Apple teams up with Google for AI in its products

SAN FRANCISCO — After a nearly yearlong delay to its efforts to compete in artificial intelligence, Apple said Monday that it planned to base its AI products on technology developed by Google.

The upcoming versions of Apple Foundation Models — the company’s models for its AI system, Apple Intelligence — will be based on Google’s Gemini AI models and its cloud computing services. Those models will power Apple’s personal assistant, Siri, which is commonly used in iPhones and is expected to be upgraded this year, as well as other AI features.

“After careful evaluation, Apple determined that Google’s A.I. technology provides the most capable foundation for Apple Foundation Models and is excited about the innovative new experiences it will unlock for Apple users,” the companies said in a statement.

The companies did not disclose the exact terms of the multi-year deal, and a spokesperson for Google stated that the partnership was not exclusive.

Shares of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, ended trading Monday at just under $332, making it the fourth publicly traded company to be worth more than $4 trillion.

Apple has increasingly faced questions over its plans for AI. The company has largely stayed on the sidelines as other technology juggernauts have spent tens of billions of dollars developing AI and as startups have pushed the envelope on the technology.

The partnership with Google does not mean the iPhone maker is abandoning its AI work. But it does indicate that Apple is taking a more cautious approach than its peers. It allows Google to conduct the laborious — and expensive — development of core AI models, which require the computing capacity of massive data centers running tens of thousands of servers.

The two companies have a long-standing history of collaboration. Google has provided the default search engine for Apple’s Safari web browser for years.

Apple stumbled in its earlier attempts to adopt AI. In June 2024, the company introduced Apple Intelligence, which included features such as summarizing notifications and enhancing emails and text messages. Those features arrived later than expected and quickly ran into hiccups. Notification summaries misrepresented news reports, for example, and Apple disabled that feature.

In March, Apple postponed the release of an improved Siri. Then, last month, Apple announced the retirement of its head of AI, John Giannandrea. Amar Subramanya, a former executive at Google and Microsoft, succeeded him.

Apple already works with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT with Siri and Apple Intelligence. Consumers can allow Siri to use ChatGPT, for example, to answer more complex questions on behalf of the personal assistant.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.