Apple is reportedly considering using AI technology from either Anthropic or OpenAI to power Siri. This has sidelined Apple’s own in-house LLMs, and it could also be a pretty big move for Apple to help turn around their AI effort.
There has been talk about Apple actually acquiring Anthropic, as it’s a popular AI company, that isn’t insanely valued like OpenAI. Anthropic was last valued at around $61.5 billion, while OpenAI was last valued at $300 billion. So quite the difference there.
Gurman also reports that this has taken a toll on Apple’s AI team, with Tom Gunter, one of Apple’s top AI engineers, leaving last week. Additionally, the team behind MLX threatened to quit.
Apparently, Apple has not made a final decision just yet about abandoning its own models and is also running a project called LLM Siri at the same time. This project would power next year’s Siri overhaul with in-house AI. Apple execs do believe that using third-party models would be key to an AI turnaround for the company.
It has also been hard for Apple to get talent for its AI division, because of the gigantic salaries that Meta, OpenAI and many other companies are offering right now. Of course, Apple could afford it, but the ROI might not be there, or up to Apple’s terms. Some of these salaries are about double what Apple is paying its AI model developers.
Currently, Apple is severely behind, when it comes to AI. In fact, at WWDC this year, Apple barely even talked about AI, compared to last year’s event. And at this point, it’s going to take Apple opening up their checkbook, to compete with Google, Meta and OpenAI. Which, Apple can of course do. Apple does have nearly $50 billion cash on hand right now.
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