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Apple reveals new AI architecture built around Google Gemini models

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Re: Apple reveals new AI architecture built around Google Gemini models

#2
I would love to learn more about what's actually powering Apple Intelligence now. Are they using flagship Gemini models behind their own prompts? Fine-tuning? Pre-training their own models based on Gemini?

Is there a meaningful distinction between the Gemini-powered models and Apple Foundation Models? Does that distinction vary for on-device vs hosted models? Are some models running on Apple's Private Cloud Compute and others running on Google iron?

Edit: they elaborated significantly in a "keynote tech-talk": [0]

According to Apple, there are five models:

On-Device

- AFM Core: Dense architecture; the standard next-gen on-device model

- AFM Core Advanced: Sparse architecture, natively multimodal; enables features like image understanding and expressive voices

Private Cloud Compute

- AFM Cloud: Workhorse server model optimized for latency and cost

- AFM Cloud Image: Image generation and editing

- AFM Cloud Pro: Most capable model, Gemini frontier-level quality, for complex reasoning and agentic tasks; runs on NVIDIA GPUs in Google's cloud under Apple's PCC privacy guarantees

Everything excluding Cloud Pro are custom models running on Apple Silicon, "refined" using Google Gemini. About Cloud Pro, they say "this is our most capable model with quality similar to Gemini frontier models." So I might read between the lines and say this is a wrapped Gemini.

  [0]: https://9to5mac.com/2026/06/08/craig-federighi-details-apples-collaboration-with-google-for-siri-ai-in-ios-27/

Re: Apple reveals new AI architecture built around Google Gemini models

#4

Not launching in EU feels like a smell. It does look interesting enough for me to try it out before disabling Apple Intelligence again.

The smell is that Apple doesn't want to give the same level of access to third-party AI assistants that Siri will get.

For what it's worth, Apple claimed they proposed an "equivalent access" framework with some kind of "trusted agent framework" approach, but that it was shot down by the EU. I suspect it was way more inconvenient for third-party developers than Apple lets on.

Re: Apple reveals new AI architecture built around Google Gemini models

#5

Not launching in EU feels like a smell. It does look interesting enough for me to try it out before disabling Apple Intelligence again.

It’s the DMA regulation that forces Apple to give the same access as they have to other AI chat apps.

Once it leaves the device Apple does not know what those other ai chat apps will do with the gathered data.

> Siri AI is private by design and deeply integrated across Apple’s platforms using on-device processing and Private Cloud Compute, which extends the privacy and security of iPhone into the cloud. However, under EU regulators’ extreme interpretation of the DMA, Apple would have to give any virtual assistant direct access to users’ private data — and the ability to directly control other installed applications — as soon as Siri AI is made available in the EU, without the essential protections necessary to keep users and their data safe.

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/06/due-to-dma-siri-ai-de...

Re: Apple reveals new AI architecture built around Google Gemini models

#6

Not launching in EU feels like a smell. It does look interesting enough for me to try it out before disabling Apple Intelligence again.

They say it's because the EU's DMA would require them to open up device data to third-party assistants, and they'd no longer be able to guarantee user privacy.

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/06/due-to-dma-siri-ai-de...

Re: Apple reveals new AI architecture built around Google Gemini models

#7
It's strange to me that Apple would choose to disadvantage themselves by selecting Google as their provider as opposed to, say, Anthropic or even OpenAI. Doesn't this mean they'll struggle more to differentiate themselves from the assistant on Android phones? Thinking more cynically, couldn't Google, if they wanted, feed Apple an inferior version of Gemini, ensuring they stay ahead?

As the consumer, this just sucks because it means no matter which phone platform you choose, you're getting the same thing underneath, and there's no way to avoid it (besides not using an assistant entirely, which I recognize a lot of people do, myself included).

Re: Apple reveals new AI architecture built around Google Gemini models

#8

I would love to learn more about what's actually powering Apple Intelligence now. Are they using flagship Gemini models behind their own prompts? Fine-tuning? Pre-training their own models based on Gemini? Is there a meaningful distinction between the Gemini-powered models and Apple Foundation Models? Does that distinction vary for on-device vs hosted models? Are some models running on Apple's Private Cloud Compute a…

Gemini (at least public free version) hallucinates way too much. If it's like that, it can go very badly for Apple.

Re: Apple reveals new AI architecture built around Google Gemini models

#9

Not launching in EU feels like a smell. It does look interesting enough for me to try it out before disabling Apple Intelligence again.

It’s the DMA regulation that forces Apple to give the same access as they have to other AI chat apps. Once it leaves the device Apple does not know what those other ai chat apps will do with the gathered data. > Siri AI is private by design and deeply integrated across Apple’s platforms using on-device processing and Private Cloud Compute, which extends the privacy and security of iPhone into the cloud. However, unde…

Because outsourcing to Google is so much trustworthy...
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