The Silent Partner: Google’s Shadow Looms Over Apple’s AI Future

During Apple’s latest product announcement, the company that wasn’t mentioned may have been one of the most important: Google. As Apple continues to struggle with its AI development, its rival’s shadow looms large, particularly with reports that Apple has considered licensing Google’s Gemini AI models to power a future version of Siri.
This potential partnership highlights the complex relationship between the two tech titans. While they are fierce competitors in the smartphone market, they are also collaborators. Google already pays Apple billions of dollars a year to be the default search engine in the Safari browser, a partnership that has been highly lucrative for both.
An AI collaboration would be an extension of this pragmatism. It would allow Apple to quickly close the gap on AI features by leveraging Google’s years of research and development, while Google would gain access to the massive and affluent iPhone user base. It would be a tacit admission from Apple that it cannot go it alone in the AI race.
While the “awe-dropping” event focused on Apple’s own hardware, the backstage discussions about its AI future are a crucial part of the story. The decision of whether to build, buy, or partner on core AI technology will be one of the most consequential choices the company makes in the coming years.