THE SHIFT

JOHN-ANTHONY DISOTTO thinks that after 2024's fanfare and a lot of public dithering, It might be too late to save Apple Intelligence

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AS APPLE DRAWS closer to a $1 billion-per-year deal with Google to power Siri with Gemini, it’s got me feeling nostalgic for the initial Apple Intelligence announcement at WWDC 2024 and the promise of Apple’s take on artificial intelligence (AI).

Nearly 18 months later, we all know about Apple’s AI situation; it’s been so publicly documented, delayed, and ineffective that Apple Intelligence is up there with the Apple Newton as one of the company’s worst ever products.

It’s been a long-standing rumor from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman that Apple was looking to partner with Google to fix its AI woes and meet the delivery window for the delayed upgrade to Siri by March/April 2026. Now, it’s all but confirmed with Gurman’s latest report, revealing the $1 billion a year deal will allow Apple to use Google’s 1.2 trillion parameter artificial intelligence model to “help run its long-promised overhaul of the Siri voice assistant, according to people with knowledge of the matter.”