How Google’s 1.2T Model Won the $1B ‘Bake-Off’ for Siri

Google’s 1.2 trillion parameter Gemini AI has won a high-stakes “bake-off,” securing a $1 billion-a-year deal to power Apple’s new Siri. The “ultrapowerful” model beat offerings from OpenAI and Anthropic to become the “behind-the-scenes” engine for the “Linwood” assistant.

This “interim solution” is part of Apple’s “Glenwood” project to fix its lagging AI. Google’s model will handle all complex “summariser” and “planner” functions, a massive leap from Apple’s 150-billion parameter models.

The new Siri will be a hybrid. Apple’s tech will manage simple requests, while Google’s AI will tackle the heavy lifting. This is a reluctant admission of Apple’s AI lag.

Top executives Craig Federighi and Mike Rockwell are overseeing the project, pushing their teams to build a 1T+ replacement model.

Privacy is the deal’s cornerstone. The Gemini model will be hosted on Apple’s “walled-off” Private Cloud Compute servers, not Google’s. This ensures Google gets its $1B fee but no access to Apple’s user data.