It wasn’t the best week for Apple, given the DOJ has accused the company of violating antitrust laws by using the iPhone to stifle competition in the smartphone market and making it “extremely difficult and expensive” for consumers to “venture outside the Apple ecosystem.”
We’ll have to see how that plays out. When it comes to AI, Apple made some moves in March that position it to play an important role in how generative AI will become part of everyday life. That’s notable given the company has been slow to share news about its AI investments (which are rumored to total $1 billion a year). CEO Tim Cook did say on an earnings call in February that he sees a “huge opportunity for Apple with gen AI” and that “we view AI and machine learning as fundamental technologies, and they’re integral to virtually every product that we ship.”
First up are reports from Bloomberg, The New York Times and others that Apple is partnering with Google to bring the search giant’s Gemini AI model to the iPhone, as noted by CNET’s Lisa Eadicicco. While that would certainly be a big win for Google — Gemini would then run on its own mobile operating system, Android, as well as on Apple’s iOS — the bigger takeaway is how important gen AI is becoming. iOS, which powers millions and millions of iPhones, could help drive gen AI into the mainstream.
“A partnership like this could have huge implications about the role of generative AI in smartphones, suggesting it’s becoming a must-have for new phones rather than just a niche feature found on select models,” Eadicicco said.
Right now, reports of a Google-Apple partnership on Gemini are just that (although Google already pays Apple to include its search engine on the iPhone and a deal might be an extension of their search agreement.) The speculation is that Apple has been talking to others about bringing their chatbots to the iPhone, including OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT. The Wall Street Journal, citing sources, said Apple reportedly held…
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