Apple may integrate Google’s AI into iPhones

Apple is discussing integrating Google’s artificial intelligence model into the iPhone, a potential alliance that would shape the future of the technology.

Shares in Google’s parent, Alphabet, closed up 4.4 per cent at $148.48 while Apple’s stock rose 0.6 per cent to $173.72 on the report by Bloomberg News, as it gave investors hope that the pair could steal a march on Microsoft.

Apple has also spoken to OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT and Microsoft’s key partner, about the possibility of a deal, according to the report.

Any tie-up with the world’s leading smartphone maker would be a boon for Google, given the popularity of Apple’s products.

Google’s Gemini, formerly known as Bard, was launched in December 2023. It is designed to challenge the market leader ChatGPT4. However, it was criticised for being “woke” earlier this year after claims that it was over-compensating for bias and throwing up historically inaccurate results. A prompt asking for pictures of America’s founding fathers threw up images of women and people of colour.

Part of the challenge of hosting large language models (LLM) on a phone is they are very data intensive. However, in January, Apple researchers published a paper called LLM in a flash which appeared to have found a solution to the issue.

Apple is also testing its own large language model, known as Ajax, and according to The Information website is spending millions of dollars a day on artificial intelligence.

Google and Apple declined to comment.

● Nvidia has unveiled what it claims is the “world’s most powerful chip”, the latest version of its highly prized computer processor.

The technology will be built on a new architecture called Blackwell, which the company says will make data processing up to 25 times cheaper and more energy efficient.

Jensen Huang, founder and chief executive, made the announcement at its annual conference in San Jose, California, saying: “Generative AI is the defining technology of our time. Blackwell is the engine to power this new industrial revolution.”

Showing the continued dominance of Nvidia over AI, the chief executives of the biggest tech companies all welcomed the launch, including Amazon, Dell, Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle, Tesla and xAI.

Elon Musk, chief executive and founder of Tesla and xAI, said: “There is currently nothing better than Nvidia hardware for AI.”