• Source:JND

Apple’s long-awaited AI-powered Siri upgrade has been in the works since 2024, but repeated delays have kept the feature out of users’ hands. Now, according to a new Bloomberg report, Apple has struck a temporary deal with Google to use its Gemini large language model (LLM) to enhance Siri’s intelligence and conversational capabilities. The partnership marks a surprising but strategic move by Apple to keep pace in the rapidly evolving AI space while it continues developing its own Apple Intelligence framework.

Apple’s Collaboration with Google

The report reveals that Apple and Google have joined forces to integrate Gemini AI into Siri, Apple’s voice assistant. Under this arrangement, Apple will reportedly pay Google $1 billion per year to access and utilise the Gemini 1.2 trillion-parameter model, one of the most advanced LLMs currently available.

ALSO READ: PS6 First Details Revealed: Sony’s Next-Gen Console Could Redefine Gaming

Apple’s decision stems from its in-house AI model falling behind schedule. While the company has made progress on its proprietary system designed to power Apple Intelligence, its internal models reportedly still lag behind Gemini in terms of reasoning, conversation fluency, and contextual awareness.

By leveraging Google’s technology, Apple aims to deliver the full range of “Apple Intelligence” features that were promised during WWDC 2024, including natural conversational responses, multi-app task automation, and on-device personalisation—all anchored around a much smarter version of Siri.

Why Apple Is Turning to Gemini

This collaboration proves to be a temporary solution so that Apple can keep its promise of AI integration throughout iOS, iPadOS and macOS as the company continues to update its own neural models. NVDR claims the company is developing LLM within its own team that are tailored for on-device processing, privacy and ecosystem integration.

In other words, Gemini gives Apple space to play serious catch-up without falling behind competitors such as OpenAI (ChatGPT) and Samsung (Galaxy AI) that have already baked advanced generative AI capabilities into their ecosystems.

Expected Launch Timeline

According to Bloomberg’s report, Apple is preparing to roll out Gemini AI–powered Siri by spring 2026. This upgraded version of Siri is expected to first arrive as part of an Apple Intelligence public release for iPhone users, possibly debuting with iOS 19.

If the integration proceeds smoothly, users can expect the new Siri to be:

- More conversational and context-aware, capable of understanding follow-up questions.

- Better at multi-step tasks, such as sending messages, creating calendar events, or summarising notifications.

- Integrated with Gemini’s LLM, enhancing Siri’s general knowledge, summarisation, and reasoning skills.

Apple is likely to position the feature as part of its privacy-first approach to AI, ensuring that sensitive data remains on-device while only complex requests are routed through Gemini’s cloud systems.

ALSO READ: Elon Musk Unveils Grok’s New Image-to-Video Feature That Turns Photos Into Short Clips

A Temporary Alliance

Despite this major collaboration, Apple reportedly intends to replace Gemini with its own AI model once development stabilises. The partnership is therefore viewed as a transitional phase, helping Apple bridge the gap between its current Siri implementation and the next-generation assistant it previewed last year.

This isn’t Apple’s first partnership with Google—Google already pays billions annually to remain the default search provider on Safari. The new AI agreement extends that relationship further, though in a very different context: Siri’s intelligence rather than search dominance.

Final Thoughts

Apple’s collaboration with Google is a pragmatic departure for Apple, a company long known to tightly control every product in its software and hardware ecosystem. But the Gemini partnership underscores the pressure tech giants are under to remain competitive in the rapidly escalating AI battle, even as Apple sells itself as a bastion of privacy and homegrown innovation.

If all goes according to plan, we could see a Siri driven by Gemini as early as Spring 2026, giving users and developers alike a much more intelligent and capable voice assistant — and providing Apple the time it needs to perfect its own AI engine for our next era of Apple Intelligence.

Also In News