet Inc.’s Google to power a revamp of its Siri voice assistant, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday.
After an evaluation, the two companies have entered into a deal that would pay Apple about $1 billion a year for access to Google’s technology, according to the report.
According to a report from Bloomberg, the iPhone maker plans to use Google’s Gemini model as a stopgap measure until its own system is finalized. The model’s 1.2 trillion parameters, a measure of AI model complexity, would dwarf Apple’s current system.
Siri has traditionally been less capable than Alexa and Google Assistant at handling complex, multi-step requests and integrating with third-party apps.
Google had no comment, while Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
The deal is separate from previous discussions about integrating Gemini directly into Siri as a chatbot, the report said. As a result of this partnership, Google AI Search will not be built into Apple’s operating system.
Apple said in March that Siri’s AI improvements would be delayed until 2026, but did not say why.
Rivals are rushing to add AI capabilities to their voice assistants, with Google adding its Gemini model to the assistant last year and Amazon launching an AI-driven overhaul of its Alexa assistant earlier this year.
Bloomberg reported in March that Apple made an executive shakeup to get its AI efforts back on track after months of delays, resulting in Mike Rockwell becoming head of Siri after CEO Tim Cook lost confidence in AI chief John Gianandrea’s ability to execute product development.
(Reporting by Jubee Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Tasim Zahid)
