Apple confirmed at its Worldwide Developers Conference this week that its Siri AI upgrade uses Google's Gemini language models and runs on Nvidia hardware installed in Google servers. The company announced earlier this year that the long-delayed Siri upgrade would use Google's Gemini language models. Apple's decision stems from hardware capacity limitations that its Private Cloud Compute system, which relied on Apple's own server hardware, could not meet without a massive data center buildout. Despite the shift to external infrastructure, Apple maintains the same privacy promises it made when all AI models ran locally on devices or on Apple-controlled server hardware.
Apple Confirms Google Infrastructure for Siri AI at WWDC
Apple confirmed at its Worldwide Developers Conference yesterday that Siri AI, announced this week, runs on Nvidia hardware installed in Google servers. The company announced earlier this year that the long-delayed Siri upgrade would use Google's Gemini language models. Craig Federighi and other Apple executives explained to the press and media after the WWDC keynote how the company plans to preserve user privacy while getting the compute capacity it needs and what its partnership with Google means.
Apple Maintains Privacy Commitments Despite External Hardware
Apple is making the same privacy promises it did before, when all of its AI models were either running locally on devices or on Apple-controlled server hardware. For years, Apple has touted user privacy as a key benefit of using its platforms. The company's cloud services use encryption that's intended to keep other people, including Apple employees, from being able to gain access to it. Apple has long advertised its use of on-device processing for things like scanning images, keeping as much data as possible from leaving devices in the first place.
Private Cloud Compute Limitations Drive Infrastructure Partnership
With Apple Intelligence, Apple has run up against the limits of its own hardware. The kinds of language and reasoning models that can run locally on an iPhone or Mac are relatively small, limiting their capabilities and accuracy. Apple's Private Cloud Compute system was a partial solution but relied on Apple's own server hardware. To get the kind of capacity it would need to support Siri AI, Apple would have had to commit to a huge data center buildout that it has so far avoided.
FAQ
What did Apple announce about Siri AI at WWDC this week?
Apple confirmed at its Worldwide Developers Conference this week that Siri AI uses Google's Gemini language models and runs on Nvidia hardware installed in Google servers. The company announced earlier this year that the long-delayed Siri upgrade would use Google's Gemini language models.
Why did Apple choose to run Siri AI on Google servers?
Apple ran up against the limits of its own hardware with Apple Intelligence. To get the kind of capacity it would need to support Siri AI, Apple would have had to commit to a huge data center buildout that it has so far avoided. Apple's Private Cloud Compute system relied on Apple's own server hardware and was only a partial solution.
How does Apple plan to maintain user privacy with Siri AI running on external servers?
Apple is making the same privacy promises it did before, when all of its AI models were running locally on devices or on Apple-controlled server hardware. Craig Federighi and other Apple executives explained to the press after the WWDC keynote how the company plans to preserve user privacy while getting the compute capacity it needs through its partnership with Google.
