The fact that Google Gemini will power the revamped Siri is drawing criticism from people convinced that Apple should have developed its own AI in-house to bring the voice assistant up to speed.
Some of the critics seem to think Apple always made its own software before now, and therefore they regard the deal with Google as a major policy shift — and a sign of weakness that would horrify Apple co-founder Stave Jobs.
No. Just … no. These critics will be shocked to learn that many Apple products are built on top of tech developed outside the company … and often, it was Steve Jobs who did it!
New Siri proves Apple needed help in the AI race
The current AI craze is being driven by rapid advances in large language models and generative tools that can write, code, create images and more. While OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, etc., pushed ahead with AI products, Apple moved more slowly.
In 2024, it announced an ambitious plan for an AI-powered Siri. A year and a half later, this has yet to launch. And this week, Apple had to admit that the new Siri would be powered by Google’s Gemini AI.
TechRadar calls it “the most disappointing thing to come out of Apple since the Newton.” Dagogo Altraide said on ColdFusion that “Apple just gave up.”
Steve Jobs would have approved the Apple-Google Gemini partnership
The “Steve Jobs would never have done this” sentiment has been a recurring theme in the social media backlash to the Apple-Google Gemini deal. But that’s based on pure ignorance — in a very similar situation, Jobs did pretty much the same thing.
Back in the 1990s, Apple struggled to upgrade Mac OS. It spent years trying to complete a version code-named Copland, but in the end, it was a failure. Then Steve Jobs returned to the company and turned things around with Mac OS X.
How did he create the product Apple desperately needed? He took UNIX and layered Apple software on top of it. To be clear, there was an intervening step. OS X was built on NeXTSTEP, the operating system Jobs created at NeXT. But NeXTSTEP was layered on top of UNIX, which is why OS X is also based on UNIX.
That continues to this very day: macOS 26 Tahoe is officially UNIX 03 certified by The Open Group.
And it’s not alone. Every Apple operating system is based on UNIX, from iOS to watchOS.
So Apple was floundering trying to develop something absolutely critical for the company’s in-house, then Steve Jobs admitted that help was needed and outsourced the problem. Sound familiar?
A good deal financially for Apple
Another positive aspect of the deal is that it’s likely saving Apple significant money. AI development is wildly expensive — Google poured about $56 billion into research and development in 2025. While we don’t know how much of that went to Gemini, AI was certainly a major focus.
Compared to that, the $1 billion a year Apple is reportedly paying to license Gemini is a bargain.
Yes, Cupertino is also spending on its own R&D projects — about $35 billion last year — but even after adding $1 billion to license Google’s AI, Apple comes out ahead.
Steve Jobs approved of not wasting cash.
Siri stays an Apple product
Apple gave itself extra AI challenges by promising on-device processing, privacy and deep integration with the company’s applications. Bringing in Google Gemini won’t change any of that.
Google’s AI will run either directly on the user’s device or on Apple’s privacy-focused cloud servers. Google certainly cannot use Gemini to siphon user data off iPhones and Macs.
Plus, Apple didn’t license a simple chatbot. Google’s AI tech will power features added by Apple. Siri will be able to pull information from the Calendar, Mail and Messages apps, for example. That will finally fulfill the promise for “the start of a new era for Siri” made at WWDC 2024.
The man who saved Apple by transforming UNIX into Mac OS X would certainly approve.
Ed Hardy has been writing full-time about tech for 25 years, and using it for much longer than that. His intro to Apple was a Macintosh Classic II (which he still has), but now he uses a 13-inch iPad Pro as his primary computer. He’s written for NotebookReview, TabletPCReview, and Brighthand, as well as other sites.
