Apple unveiled a significant overhaul to its Siri voice assistant at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference, marking a major shift for the company's approach to artificial intelligence. The new Siri, branded as "Siri AI," will be integrated with Apple Intelligence and rolled out to users in the fall.
Tim Cook highlighted the Siri improvements during his final WWDC keynote, positioning the upgrade as a response to years of user frustration with the assistant's limitations. The revamped Siri will function more like advanced AI chatbots such as ChatGPT or Google Gemini rather than a traditional search tool that pulls information from the web.
The announcement represents a departure from Apple's historical practice of developing core technologies internally. The company focused on practical improvements to Siri rather than presenting flashy new features, though the underlying AI technology represents a substantial advancement.
Apple introduced its third generation of foundation models, which will power the new Siri capabilities and other features in iOS 27. These models are designed to handle a broader range of tasks and understand more complex user requests than previous versions. The foundation models were developed using infrastructure and expertise that goes beyond Apple's own research teams, signaling the company's recognition that advanced AI development increasingly requires external collaboration.
The new Siri will be available as part of iOS 27, Apple's next mobile operating system. Developers will gain access to testing versions of the software before a public release later this year. The company published technical details about the foundation models alongside the keynote announcement.
In addition to the Siri upgrades, Apple revealed a series of new child safety features amid ongoing scrutiny over apps that create sexual images of children. These safety features address concerns raised by UK Prime Minister Starmer, who called on Apple and Google to activate built-in protections that prevent children from accessing sexually explicit material on their devices.
The company also emphasized its traditional approach of prioritizing privacy and on-device processing, even as it pursues partnerships to accelerate AI development. This combination of external collaboration and privacy-focused design reflects Apple's attempt to balance rapid AI advancement with user protection.
The Siri AI announcement comes as technology companies compete to integrate increasingly powerful artificial intelligence into consumer products. Apple has faced questions in recent years about whether it is keeping pace with competitors in AI capabilities. The Siri improvements and related iOS 27 announcements suggest Apple is working to address these concerns while maintaining its distinctive approach to technology development.