Google’s $1B Victory: Gemini is the New ‘Planner’ for Siri

Google’s Gemini AI is set to become the “planner” and “summariser” for Apple’s new Siri, thanks to a landmark $1 billion-a-year deal. This victory places Google’s 1.2 trillion parameter model at the core of its rival’s ecosystem.

This “interim solution” is Apple’s answer to its “Glenwood” project, the internal effort to fix Siri’s shortcomings. After a “bake-off” where Gemini beat OpenAI and Anthropic, Apple chose Google’s “ultrapowerful” model to handle complex, multi-step tasks.

The new “Linwood” Siri will be a hybrid. Apple’s 150-billion parameter models will still be used for simple tasks, but the heavy lifting will be offloaded to Google’s AI.

This partnership is a significant win for Google’s role as an “AI supplier.” For Apple, it’s a reluctant admission of its AI lag, with top executives Craig Federighi and Mike Rockwell overseeing the integration.

Privacy is the deal’s lynchpin. The Gemini model will be hosted on Apple’s Private Cloud Compute servers, not Google’s. This “walled-off” architecture ensures Google gets its fee but no access to user data, a critical component for Apple.