An iPhone that is the entrance door of the AI ​​for billions of people

You unlock the iPhone and look for something on the Internet. And who serves you, of course, is Google. It looks something harmless, almost “normal”, but behind there is much more than it seems, because that alliance has allowed two things.

The first, that Apple becomes (still) richer. And the second, that Google maintains its dominant position in the field of search engines.

The reason is simple: there is More than 1.4 billion iPhone In assets everyone, to which iPad and Macs must be added. All those devices They are the door to the Internet For hundreds of millions of people, that Google is the default search engine in all of them has been key for the company to be where it is. The iPhone, for better or worse, has helped decide who won the battle of the Internet.

And it will also help decide who wins the AI.

And the chatbot became mobile

Because now we use the AI ​​in our browser or in mobile apps, but little by little we will do it directly, interacting with the voice and using the assistant of the pre -installed AI on our device.

In the case of Android mobiles it is evident that Gemini will be absolute protagonist. It is the same as Google already pre -installed its search engine on these devices as an integral part of the experience. That, by the way, can end up being very expensive to the company, which He has lost the antitrust judgment in the United States. A sentence is expected in an imminent way, and among the possible consequences it could be Google’s “fragmentation”that could even be seen Sell ​​Chrome.

But what will happen to the iPhone? What will the mobiles and Apple devices boost? Here the answer has more crumb, because the situation of the company in the field of artificial intelligence is complex … Not to say worrying.

The company’s artificial intelligence platform, Apple Intelligencehe is light years from his rivals. Its benefits are very limited and these heights were expected to have arrived the supervitaminated version of Siri. Instead what we have are More and more delays of a company that despite having more resources that almost none still does not find its way in this segment.

It would be normal to think that the iPhone took advantage of their own AI. They are likely to do so and that both Apple Intelligence and Siri They improve (very) notable, but what is also likely that the iPhone does not depend exclusively on Apple Intelligence. In fact everything points to a scenario in which we will have not an AI for everything, but three different:

1. Local Apple Intelligence: A small AI model that will be executed locally and privately for simple consultations and for very specific functions, such as summarizing texts or helping to write emails. It is something that Apple Intelligence already offers.
2. Apple Intelligence in the Cloud: For more complex consultations, Apple will also offer its own infrastructure such as Google or Microsoft, but with a difference: a clear approach to privacy. The call “Private Cloud Compute“It is a technological solution that theoretically guarantees that our conversations with Apple’s chatbot will be absolutely private.
3. External suppliers: But if users want other options, they can also have them. Apple already announced in 2024 that users could access chatgpt proactively To enjoy AI functions, but that supplier will not probably be the only one. In fact, since February it is also possible GEMINI use As an alternative, and Apple has reached different agreements in China chewing that There you can use models like qwenfrom Alibaba.

Precisely that third point, that of external suppliers, is the one that reminds us of what has happened with Internet search engines. The potential Apple agreements with one or the other supplier can define their success or failure – and that of its competitors. If Apple reaches an agreement with Openai so that ChatgPT is “the iphone default”, this chatbot will gain even more relevance, but the same could happen with Gemini or any other model.

Precisely this situation has been the one that has detonated The new demand that Elon Musk He has made against Apple. The tycoon accuses the company to conspire illegally to eliminate competitiveness in the AI ​​market, something that according to him is being a clear obstacle to the success of Xai and Grok.

That demand reminds what Epic Games already made Years ago against Apple’s App Store. That case It ended up causing that Apple opened the door –in its particular way– at third -party stores already methods of alternative payments and that Fortnite will star in a triumphal return To that store.

It remains to be seen if Musk’s demand achieves a similar effect, but a priori seems difficult because Everything is yet to decide In the AI ​​and There are no clear winners. But if there is any, surely the iPhone has ended up helping to create it directly or indirectly.

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