Tech giant Apple is in discussions with Google’s parent company, Alphabet, over the integration of Google’s Gemini artificial intelligence (AI) engine into the iPhone.
In the latest edition of his Power On newsletter, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman citing people familiar with the situation, has said that Apple could license Google’s Gemini engine to power new capabilities and features in iOS 18, its upcoming version of the iPhone operating system.
According to the report’s sources, “the two parties haven’t decided the terms or branding of an AI agreement or finalized how it would be implemented.”
Further, Gurman claims that the Cupertino tech giant has also considered using Microsoft-backed OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, as a potential partner to power some of its upcoming generative AI features in iOS 18.
As per Gurman, iOS 18 will include AI features that run directly on the device instead of the cloud. It will introduce several new AI features based on its own homegrown models. However, to bring additional cloud-based generative AI features such as image generation and a writing assistant to Apple’s smartphone, the company is looking to collaborate with a partner — Google or OpenAI.
“While the talks between Apple and Google remain active, it’s unlikely that any deal would be announced until June, when the iPhone maker plans to hold its annual Worldwide Developers Conference. It’s possible that the companies don’t reach an agreement or Apple ultimately chooses to go with another generative AI provider, like OpenAI. Or Apple could theoretically tap multiple partners, as it does with search in its web browser, the Bloomberg report stated.
Currently, the discussions between Apple and Google are in the early stages. However, if both companies are able to reach a deal, this would further strengthen the two companies’ existing search agreement, according to which Google is the default search engine on Apple’s Safari web browser.
