Siri's future appears to be in the midst of transformation., and Apple is considering a significant yet unexpected strategic shift: turning to advanced artificial intelligence models developed by third-party companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic to completely revamp its virtual assistant. The latest information reveals that, after several delays and internal uncertainties, the company is considering partially shelving its own development to promote a more competitive and modern Siri.
Internal pressure and the dizzying pace at which competing solutions evolve have led Apple to act more pragmatically. In recent months, the company has begun formal discussions with both OpenAI and Anthropic, exploring the possibility of integrating customized versions of ChatGPT or Claude that would run on Apple's cloud infrastructure. In this way, the company aims to not only make Siri more more useful and contextual in their responses, but also to maintain their high privacy standards, one of its historic flags.
Internal restructuring and analysis of alternatives
The changes within the Siri team have been notable.Mike Rockwell, who previously led the Vision Pro project, took over the development of Siri and artificial intelligence after the departure of John Giannandrea. Together with Craig Federighi, head of software, a comparison has been promoted between the company's own models and those of reference companies such as Anthropic, OpenAI and Google, with Claude de Anthropic being the one who Better results have been achieved according to the first tests on Apple's private servers.
The internal climate is not entirely optimistic.The engineers responsible for the core AI models have expressed their doubts, fearing that trust in internal talent is eroding. This situation has even led to the departure of experienced profiles and the threat of talent flight to competitors such as Meta or OpenAI, which offer much more attractive financial conditions. Apple, meanwhile, insists it will continue developing its own models, although it acknowledges the need to rely on cutting-edge technology available on the market.
Privacy, competition and financial challenges
One of the most sensitive aspects for Apple is privacy.By adopting third-party models, the company requires them to adapt to operate in its own data centers, ensuring that user information does not leave its ecosystem. Meanwhile, alternatives like Google have already incorporated Gemini into Android, and Samsung is betting on Galaxy AI based on the same technology, which has intensified the competition to lead the smart assistant sector.
The economic negotiations are not easy either.Anthropic has requested demanding financial terms, with annual payments that could reach several billion dollars and projected annual increases. If an agreement is not reached, Apple is considering opening up to other options, such as OpenAI. In parallel, the firm has considered acquiring companies such as Perplexity AI, which specializes in generative search, to avoid excessive dependence on agreements with external companies and to have a backup plan.
New features on the horizon and the future of Apple's assistant
The introduction of advanced AI in Siri would represent a considerable leap in its capabilities. and could accelerate its debut ahead of schedule, following the initial postponement to 2026. At the latest edition of the Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple publicly admitted the lack of progress on Siri, which has increased expectations surrounding the imminent update. Furthermore, there are already partial integrations of ChatGPT into the Apple ecosystem, such as in the Apple Intelligence feature and in writing tools, and AI image generation and analysis are expected to expand significantly in iOS 26.
The distribution of power within the AI ​​division has also changed.Swift Assist, a project focused on assisting developers with language models in Xcode, has been discontinued in favor of soon allowing the choice between ChatGPT and Claude for programming and development support tasks.
Apple is at a crossroads: moving toward a more capable and versatile Siri without losing its hallmarks of privacy and security. Although there's no final decision yet on the definitive integration of external models, everything points to a significant shift in direction to maintain Siri's relevance in the next great era of artificial intelligence.
