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Apple confirms that it wants Gemini supported on iPhones
- Post-keynote at WWDC24, key Apple executives confirmed that the company wants Google’s Gemini on iPhones.
- In fact, the company wants all manners of AI systems powered by large language models.
- For now, only OpenAI is an official partner with Apple, which brings ChatGPT to the Apple Intelligence system.
At WWDC24 today, Apple took the wraps off Apple Intelligence, the company’s new umbrella name for the various generative AI tools that will soon come to iPhones, iPads, and Mac computers. To make at least some of these AI features a reality, Apple is relying on a partnership with OpenAI, creators of ChatGPT.
However, weeks before the WWDC24 keynote, we heard rumors that Apple was also in talks with Google about bringing that company’s Gemini to iPhones. That didn’t appear to pan out, but that doesn’t mean the deal is off the table.
During a post-keynote event at the Steve Jobs Theater at Apple Park, Craig Federighi and John Giannandrea — key Apple executives — sat for a joint interview with Justine Ezarik, better known as iJustine (via 9to5Mac). During this chat, Federighi confirmed that Apple is hopeful that Google’s Gemini will come to iPhones in the future.
Here’s Federighi’s full comment on the topic:
We think, ultimately, people are going to have a preference perhaps for certain models that they want to use, maybe one that’s great for creative writing or one that they prefer for coding. And so we want to enable users, ultimately, to bring a model of their choice. And so we may look forward to doing integrations with different models like Google Gemini in the future. I mean, nothing to announce right now, but that’s our direction.
In other words, it appears that Apple is taking a “the more, the merrier” approach when to comes to supporting AI systems within Apple Intelligence.
Of course, the big piece missing here is Apple’s own large language model (LLM), codenamed “Ajax.” During the keynote today, Apple made no distinction between the tools it created independently and those at least partially developed by OpenAI. It’s possible, therefore, that all the features announced today are not based on Apple’s LLM.
We’ll learn a lot more about Apple Intelligence over the coming months, as it won’t be until the end of the summer before we get to really dive in deep on these features.