This article first appeared on GuruFocus.
Apple (AAPL, Financials) is in early discussions with Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL, Financials) to use its Gemini artificial intelligence model in a redesigned version of Siri, Bloomberg reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Alphabet’s shares gained 3.7% and Apple rose 1.6% in afternoon trading following the report.
Apple has approached Google to explore building a custom AI model that could power Siri beginning next year, according to Bloomberg. The iPhone maker has not yet decided whether to proceed with an external partner or continue developing its in-house models.
The potential move comes after delays to Apple’s promised Siri overhaul, which was intended to allow deeper contextual understanding and full voice-based control of devices. The upgrade, originally expected last spring, was pushed back by a year because of engineering challenges.
Siri has historically lagged behind Alexa and Google Assistant in handling multi-step requests and integrating with third-party apps. Apple has also weighed potential partnerships with Anthropic and OpenAI earlier this year, Bloomberg reported, as it evaluates whether Claude or ChatGPT could be used to enhance its voice assistant.
