Apple, in a significant move to catch up in the burgeoning artificial intelligence (AI) race, has announced a partnership with Google to enhance its virtual assistant Siri and integrate other AI features into the iPhone. This collaboration, disclosed in a joint statement, will leverage Google’s Gemini technology to power a new suite of AI functionalities dubbed “Apple Intelligence” across Apple's product ecosystem, including the iPhone.

While Google and other tech giants have taken an early lead in AI development, Apple has been working on its own set of AI features, which were initially slated for a major software upgrade in 2024. However, many of these features, including a promised overhaul of Siri to make it more conversational and versatile, remain under development. This delay led Apple to acknowledge last year that the Siri upgrade would not be ready until 2026. Google even subtly highlighted the iPhone's AI deficiencies in its Pixel phone advertisements.

For Google, this partnership represents a major validation of its AI capabilities. The company has been steadily rolling out features built on its Gemini technology across its search engine and Gmail, intensifying its competition with OpenAI's ChatGPT, which also has a deal with Apple to be an option on the iPhone. Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives lauded the Apple deal as a