Siri Now Uses Gemini

Apple has shifted the next version of Siri onto Google Gemini, turning a long-promised in-house overhaul into a partnership Apple and Google now describe publicly. (macrumors.com) Google Cloud chief Thomas Kurian said on April 22 that Apple is using Gemini technology for “future Apple Intelligence features including a more personalized Siri” due later in 2026. Apple had already said in January that Google would provide the foundation for the personalized Siri system. (macrumors.com, macrumors.com) Apple chief executive Tim Cook said on Apple’s January 29 earnings call that Google offered “the most capable foundation” for Apple Foundation Models, while adding that Apple would keep running parts of the system on-device and through its Private Cloud Compute servers. Cook also said the personalized Siri should be understood as “a collaboration with Google,” not a replacement for Apple’s own AI work. (macrumors.com) That is a sharp change for a company that spent years selling vertical integration — Apple hardware, Apple software, Apple silicon — as the reason its products worked differently from rivals. The Gemini deal is non-exclusive, according to TechCrunch, and followed Apple’s testing of models from OpenAI and Anthropic before choosing Google. (techcrunch.com) The immediate backdrop is Siri’s delay. Apple first pushed back the smarter Siri features in March 2025 and has since narrowed the public timeline to sometime in 2026, with Google and Apple both now pointing to a launch later this year. (macrumors.com) The staffing picture moved in the same direction. Bloomberg reported on July 7, 2025 that Ruoming Pang, the executive running Apple’s foundation-models team, left for Meta; on September 2, 2025 that robotics AI researcher Jian Zhang left for Meta; and on October 15, 2025 that Ke Yang, who had just been appointed to lead Apple’s AI web-search effort tied to Siri, was also leaving for Meta. (bloomberg.com, bloomberg.com, bloomberg.com) Bloomberg then reported on January 30, 2026 that Apple lost at least four more AI researchers in recent weeks, along with a top Siri executive, to Meta and Google DeepMind. That report named Yinfei Yang, Haoxuan You, Bailin Wang and Zirui Wang among the departures. (bloomberg.com) Apple and Google have framed the arrangement as preserving Apple’s privacy model rather than handing Siri over wholesale to Google’s cloud. Apple said in January that Apple Intelligence would continue to run on Apple devices and in Private Cloud Compute, while Google called itself Apple’s “preferred cloud provider” for the next generation of Apple Foundation Models. (macrumors.com, macrumors.com) What Apple has not disclosed is the commercial structure. TechCrunch cited earlier reporting that Apple could be paying about $1 billion a year for access to Google’s AI technology, but Apple and Google have not confirmed pricing. (techcrunch.com) The next public checkpoint is June 8, when Apple is scheduled to open its Worldwide Developers Conference and is expected to show more of the Siri system it now says will arrive in 2026. By then, the question will be less whether Siri uses Gemini than how much of Apple’s assistant still feels like Apple. (macrumors.com)