Apple Will Pay Google $1 Billion a Year to Fix Siri

Every story this week is just a reminder of how much money is flowing through the AI industry, with OpenAI planning to spend $1.4 trillion on data centers in the near future, and Apple looking to pay Google $1 billion annually to improve Siri. Oof! So much money talk.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman dropped some interesting numbers this week. The company behind ChatGPT is raking in $20 billion a year right now and thinks it’ll hit hundreds of billions by 2030. But they’re committing to spend $1.4 trillion on data centers over the next eight years. Let that sink in for a second. That’s trillion, with a T.

Altman shared these details in a long post on X, partly to clear up some confusion about whether OpenAI wanted government bailout money (they don’t, he says). But he also laid out where the company plans to make all this money back. First up, they’re launching something new for businesses.

They’ve already got a million companies using their tools, and they’re doubling down on that. Then there’s the innovation that sounds straight out of science fiction: consumer gadgets and robots. OpenAI bought designer Jony Ive’s company back in May, and word is they’re working on some palm-sized AI device. They’re also getting into scientific research, though details are pretty sketchy on that front. And in maybe the boldest move, Altman says OpenAI wants to sell cloud computing power directly to other companies.

That’s interesting because right now, they don’t even own their own data centers. To pay for all this, OpenAI might sell more ownership stakes or take out more loans. Either way, it’s a massive gamble that AI is about to reshape everything about how we work and live. Whether they can pull it off is anyone’s guess, but they’re certainly not thinking small.

Amazon just rolled out a new tool that could change the game for self-published authors. It’s called Kindle Translate, and it uses AI to convert books into different languages at no cost.

Right now it is basic. You can translate between English and Spanish, or from German to English. More languages are coming later since the service is still in testing mode. Less than 5% of books on Amazon are available in more than one language, so there’s huge potential here.

AI translations aren’t perfect. Anyone who’s used Google Translate knows it can get things wrong sometimes. Amazon lets authors preview their translations before publishing, but unless you actually speak the language you’re translating into, you won’t catch the mistakes. The company says it checks translations for accuracy automatically, but they’re vague about what that actually means.

Authors can handle everything through the Kindle Direct Publishing portal. They pick their languages, set prices, and hit publish. Readers will see these books clearly marked as “Kindle Translate” titles and can check out sample pages before buying.

This puts Amazon in direct competition with a bunch of other AI translation services already out there, many of which support way more languages. Professional translators aren’t thrilled about this trend. They argue that AI misses the subtle stuff, especially in novels and literary writing where word choice and tone really matter.

But for indie authors who can’t afford to pay human translators thousands of dollars per book, free AI translation opens doors that were previously locked. And the AI is getting better all the time.

The translated books can be included in Kindle Unlimited and Amazon’s other programs, which means authors could reach readers around the world without spending a dime on translation.

In a move that might surprise Apple fans, the company is about to hand Google a billion dollars annually to make Siri actually useful. According to a Bloomberg report, Apple is close to sealing a deal to use Google’s Gemini AI to completely overhaul its struggling voice assistant.

This is a big deal for a company that prides itself on doing everything in-house. But Apple is essentially admitting its own AI isn’t good enough yet and needs Google’s help as a temporary fix until it can catch up.

The version of Google’s AI that Apple wants to use is seriously powerful. It has 1.2 trillion parameters, which is basically a measure of how complex and capable the AI is. To put that in perspective, Apple’s current cloud-based AI system uses just 150 billion parameters. Google’s model is eight times more powerful.

Apple didn’t just go straight to Google, though. Earlier this year, they tested AI models from OpenAI and Anthropic too before deciding Google was the best fit for the job.

The new and improved Siri is supposed to launch next spring, but since that’s still months away, plans could change. For now, it looks like Apple is willing to pay top dollar to finally give users a voice assistant that can compete with what’s out there.

It’s a humbling moment for Apple, but maybe a smart one. Rather than spend years trying to catch up on their own, they’re buying their way to the front of the AI race while they work on building something better behind the scenes.

After years of people asking for it, WhatsApp is finally rolling out an Apple Watch app. Starting this week, you can check messages, answer calls, and even send voice recordings right from your wrist.

The app does pretty much what you’d expect. You can read full messages without pulling out your phone, react to texts with emojis, and scroll through more of your chat history than before. Images and stickers show up clearer too, which is nice since smartwatch screens are so small.

WhatsApp says all your messages and calls stay protected with end-to-end encryption, just like on your phone. They’re also promising more features down the road, though they didn’t say what those might be.

You’ll need an Apple Watch Series 4 or newer running watchOS 10 to use the app. If you’ve got an older model, you’re out of luck. This move fits into WhatsApp’s bigger push to be everywhere you are. Back in May, they finally launched an iPad app after people begged for that one too. Before that, iPad users had to settle for the clunky web version in a browser. WhatsApp isn’t the first messaging app to hit the Apple Watch, though. Snapchat beat them to it a few months ago with their own watch app focused on quick replies.

For the millions of people who use WhatsApp as their main way to stay in touch, this is a welcome addition. Sometimes you really don’t want to dig your phone out of your pocket or bag, and now you don’t have to.

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