How Apple's late AI adoption could transform from a weakness to a strength

"Apple will turn its Siri assistant into a full-fledged chatbot by next year. The company is working on a personal AI device to compete with the one OpenAI is building with Jony Ive. And Apple is putting control over its AI strategy into new hands within the company. So say a flurry of new reports, all advancing the larger story that Apple is doing what it can to get itself back in the AI race."

"And it's doing it in a way that may allow it, in classic Apple fashion, to lead from behind. That is, it may hang back and benefit from the hard lessons learned by others marketing a new technology, then arrive fashionably late with a more polished product. Apple and Google announced on January 12 that the (notoriously slow) Siri assistant will be powered, at least in part, by Gemini models developed by Google's DeepMind division."

"Apple has in the past voiced concern about the privacy implications of sending user data to AI models outside its own infrastructure. Apple has said it plans to run its AI models either within a secure Apple cloud, or, even better, on chips inside Apple devices. But that may be changing. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports that Apple is now in talks with Google to run the Gemini models powering Siri and Apple Intelligence features within the Google Cloud."

Apple plans to turn Siri into a full-fledged chatbot by next year and is developing a personal AI device to compete with offerings from other companies. Control of Apple’s AI strategy is shifting internally. Apple intends to power Siri and Apple Intelligence features, at least in part, with Google DeepMind’s Gemini models and is discussing running those models in Google Cloud. Apple historically prioritized running AI in a secure Apple cloud or on-device chips for privacy. The new Siri is expected with iOS 26.4 in March or April and will access some on-device personal data and improved internet-aware features.

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