Apple Considered Anthropic and OpenAI Before Partnering With Google on AI

Before selecting Google to help power the next generation of its voice assistant, Siri, Apple reportedly also had discussions with Anthropic and OpenAI.

Apple declined to partner with Anthropic after that company sought “several billion dollars annually over multiple years,” Seeking Alpha reported Monday (Jan. 26), citing a paywalled article by Bloomberg.

OpenAI decided against a deal with Apple because the two companies are increasingly becoming competitors, according to the report.

Apple is believed to be paying Google “billions of dollars over the life of the deal” in the partnership the iPhone maker eventually made for the next generation of Siri, per the report.

Apple and Google announced Jan. 12 that they had formed a partnership and that the next iteration of Apple’s Foundation Models will be based on Google’s Gemini and cloud tech.

These models will help power new features for Siri and other tools that use Apple Intelligence, the company’s AI system.

“After careful evaluation, Apple determined that Google’s AI technology provides the most capable foundation for Apple Foundation Models and is excited about the innovative new experiences it will unlock for Apple users,” the two tech giants said when announcing the partnership. “Apple Intelligence will continue to run on Apple devices and Private Cloud Compute, while maintaining Apple’s industry-leading privacy standards.”

It was reported Jan. 21 that Apple plans to increase the capabilities of Siri, turning the digital assistant into an AI chatbot later this year. The report added the Google will provide the custom AI model powering the AI chatbot, while Apple will design the user interface.

In June, it was reported that Apple was considering using AI models from Anthropic or OpenAI, rather than its own in-house models, to power a new version of Siri. That report said the company had talked with both of the AI firms and asked them to train versions of their models that it could test on its cloud infrastructure.

In September, there were reports that Apple and OpenAI were competing with each other in different parts of the business. One report said that Apple was developing an AI search tool that would challenge OpenAI. Another report said that OpenAI plans to work with at least two manufacturers that supply Apple when it begins production of its own devices.