Before entering into a partnership with Google on the next generation of the Siri voice assistant, Apple also held extensive talks with other players in the artificial intelligence market. According to information from Bloomberg and other sources, the California-based company held negotiations with both Anthropic and OpenAI. Ultimately, however, neither of those deals came to fruition.
The main sticking point in the case of Anthropic, the creator of the popular Claude AI models, was the price. The company demanded "several billion dollars a year for several years" from Apple in exchange for helping operate Siri and parts of the Apple Intelligence system. Apple ultimately deemed these terms unfavorable and withdrew from negotiations with Anthropic.
OpenAI made its own decision
The situation with OpenAI was different. According to available information, it was not Apple that rejected the creator of ChatGPT, but the other way around. OpenAI made a "conscious decision" not to participate in a deal with Apple because the two companies are increasingly becoming competitors in the field of artificial intelligence.
This competition is evident in several areas. For example, Apple is developing its own AI-powered search tool that could compete with OpenAI's products. On the other hand, OpenAI plans to work with at least two suppliers that supply Apple when it begins manufacturing its own wearable devices.
Google won and Siri will change
Ultimately, Apple announced a partnership with Google on January 12. The new generation of Apple Foundation Models will be built on Google Gemini technology and the tech giant's cloud infrastructure. These models will power new features for Siri and other tools using Apple Intelligence.
According to estimates, Apple is paying Google "billions of dollars over the course of the deal," which is a multi-year partnership. When announcing the partnership, the two companies said: "After careful evaluation, Apple determined that Google's AI technology provides the most capable foundation for Apple Foundation Models and is excited about the innovative new experiences it will unlock for Apple users."
Apple's plans for Siri are ambitious. According to reports from January, the company wants to enhance the digital assistant's capabilities later this year and turn it into a full-fledged AI chatbot. Google will provide its own AI model to power the chatbot, while Apple will design the user interface. Apple Intelligence will continue to run on Apple devices and Private Cloud Compute while maintaining the privacy standards for which Apple is known.
