The iPhone 16’s AI features might rely on Google Gemini

Apple AI could be a rebranded Google Gemini

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We’ve been hearing for a while thatAppleis working hard to bring AI features to theiPhone 16line, but rather than developing these from scratch it seems that Apple might rely at least partially on Google’s AI models.

This is according to a report atBloomberg(via9to5Google), which states that Apple is in “active negotiations” to licenseGoogle Gemini,Google’s latest large language model (LLM) and AIchatbot.

It’s not clear exactly what features Apple would use Google Gemini for, but the report gives the example of text and image generation, which could mean things like AI-generated wallpapers or article summaries.

The same AI everywhere

If Apple does license Gemini then we could find that all the leading smartphone brands have similar AI features, since as well as using its own AI on theGoogle Pixel 8line, Google Gemini is also used for some of the AI features on theSamsung Galaxy S24series.

That has resulted in near-identical AI features being offered on the Pixel 8 and Galaxy S24, with some even sharing the same branding, such asCircle to Search, which is available across both lines.

It seems unlikely that Apple would deliver the same features with the same branding though; rather, we’d expect the company to leverage Google Gemini to power AI tools of its own creation.

And that’s if this partnership goes ahead – Apple has reportedly also been in talks withOpenAI, so it might use a different LLM instead.

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Apple’s own AI

Either way, Apple probably won’t be completely reliant on another company’s AI models, asthe company is reportedly spending over $1 billion a year on AI development; and – as spotted byThurrott– the company recently revealed that it has been working on a set of LLMs called MM1, designed for natural language inference, answering questions based on visuals, and captioning images.

So it sounds like even though Apple hasn’t announced any major AI features yet, it has been quietly working on some – although if it’s also approaching Google and OpenAI, it’s perhaps not as far along as Google is.

We might get a clearer idea at Apple’sWWDC2024 developer event, which is likely to be held in June and will probably include the announcement ofiOS 18. Or, failing that, we should see some of what Apple has been working on alongside the announcement of the iPhone 16 line, which we’re expecting to happen in September.

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James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.

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