In a recent report on Apple’s expanding satellite communications efforts for the iPhone, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman also revealed new details about Apple’s growing investment in artificial intelligence. According to Gurman, Apple is preparing to debut a significantly enhanced Siri experience for iPhone users in the iOS 26.4 update arriving this spring. The company also plans a broader redesign of its AI assistant with iOS 27 later next year.
Interestingly, Google will play a behind-the-scenes role in powering some of Siri’s new capabilities. Apple is reportedly licensing a customized version of Google’s Gemini model—the same technology that fuels many of Google’s own AI products—to enable Siri features the company has been developing since the iOS 18 era.
A New Health AI Push
Gurman’s report also introduces a previously undisclosed AI initiative for iOS 27: a revamped Health app and a new premium tier called Health+. Apple is said to be building an intelligent health agent that can provide personalized insights and wellness management tools. “If successful, the service could make Apple one of the first major tech companies to gain significant ground in the health AI chatbot space,” Gurman noted.
Siri’s Gemini Connection
Apple’s partnership with Google comes with a notable twist—one the company apparently doesn’t plan to advertise. The custom Gemini model, estimated to have 1.2 trillion parameters, could cost Apple roughly $1 billion annually. Internally, Apple refers to the system as “AFM v10,” shorthand for the tenth version of its Apple Foundation Models.
The codename serves a purpose: to obscure the model’s Google origins, avoid internal confusion, and maintain the narrative that Siri’s evolution is being built primarily on Apple’s own technology stack. Gurman reports that Apple intends to continue refining its in-house AI to reduce future dependence on external partners like Google.
The Road to Apple Intelligence
While the Gemini-powered Siri will headline this spring’s update, Apple is still hard at work on its proprietary AI framework known as Apple Intelligence. The current 150-billion-parameter model remains behind Gemini in scale and capability, but Apple aims to close that gap with a 1-trillion-parameter version expected to debut next year. That model could eventually unify Apple’s AI experiences across Siri, Health+, and other services—marking a major leap in Apple’s broader AI strategy.
