In brief: It's no secret that Apple's AI ambitions have not been a resounding success, especially when it comes to the overhauled version of Siri. As such, Cupertino could enlist the help of OpenAI or Anthropic to deliver its more powerful and capable virtual assistant.
We first heard reports of Apple's plans to give Siri a major AI revamp back in 2024. The company unveiled Apple Intelligence and the more personalized, AI chatbot-like Siri at WWDC that same year.
But in March, Apple announced that the launch of the upgraded Siri would be delayed – iIt had been pushed to 2026, but it now looks like it won't arrive until 2027. Robby Walker, a senior director at Apple, acknowledged that delays to key Siri features had been both "ugly" and "embarrassing," and that showcasing these abilities before they were ready made a difficult situation even worse.
The mess led to a false advertising lawsuit being filed against Apple. It also resulted in upheaval among executives at the company. CEO Tim Cook said he had "lost confidence" in AI head John Giannandrea, who was replaced by Mike Rockwell, the vice president in charge of the Vision Products Group.
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman now reports that Rockwell has asked his team to investigate whether versions of Anthropic's Claude, OpenAI's ChatGPT, or Google's Gemini could run on Apple's Private Cloud Compute secure servers, used for some non-local AI features. Anthropic's model is apparently showing the most promise in this area.
Apple already uses OpenAI's ChatGPT for some parts of Apple Intelligence, but switching entirely from its existing Foundation Models to a third-party option would be a "monumental reversal" in its strategy, writes Gurman. It is noted, however, that the plans are at an early stage, and Apple could still decide to use its own models.
During Google's antitrust trial earlier this year, CEO Sundar Pichai said that Google Gemini could be integrated into Apple Intelligence. Pichai confirmed 2024 reports that he had met with Cook in relation to Gemini being licensed to Apple, and hoped for a deal to be struck by mid-2025, with integration taking place before the end of the year.
At WWDC last month, Apple's SVP of software Craig Federighi and SVP of worldwide marketing Greg Joswiak said the upgraded Siri was "going to take us longer than we thought to deliver." Federighi said that the assistant "didn't hit our quality standard."
Apple may turn to OpenAI or Anthropic to power struggling Siri AI upgrade
