Siri Goes With Gemini

Welcome to the Tech Brew ride home for Monday, 01/12/2025. I'm Brian McCullough. Today, Apple announces that it's going with Google's Gemini to power Siri later this year and Google joins the $4,000,000,000,000 club on the news. Governments around the world are still mad at Grok. AI has essentially killed Stack Overflow, but it's making more money than it ever has, and how you can get AI to give you the full text of books. Here's what you missed today in the world of tech. Attackers don't need exploits when they can use your allowed tools against you. That's why ThreatLocker enforces default deny at execution stopping unknown software scripts and ransomware the moment it tries to run. No signatures, no guesswork, just control. ThreatLocker takes zero trust from theory to practice by blocking any unauthorized application or behavior from ever running in the first place. Generative AI has lowered the barrier to malware creation, so ThreatLocker prevents AI generated polymorphic and file less attacks by shutting down unknown behavior automatically even if it's never been seen in the wild. ThreatLocker gives you tight control without the noise, meaning fewer alerts and a cleaner predictable operational posture. Learn more at threatlocker.com/techbrewridehome. That's threatlocker.com/techbrewridehome. Apple this morning announced a multiyear deal to use Google's Gemini to power new Siri features later this year, saying Google's tech, quote, provides the most capable foundation. The news has caused the stock of both companies to jump, though Google has now surpassed the $4,000,000,000,000 market cap for the first time, quoting CNBC. The multiyear partnership will lean on Google's Gemini models and cloud technology for future Apple foundational models according to a statement obtained by CNBC's Jim Cramer. After careful evaluation, we determined that Google's technology provides the most capable foundation for Apple Foundation models, and we're excited about the innovative new experiences it will unlock for our users, Apple wrote, end quote, end quoting The Verge. The move comes nearly a year after Apple delayed its AI upgraded Siri, admitting that it's taking, quote, longer than we thought. Bloomberg reported last year that Apple planned on using a custom version of Gemini for AI powered features in Siri, including a world knowledge answers capability that allows users to search for information and receive AI generated summaries using results from the web. Apple's AI chief John Gian Andreas stepped down last month following the various setbacks. Apple reportedly explored potential partnerships with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Perplexity as well with CEO Tim Cook saying that the company plans to launch integrations with more AI companies over time. Apple didn't immediately respond to The Verge's request for more information. End quote. Malaysia and Indonesia have started to limit access to XAI's Grok over it generating nonconsensual sexual content and has asked X for clarification. Quoting Bloomberg, Indonesia's communications and digital affairs ministry is imposing a temporary ban on GROK, quote, to protect women, children, and the entire community from the risk of fake pornographic content generated using …