Apple In Talks With Google To Use Gemini AI Tools In IPhone OS: Report

(RTTNews) - Apple, Inc. (AAPL) is reportedly in active talks with Alphabet Inc.'s (GOOG) Google to use its Gemini Artificial Intelligence tools to power iPhones in a bid to out-shine its smartphone competitors, according to a Bloomberg report on Monday. It is competing with Google's own Pixel 8 Pro and Samsung's Galaxy S24 smartphones, which already use Gemini.

Apple is looking to strike a deal to obtain license to integrate the Gemini AI engine into the iPhone OS. As for the timeframe, Apple could reportedly launch the AI integrated iOS 18 at the Apple Worldwide Developer's Conference in June.

Since January this year, Apple has been involved in acquiring, hiring staff and updating hardware to design an iPhone with generative AI capabilities. The iPhone maker has reportedly been developing a large language model of its own, dubbed AppleGPT, which could compete with OpenAI's ChatGPT.

The California-based company has acquired 21 AI startups since 2017. However, Apple's own efforts to develop its own AI capabilities are progressing more slowly than expected.

Google launched Gemini, its suite of generative AI tools, in February. Generative AI technologies help create text, images, video and computer programming code on their own.

However, Gemini has been the subject of controversy after criticism over generating images of white historical figures like the US Founding Fathers, the Pope and Nazi-era German soldiers with inaccurate racial and ethnic depictions as people of color such as black, Native American, or Asian.

Apple has also held talks with OpenAI and Anthropic to use their AI tools for the latest iPhone operating software as an alternative to Google's AI tools. Apple may also look to use tools from multiple AI partners.

Though Apple and Google are strong competitors in the smartphone market, they are in an ongoing multibillion dollar deal to maintain Google as the default search engine on Apple devices. This deal has already come under significant scrutiny in the past year.