New Siri: Apple Almost Chose a Different Partner Before Google Gemini

In a recent interview with the tech podcast TBPN, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman revealed that Apple was initially "going to rebuild Siri around Claude," the large language model and chatbot developed by the company Anthropic. In the end, though, Apple announced that it had decided to use Google's Gemini platform instead.

iOS 18 Siri Personal Context
According to Gurman, Apple went with Google due at least in part to money.

"Anthropic was holding them over a barrel," said Gurman, in a podcast clip shared by TBPN. "They wanted a ton of money from them, several billion dollars a year, and at a price that doubled on an annual basis for the next three years."

Nevertheless, Gurman said Apple currently "runs on Anthropic" internally.

"Anthropic is powering a lot of the stuff Apple's doing internally in terms of product development and a lot of their internal tools," he explained. "They have custom versions of Claude running on their own servers internally, too."

Apple was "not going to use Google" for the revamped Siri until "a few months ago," he said.

Apple announced that it plans to release a more personalized version of Siri powered by Google Gemini this year. It is expected to be part of iOS 26.4, which should enter beta testing in February and be released to the general public in March or April. The new-and-improved Siri likely requires an iPhone 15 Pro or newer.

Back in June 2024, Apple said the revamped Siri will have understanding of personal context, on-screen awareness, deeper in-app controls, and more. At the time, Apple showed an iPhone user asking Siri about their mother's flight and lunch reservation plans based on info retrieved from the Mail and Messages apps.

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Top Rated Comments

4 weeks ago
I guess since AI models are pretty much a commodity now a company doesn’t have to pay much for it. Apple/Google is perfect example. Anthropic wanted much more money then Google and Apple is like why should we pay more for electricity? Must have been a wake up call for Anthropic “I guess our AI product isnt so special” lol
Score: 22 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Kirkster Avatar
4 weeks ago
Yea, would rather have Claude behind the scenes that google. Just going to leave that stuff turned off. Or disable Siri altogether.
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
marinersaptcomplex Avatar
4 weeks ago
Claude is better than all right now for complex tasks, genuine work/code, and being what is starting to feel like an “AI coworker.”

But I still don’t think it’s the best consumer LLM. Gemini’s better search capabilities and better google integrations make more sense for an on-device chatbot aimed at the masses to answer quick queries, give general guidance on daily tasks (recipes, shopping, etc.) than Claude.
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Genelec8341 Avatar
4 weeks ago
Since 50% of Gemini training data comes from YT, I believe Apple could have made a better choice.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
fatTribble Avatar
4 weeks ago
I was so rooting for HAL 9000 🤓
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
FatLouie Avatar
4 weeks ago
Well, I declare. Someone tried to out-greed Apple. 😂

I know a similar story about a company that Apple wanted to release their first smartphone with. That company wanted too much control and whatever else. Apple said no and went with ATT. Heads rolled.

One or more individuals at Antrophic should have lost their jobs.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)