Is Apple going to take over your home with a Google-powered robot?

After giving up on its self-driving car ambitions, Apple may have shifted focus towards another future technology (besides the Vision Pro) – home robots!

In addition, we know that Apple is planning some huge AI updates for Siri, and its devices in general – generative AI, powered by none other than… Google's Gemini.

Reports say that the two companies are currently trying to strike a deal, and if successful, this could mean a lot of new things for us, the consumers.

We're well aware of Siri's upcoming major updates, but what about that Apple robot? What kind of a robot will it be, would Google's Gemini AI power it, and… well, do you need such a thing? Let's talk about it…

If Apple were to create a consumer robot, it would definitely rely on someone else's AI… Right now – most likely Google Gemini. So is this good, or bad?

Apple's Siri isn't known for being the most intelligent assistant out there, falling quite a bit short behind the competition, in fact. But on the plus side, we could always praise it for being privacy-oriented.

Google, however, would gladly take in all the private data it can, from all of its users, in order to train and improve its AI, and services.

That was my first thought after finding out Apple would not be making its own AI, but licensing Google's – it wasn't a positive one.

See, the moment Apple starts relying on Google for something as major as generative AI, likely to be implemented in all of its devices and most of its apps, we – the consumers – are no longer just relying on Apple to protect and respect our privacy.

Suddenly Google's all in on our private data too, just like it is with Android users, and one of Apple's biggest aces in the hole – privacy, provided by a single entity – will no longer be a realistic selling point.

So I'm expecting this Apple-Google deal to either fall apart, or for the two companies to sign an unprecedented agreement that would cost the fruit-logo company billions. Generative AI needs lots of servers, lots of processing, and maintenance.

Would this cost also trickle down to the users, in the form of more expensive Apple products, or monthly subscription services? We'll see soon enough…

In any case, let's focus on that potential Apple robot that may be powered by Google's Gemini. What would it look like?

What kind of a robot are we looking at? A humanoid household robot? We're not there yet. An Amazon Astro clone, but with Siri? We don't need that.

While I admire the Apple Vision Pro's potential and ambitions, the technology isn't there yet, generally. The same applies to humanoid home robots, which is the only kind of Apple robot I think would be exciting and useful for the trillion dollar company to make.

A humanoid robot that can cook, wash the dishes, watch the house, walk the dog… Yeah, this is pretty far into the future. Our closest glimpse at such a sophisticated machine would be Tesla's Optimus robot, and, perhaps more realistically – the Figure One robot, which you can check out below:

As impressive as it is, in terms of AI – being able to see, analyze, reason, make correct assumptions, and act accordingly, without human guidance – only the software side of this is currently accessible to the average person. Yes, we have pretty amazing artificial intelligence now – fantastic!

However, by the time the hardware aspect of this concept matures, improves, becomes more compact and affordable enough to be sold to consumers, we'd probably be 10 or 20 years older than we are right now.

I can't imagine Apple has some magical way to crank up a dream humanoid robot faster. It's already proven, with the Apple Vision Pro, that despite its trillions of dollars, Apple is still as limited by current technology as any other company. It can only go so far.

With that in mind, we're more likely going to get an Amazon Astro-like robot with Siri (and its upcoming Google Gemini intelligence), wheeling around the house…

But do we really need that? We all have phones with the same technology, besides the wheeling, and many of us are also stocked up on smart speakers...

What we actually know so far about Apple's robot ambitions (is underwhelming)

According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, who's been a reliable Apple leaker for years now, Apple began looking for its next future tech project around the time its self-driving Apple Car didn't pan out.

The company is quietly exploring and testing a home robot, with a design similar to Amazon Astro's, which is basically a tablet on wheels. Or if you want to be quirky about it, in this case – an iPad on a Roomba.

As mentioned earlier, I'm not exactly hyped on the idea, nor are most people, judging by how unpopular such products are, despite having existed for years.

The reason they're unpopular can be attributed to their limited functionality, which can easily be covered by a smart speaker, or something akin to Google's Nest Hub.

Because Amazon Astro-like robots rely on wheels, they can't actually navigate most people's homes due to simple obstructions like the threshold between two rooms. Even if they can navigate in a theoretical, perfectly flat and accessible house or apartment, those robots can't really do much.

If you put a can of coke in their tray, they can move it around, but that's not really solving a problem. They can't actually take it out of the fridge and bring it to you, which would've actually been useful.

So you end up with a smart assistant wheeling around and attempting to follow and face you, but is that really so much better than just using your smartphone or smart speakers?

I suppose we'll have to wait and see. Maybe Apple will surprise us with a new twist on this idea, or maybe this whole "Apple robot" concept will get canned in favor of something else, like a stronger focus on the Vision Pro.

In any case, what are your thoughts on it? Would you prefer a cutesy, wheeling Apple robot in your home, or in a distant future – would you rather have a full, humanoid Apple robot doing your chores? Or, you know – neither?