IPhones are likely to get some zeitgeisty new capabilities this year, powered by Google’s Gemini AI models, which could bring Apple’s smartphones up to par with the latest Androids as far as chatbots and generative editing are concerned. But what exactly would that look like? And why hasn’t Apple developed an AI of its own?

Reports this week cite Apple insiders as saying the company has been exploring deals with a number of companies to bring large language models and other generative tech to iPhone, and that it will likely settle on Google as the provider.

The iPhone is full of AI, but not the kind that consumers and investors are asking about.Credit: AP

The web giant is of course already a major partner of Apple’s, supplying some of the most popular software on the App Store and providing Google Search as the default method for iPhones. That deal — in which Apple gets paid $28 billion to use a far better search engine than it could build itself, and Google gets exposure to millions of eyeballs for serving ads — is a win-win, and the AI deal likely will be too.

Google’s Gemini app lets you type or talk to an AI agent about anything. You can ask for help drafting a note, get a summary of complex topics, or even use your camera to show it something and ask about it. On Android you can also replace Google Assistant with Gemini, so in theory you get slightly more human human-like responses when you say “Hey Google”.

Google says Gemini can help with everything from creating learning plans to writing text messages.

Google’s AI models are seen in other parts of its own Pixel phones too, such as a voice agent that can screen and translate calls for you, or a photo editor that can move or remove objects and fill in the blanks. Samsung phones have some similar features.

A potential iPhone adaptation could mean Siri is imbued with new Gemini capabilities, or could expand the chatbot’s powers beyond the iOS Google app. There could be a gesture or Control Centre button that lets you ask Gemini about whatever you’re seeing on your iPhone screen at a particular moment, or a new icon on the keyboard that generates and edits text for you in Notes or Pages. Safari, like Chrome, could get the ability to summarise any web page into a dot points of text.

The benefit to Google of such a deal is clear: it wants as many people as possible using its AI features, because of the tech’s insatiable appetite for user data. Getting access to the queries and behaviours of millions of iPhone users, which rivals like Microsoft will largely not have, would be worth whatever it has to pay Apple for the privilege. For its part, Apple gets a feature the market is demanding, but which it can’t (or doesn’t want to) make for itself.