Apple to pay Google $1 billion a year for access to AI model for Siri

Apple plans to pay Google about $1 billion a year to use the search giant’s AI model for Siri, Bloomberg reported yesterday. Google’s model — at 1.2 trillion parameters — is way bigger than Apple’s current models.

The deal aims to help the iPhone maker improve its lagging AI efforts, powering a new Siri slated to come out this spring.

Apple had previously been considering using OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude, but decided in the end to go with Google as it works toward improving its own internal models.

Google, which makes a much less widely sold phone, the Pixel, has succeeded in bringing consumer AI to smartphone users where Apple has failed.

Google’s antitrust ruling in September helped safeguard the two companies’ partnerships — including the more than $20 billion Google pays Apple each year to be the default search engine on its devices — as long as they aren’t exclusive.

The Takeaway

Apple’s lackluster AI efforts have been a bit embarrassing for a company that is more accustomed to utterly dominating in customer-facing consumer products. Its internal teams have been reliably raided by rivals, and given it’s got a massive cash pile, many were wondering at what point the iPhone maker would throw in the towel on its internal attempts to kickstart an AI business and just do the more logical avenue: namely, buying or renting one. It seems like for the time being, it’s going with the latter option, at least until something better comes along.