Apple Looks For A Way Back
Apple (AAPL) is in active negotiations to support iPhones with Google's (GOOGL) generative artificial intelligence engine and this is big news out of California.
The possible deal signals the sad truth that Apple's AI technology remains inferior to Google's suite of generative AI tools.
The move by Apple is a sign that management is in crisis mode in Cupertino, California.
Management has finally figured out that there is a real threat of getting left behind and steps are being taken to ameliorate this.
To be honest, I have not heard much about Apple’s AI exploits and I boil it down to Apple not having much of anything to show for.
Apple halted its long-rumored “Project Titan” work on developing an electric car.
The company reportedly announced the news internally and said many people in the 2,000-person team behind the car will shift to generative AI efforts instead.
Clearly, there is a strategic shift going on at Apple and management came to a conclusion the only way forward is to collaborate with other tech behemoths.
They are redeploying a 2,000-person team to go into some AI venture and onboarding Google’s AI software will be the next project for this team to work on.
It’s quite disappointing that Apple hasn’t been able to achieve any in-house headway into one of the biggest sub-sectors in technology today.
Apple needs to double down and hire another 2,000-person team of AI specialists to get to the root of the problem.
After the iPhone, many want to know what is next for Apple and CEO Time Cook has had time but an incomplete road map.
The two companies are in active negotiations to let Apple license Gemini, Google's set of generative AI models, to power some new features coming to the iPhone software this year.
Apple also recently held talks with OpenAI revealing their desperation to hang on to any olive branch extended to their future business.
There is even a possibility that an agreement between the two mega-tech giants will not materialize, and/or Apple will seek multiple partners to build a chatbot.
A deal would give Gemini a key edge with billions of potential users.
However, the report said, "the two parties haven't decided the terms or branding of an AI agreement or finalized how it would be implemented."
Google must feel vindicated after their AI tools went awry.
Even with a lot of rust around the edges, Google’s set of AI tools are still highly valued and sought after.
This is a major victory for Google and boosts the profile of their AI team and in-house expertise.
The AI wars will leave many other tech companies behind and Apple is ensuring itself it gets a seat at the table as the smartphone business gradually declines.
Apple has been lean any meaningful AI announcement and although this doesn’t put them back into the driving seat, it really is a breath of fresh air to see Tim Cook finally wake up and realize the company he shepherds is lost.
The iPhone is not the future and this is a painful way of telling shareholders that they have been asleep at the wheel.
In the short term, Google and Apple would be worth a trade.
