Apple's scramble to make Siri relevant again has reached the point where they're going back to Google for help. The formal agreement reached this week for Apple to evaluate Google's Gemini AI for powering Siri's upcoming overhaul basically admits they can't build competitive AI themselves.
This isn't Apple's first choice. They've been testing their own AI models alongside OpenAI and Anthropic alternatives, but let's be real - Siri has been a fucking joke for years while Google Assistant and ChatGPT actually work. Apple's current voice assistant barely works compared to competitive AI tools.
Apple's AI search tool ambitions represent a desperate attempt to catch up with ChatGPT and other modern AI systems. Apple's trying to have it both ways - keep your data private while letting Google do all the thinking.
The Deal That Makes Too Much Sense
This partnership is simultaneously brilliant and pathetic: Google already gets tens of billions from Apple for being Safari's default search engine. Yesterday's court decision basically rubber-stamped this arrangement, so why not double down and let Google power the AI search too?
Apple's developing something called "World Knowledge Answers" - their attempt at building a ChatGPT competitor. The fact that they need Google's help to make their own AI search tool work tells you everything about how far behind they really are. This is the company that supposedly invented the smartphone, now outsourcing the one thing that could make their phones smarter.
Privacy Theater Meets Reality
Of course, Apple's trying to spin this as preserving their privacy-first approach. According to reports, Gemini would run on Apple's Private Cloud Compute servers while Apple handles anything involving personal user data with their own models.
That sounds nice until you realize Google's going to see every "Hey Siri, what's the weather like?" query anyway. Apple's privacy promises are starting to look like bullshit security theater - impressive from the audience but completely meaningless when the curtain comes up.
Perplexity Gets Dumped
The funniest part of this whole saga? Apple was apparently considering acquiring Perplexity AI until this Google deal materialized. Now they're not, according to Bloomberg's reporting. Nothing says "we're confident in our AI strategy" like shopping around for acquisitions and then settling for your biggest competitor's help instead.
Perplexity got dumped the moment Google came back with a better offer. Classic corporate move - why buy a startup when you can just partner with the company that already has your balls in a vice with search revenue?
Spring 2026: The Real Test
Apple's betting everything on this revamped Siri launching sometime in spring 2026 - like over a year from now. That's like an eternity in AI development time, where OpenAI ships updates monthly and Google tweaks algorithms daily. By the time Apple's "new" Siri arrives, we'll probably be bitching about GPT-6 being too slow.
The delay from the original iOS 18 timeline to spring 2026 shows Apple finally understands they can't ship half-baked AI features. But it also means they're essentially writing off 2025 as a lost year for voice assistant innovation while their competitors build market share with actually useful AI tools.