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The Vergecast

Siri is a Gemini

99 min episode · 2 min read

Episode

99 min

Read time

2 min

Topics

Health & Wellness, Relationships, Investing

AI-Generated Summary

Key Takeaways

  • Apple-Google AI Partnership: Apple pays Google roughly one billion dollars yearly to run Gemini models on Apple's private cloud compute infrastructure, replacing Apple's failed internal AI development efforts. The deal enables next-generation Siri features launching in 2025, marking Apple's first major reliance on external providers for core platform technology.
  • Google's AI Advantage: Google controls three critical AI components competitors cannot match: infinite computing resources through custom TPU chips, comprehensive user data across Gmail, Search, YouTube and Photos for training, and distribution through both Android and now Apple's Siri interface. This positions Google to dominate the AI platform shift.
  • Meta's Metaverse Abandonment: Meta closes three VR studios including Supernatural fitness app and Batman Arkham Shadow developer, redirecting all Reality Labs resources toward AI-powered smart glasses. The company's VR pivot was driven by desire to escape Apple's App Store control rather than genuine product vision, resulting in wasted investment.
  • Foundation Model Economics: Training proprietary AI models only makes financial sense when selling access to other companies. Apple lacks business model to monetize its own models externally, making Google partnership more economical than building internal capability. Models are rapidly commoditizing, reducing competitive advantage of ownership.
  • Content Moderation Failure: X's Grok AI generates deepfake pornography of any person without restrictions despite bipartisan agreement this violates norms. Apple and Google refuse to enforce existing App Store policies against X, demonstrating fear of political retaliation outweighs stated principles about protecting users from harmful content.

What It Covers

Apple announces Siri will be powered by Google's Gemini models in a multiyear deal worth approximately one billion dollars annually. Meta shuts down VR studios and pivots from metaverse to AI glasses while Google consolidates AI dominance through personal intelligence features.

Key Questions Answered

  • Apple-Google AI Partnership: Apple pays Google roughly one billion dollars yearly to run Gemini models on Apple's private cloud compute infrastructure, replacing Apple's failed internal AI development efforts. The deal enables next-generation Siri features launching in 2025, marking Apple's first major reliance on external providers for core platform technology.
  • Google's AI Advantage: Google controls three critical AI components competitors cannot match: infinite computing resources through custom TPU chips, comprehensive user data across Gmail, Search, YouTube and Photos for training, and distribution through both Android and now Apple's Siri interface. This positions Google to dominate the AI platform shift.
  • Meta's Metaverse Abandonment: Meta closes three VR studios including Supernatural fitness app and Batman Arkham Shadow developer, redirecting all Reality Labs resources toward AI-powered smart glasses. The company's VR pivot was driven by desire to escape Apple's App Store control rather than genuine product vision, resulting in wasted investment.
  • Foundation Model Economics: Training proprietary AI models only makes financial sense when selling access to other companies. Apple lacks business model to monetize its own models externally, making Google partnership more economical than building internal capability. Models are rapidly commoditizing, reducing competitive advantage of ownership.
  • Content Moderation Failure: X's Grok AI generates deepfake pornography of any person without restrictions despite bipartisan agreement this violates norms. Apple and Google refuse to enforce existing App Store policies against X, demonstrating fear of political retaliation outweighs stated principles about protecting users from harmful content.

Notable Moment

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr testified before Congress claiming Comcast and Disney program almost one hundred percent of content Americans consume, completely ignoring Fox, CBS, YouTube, TikTok and streaming platforms. The demonstrably false statement reveals the intellectual weakness underlying his campaign to regulate broadcast media for political purposes.

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Episode Transcript

Everyone's heard of a midlife crisis, but what about a mid career crisis? Turns out countless people are going through one right now. For some, they're starting to feel they've hit a wall, that there's no room for growth, no new opportunities. Promotions pass them by. Raises are few and far between. Others worry they're becoming replaceable, either by younger talent or by technology. And still others find themselves asking over and over, is this all there is? If any of this feels familiar, it's time to visit strawberry.me, where a certified career coach will work with you to get you out of your rut and help you move forward, either at your current job or by helping you land a new more rewarding one. Your strawberry coach will help you turn a mid career crisis into a mid career revival. Go to strawberry.me/unstuck and get 50% off your first coaching session. That's strawberry.me/unstuck. Now is the most affordable time ever to find out if career coaching is right for you. Absell is here. Hey, buddy. There's so many concepts in this episode of the Vergecast. Absells here. Hey, buddy. There's so many concepts in this episode of the Vergecast. We literally got an email that was, like, can you explain to me what a foundation for a foundation model is? And and, yes, in fact, that is what we are going to attempt to do here on the Vergecast. Neil, have you recovered from CES? How are you feeling? I've recovered. I I think I'm feeling better. You know, this is, like, the first working week of the year for us for real. So there's a lot of catching up to you because everyone else is one week ahead. And then everyone got sick because that's what happens when you leave CES. But I think we're we're ready to go. And then there was a lot of news this week, and we just have to start with a big disclosure update, I think. My favorite kind of news story, the news story that is, like, irritatingly about us and also requires us to figure out how to disclose for a long time. Yeah. So, Vox Media has sued Google. That's the news. Mhmm. And so have The Atlantic, Penske Media, which disclosure within a disclosure. Penske is an investor in Vox Media. Conde Nast, their parent company, Advanced Publications, but everyone just knows them as Conde Nast. Advanced Publications, by the way, famously, owns, an interest in Reddit Right. Which is very funny. They incubated Reddit and then did the IPO. But that's the parent company of Conde Nast, which owns Wired and Vanity Fair and everything else, and then McClatchy, which owns a bunch of other publications. They've all of these media companies have sued Google for antitrust violations. And, basically, what happened was Google was sued by the government last year for ad tech antitrust. So double click for publishers and how ads get displayed around the …

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  • Meta closes three VR studios including Supernatural fitness app and Batman Arkham Shadow developer, redirecting all Reality Labs resources toward AI-powered smart glasses.
  • X's Grok AI generates deepfake pornography of any person without restrictions despite bipartisan agreement this violates norms.
  • by Meta

    Meta closes three VR studios including Supernatural fitness app and Batman Arkham Shadow developer, redirecting all Reality Labs resources toward AI-powered smart glasses.
  • by Google

    Apple announces Siri will be powered by Google's Gemini models in a multiyear deal worth approximately one billion dollars annually.
  • by Apple

    Apple announces Siri will be powered by Google's Gemini models in a multiyear deal worth approximately one billion dollars annually.

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