On December 31st, the technology blog 9to5mac reported that Apple's AI strategy has faced persistent scrutiny, with controversies escalating notably following the postponement of several Siri enhancements. The latest report sheds light on the rationale behind Apple's strategic divergence: Senior executives at Apple harbor doubts about the future of large language models, believing they are destined to become commoditized, while the current expenses associated with in-house model development are prohibitively high. Consequently, Apple has opted for a cautious investment approach, preferring to leverage external partnerships. For instance, Apple intends to employ Google's Gemini model to power a significant Siri upgrade in 2026, rather than persisting with its own research endeavors. This decision starkly contrasts with the multi-billion-dollar AI competition unfolding among entities like Google and OpenAI. Despite Siri's underperformance relative to its rivals, Apple aims to carve out a distinctive niche by capitalizing on its seamless integration across hardware, software, and service ecosystems, as well as its edge in privacy protection.