Apple picks Gemini to power Siri

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Branding, Lock‑In, and “Whose Siri Is It?”

  • Big shift: Apple is openly saying Gemini powers Siri, unlike past white‑label data providers.
  • Debate whether the Gemini name will appear in UI; many expect Apple to hide it to avoid “iPhone with Gemini vs Android with Gemini.”
  • Some argue explicit “powered by Google/Gemini” helps offload blame for bad answers; others think users will still blame Apple.

Siri’s Reputation and What Gemini Can Fix

  • Many say they barely use Siri or only for timers, reminders, HomeKit, car use, or TV search; it’s widely seen as “useless” or worse than years ago.
  • Consensus that Siri’s real problems are reliability, system integration, and UI (no history, vanishing answers, random behavior), not just language understanding.
  • Some think LLMs will dramatically improve interpretation and conversational ability; others say without better error‑handling and OS hooks, Gemini won’t fix core pain points.

On‑Device vs Cloud and Private Cloud Compute

  • Apple says the custom Gemini‑based models will run on‑device and in Apple’s Private Cloud Compute; Google stresses the model will run on Apple infra.
  • Supporters see this as preserving privacy and enabling an abstraction layer to swap models later.
  • Skeptics call PCC “privacy theater,” noting closed source, legal compulsion risks, and Apple’s own ad targeting and telemetry.

Apple’s AI Capability and Strategy

  • Strong split:
    • One camp: this is smart pragmatism. Training frontier models is capex‑heavy, quickly obsoleted, and models are trending toward commodities; Apple should rent now and build later if/when the field stabilizes.
    • Other camp: this is a humiliating capitulation; Apple had a decade head start with Siri and vast cash/TSMC access yet failed to produce a competitive model. Culture (secrecy, bureaucracy), talent flight, and mismanaged AI orgs are blamed.

Competition, Antitrust, and Dependence on Google

  • Concern that both dominant mobile OS vendors relying on Google AI concentrates power and undermines competition for assistants and models.
  • Some see consistency with the existing default‑search deal: Google pays Apple tens of billions, and this likely rides the same relationship.
  • Others argue antitrust law allows dominant firms to choose suppliers; no clear violation is identified, but it reinforces DOJ narratives about Apple’s gatekeeping.

Model Economics and Long‑Term Outlook

  • Many expect Google to eat the massive training costs while Apple becomes the “last mile” delivery layer to billions of devices.
  • View that Apple can wait for prices to fall and open models to catch up, then switch to its own or an open alternative once “good enough” is cheap and small.
  • Some predict this locks Apple into Google more than it appears; swapping out a deeply tuned Gemini‑based Siri later may be risky if user quality would drop.