Apple in discussions to host Siri on Google Cloud

Apple and Google are reportedly discussing using Google's AI and cloud infrastructure to support the next version of Siri, Apple's digital assistant. As reported by The Information, this builds on the two companies' existing agreement in which Apple uses Google's Gemini models for the assistant. Apple already uses Google Cloud for online storage purposes, and for the training of Apple's AI models. An agreement, however, to support Siri, will deviate from the company's previous efforts to be self-sufficient in cloud computing. In the past, Apple has said it sends AI queries to its "Private Cloud Compute," which runs on Apple servers with custom chips. Last year, the company announced it would be stepping up capex to invest in the platform. Despite this aim, according to The Information, Apple's efforts to reduce reliance on external cloud providers have been "stymied" with executives resisting making large investments in its own infrastructure. Sources told The Information this has led to the "ongoing departures " of cloud experts in the company. According to former employees, only around 10 percent of the Private Cloud Compute capacity is in use on average, and some servers are still waiting to be installed. However, should the new version of Siri prove to be a success, the company could see compute requirements dramatically increase. Additionally, the sources said that Apple's custom chips are not designed with AI in mind, and aren't well-equipped to handle large models such as Google's Gemini. Apple's relationship with cloud providers spans several years. With the launch of ChatGPT 3.5 in 2022, it became apparent that cloud-based models could offer a seismic shift, and, citing internal sources, Apple was in the process of decommissioning older Nvidia chips in its data centers that were starting to fail. Thus, the company turned to cloud providers - starting with AWS, and later Google Cloud.