Sorry, Siri: Apple may be eyeing Google Gemini for future iPhones
- Reference: 1710770409
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/03/18/apple_google_gemini_iphone_reports/
- Source link:
Citing unnamed sources with knowledge of the private discussions between Cupertino and Mountain View, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman [1]reported that the terms haven't been finalized, nor have implementation details.
Neither Apple nor Google responded to questions for this story.
[2]
What the potential AI partnership means for the future of Apple's own AI efforts is unclear at this stage but it doesn't look good.
[3]
[4]
In August it emerged that Apple had [5]invested billions in developing its own generative AI. Apple had even reportedly developed its own ChatGPT-like LLM framework, dubbed "Ajax", and recent reports point toward Apple working on [6]generative AI that would run on the iPhone , not from the cloud.
Given this latest development with Google, it would seem Apple's on-device AI efforts and LLM development aren't up to snuff, which Gurman said his anonymous sources confirmed. According to that report, Apple's own generative AI "remains inferior" to Bard-successor Gemini and products from other AI developers.
[7]
Whether Gemini could run on Apple hardware is also questionable. As we [8]reported earlier this month, Nano, the smallest Gemini-series AI that's designed to run onboard mobile devices, isn't able to run on the standard Google Pixel 8 smartphone, but it does run on the Pixel 8 Pro.
[9]Apple becomes the latest company to ban ChatGPT for internal use
[10]Apple slams Android as a 'massive tracking device' in internal slides revealed in Google antitrust battle
[11]Google to reboot Gemini image gen in a few weeks after that anti-White race row
[12]OpenAI in talks with Jony Apple Ive and Softbank over iPhone-but-for-AI monster
While both Pixel 8 devices use the same Google Tensor G3 processors, the crucial difference between the two is the amount of RAM: The standard Pixel 8 has just 8GB, while the Pro comes with 12GB.
The iPhone 15 series, meanwhile, has even less RAM, with the base model only containing [13]6GB , and the Pro just [14]8GB – the same as the base model Pixel 8 that doesn't support Gemini Nano. It's not clear what the memory capacity of this year's expected iPhone 16 will be, though [15]rumors point to both the Pro and standard editions containing the same 8GB.
Whether another high-profile partnership between Apple and Google would raise the hackles of regulators is also a potential complication from the deal. As documents in the US Department of Justice's antitrust trial targeting Google were released last year, it emerged that Google pays Apple at least $18 billion a year to [16]maintain its position as the default search engine on iDevices.
Google and Apple's search deal could be in danger if Google fails to convince the DoJ that it's not an online search monopolist, and another bid to extend the reach of its data-chugging software might not go over well with officials if Apple and Google ink this deal. ®
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[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-03-18/apple-in-talks-to-license-google-gemini-for-iphone-ios-18-generative-ai-tools
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZfhzJ@kNA7D89yBABjv0xAAAAMc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZfhzJ@kNA7D89yBABjv0xAAAAMc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZfhzJ@kNA7D89yBABjv0xAAAAMc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2023/08/07/tv_and_film_extras_are/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/25/apple_generative_ai/
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZfhzJ@kNA7D89yBABjv0xAAAAMc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/08/google_gemini_nano_pixel_8/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/19/apple_chatgpt/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/03/google_trial_apple/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/27/google_gemini_return/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/28/openai_ive_apple_ai/
[13] https://www.gsmarena.com/apple_iphone_15-12559.php
[14] https://www.gsmarena.com/apple_iphone_15_pro-12557.php
[15] https://www.macrumors.com/roundup/iphone-16/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/10/google_pays_apple_18_20_claims_bernstein/
[17] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Memory bandwidth should not keep a model from running, though it would likely run slower.
A rotten Apple
It seems as if the company had retained most of its negative practices, but has slowly abandoned its former privileged position of being an innovator and a trend-setter. Turning to Google on the AI front would be especially embarrassing when you consider the models that are openly available today. You'd think Apple would at least build something on them.
Re: A rotten Apple
No innovation?!
You just need to be patient. Wait and see, when Apple announces the invention of generative AI. It will be a great breakthrough, that will change human x machine interaction in ways you could never think possible...
Re: A rotten Apple
Apple have always bought in and re-worked existing tech. They are know for it from when Apple acquired their touch screen tech by buying Fingerworks and before that.
So nothing is changing here.
Generative AI
Could someone remind me what generative AI is again? from looking it online, all I can find (from Google, AWS, etc) is
"Generative artificial intelligence (generative AI) is a type of AI that can create new content and ideas, including conversations, stories, images, videos, and music." (AWS definition).
Why would I want this on a phone - which is basically a mobile media consumption device?
Re: Generative AI
To introduce some variation in people.
Why have everybody over-enthusiastically gush at the same banal crap when each device owner could have entirely unique banal crap.
Ever hear a band swap a city name in the lyrics to the city they are playing in? Recognizing that their favourite band knows where they are tonight, whips the crowd into an adoring frenzy.
Likewise your favourite TicTok, uh, star, generating content directly for you. It's all you diapers and feeding tubes in this brave new world.
Re: Generative AI
> brave new world.
Fahrenheit 451 perhaps contains a clearer depiction of what you describe, not to detract from your point.
Re: Generative AI
Well I saw an advert the other day for a phone that could cut your face out of one image and drop it into another. (Presumably that's "AI" - i.e. ML - behind the scenes. It might even have been the Pixel Pro.)
You probably can't use that, but a certain princess most definitely could (and would)...
Re: Generative AI
because people are lazy. In the not too distant future someone is going to hook this up automatically to text messages and emails then no one will be having proper conversations. People are already using it to write work and letters. This is just the next logical step.
Enter Darwin A.I.
So Apple earlier this year quietly acquired a Canadian A.I. startup named Darwin A.I. Since Apple usually forces the shutdown of the website of the company they have bought and in the case of Darwin A.I. they have also done so I did some sleuthing on the World Wide Wibble (hence the icon ). It seems Darwin A.I.’s focus was two fold. ( 1 ) They have an A.I. finely tuned for CV in the production and cataloging of chip parts and manufacturing. Ok…could come in handy for Apple manufacturing I suppose. But then, more interestingly, there’s ( 2 ) what the former CEO of Darwin A.I. had to say about their reason for being …
Darwin CEO Sheldon Fernandez.
“Our technology uses ‘AI to build AI’, to make neural networks both smaller and explainable. This can be especially powerful when you want to put deep learning on edge-based devices such as phones, TV, watches, and cars.”
Other sites I could find that provided pre-Apple acquisition information on Darwin A.I. stated that co-founder Alexander Wong had this to say…
“Most of today’s AI applications (such as Apple’s Siri or Amazon’s Alexa) require massive computing resources in huge data centres. That limits the growth of AI because it can be impractical and costly to deploy new solutions. There are also privacy concerns, in medical AI applications for example, when sending data off-site.
The company’s GenSynth platform helps developers “generate compact yet powerful AI that sits completely on board, so that data can be processed in real-time on a device,” Wong says.”
Wong is now director of Apple’s A.I. department. Perhaps Darwin A.I.s GenSynth neural net training and size reduction tech will be used, in part, to shrink Google’s Bard down to reside comfortably inside Apple’s RAM constrained products ( though with the most capable NPU of any consumer device on the planet )
Re: Siri and Data Centres?
Isn't part of Siri's weakness that it only runs on the device and not in the cloud?
I thought that was part of Apple trying to keep what happens on the phone, on the phone?
Ok Fruity....
Adding some shite from Google to the iPhone?
Hell no. Siri is bad enough. At least I can nuke most of it. IF Google get their claws into the iPhone then it will like that Always On camera that was reported on earlier. Google will be getting real time telemetry from a billion phones. Hell No, a million times no.
I might just be forced to get one of those google spyware free android devices.
Re: Ok Fruity....
Presumably Apple will ensure that doesn't happen. Apple have many vices, but they understand user privacy is one of their selling points and guard that jealously. If Gemini is on your iPhone, it will be on Apple's terms and under Apple's supervision.
Apparently this Gemeni thing works on Galaxy S24 phones which have 8GB RAM. Some people are guessing that the difference between the two Pixel phones might be memory bandwidth.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/03/google-says-the-ai-focused-pixel-8-cant-run-its-latest-smartphone-ai-models/