Apple said it has rebuilt the Siri personal assistant from the ground up with artificial intelligence at its core — in a forthcoming version called Siri AI.
Siri AI was part of the announcements at Monday’s kickoff to its 2026 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), taking place at its Apple Park headquarters in Cupertino, California.
Siri AI will have a more personalized voice experience, according to Apple, that will sound more natural than the traditional Siri synthetic voices. Users will be able to adjust the pace and expressivity of Siri AI’s conversational experience. The new Siri AI will be able to access and interact with all the apps and data on a user’s iPhone, but with strong privacy controls, said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering.
“AI is incredibly powerful technology,” Federighi said during the WWDC keynote event. “Still, some appear to be racing forward” to develop “AI for the sake of AI” without regard for the humans using the technology.
The next generation of Apple Intelligence will unlock am “entirely new Siri,” Federighi said.
Apple is using Google’s Gemini AI model to power the AI-boosted Siri. This past January, Apple and Google announced a multiyear pact under which Google’s AI “will help power future Apple Intelligence features, including a more personalized Siri coming this year.”
The company also is launching a dedicated Siri app so you can “pick up old conversations or start fresh ones” — all synced across your devices through iCloud, Apple said.
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The iPhone camera will get a new “Siri mode” to be able to take action on what’s in its field of vision — for example, you can point it to a plate of food to get an estimate of the nutritional info. According to Apple, users can tap the shutter button to let Siri see what they see and receive “useful responses.” Siri mode in the iPhone camera includes a new set of other actions, such as the ability to split a bill with friends using Apple Cash.
In addition to the iPhone, the new Siri will work across iPad, Apple Watch and the Apple Vision Pro VR headset, the company said.
Siri AI will initially be available in English in beta later this year in the U.S. and other countries before expanding to other languages. Siri AI will not initially be available in the European Union, according to Federighi, as Apple works to conform to privacy regulations in the region. In addition, Siri AI and the other new Apple Intelligence features will not be available in China while Apple “works through regulatory requirements,” the company said.
According to Apple, the most powerful on-device Siri AI will be available on iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max and iPad (M4) or later with at least 12 gigabytes of unified memory, and Mac (M3) or later with at least 12 GB of unified memory. The model and expressive voices are also available on Apple Vision Pro (M5).
As per Apple’s tradition, CEO Tim Cook opened the WWDC keynote, in one of his last public appearances as chief executive: In September, he’s set to step aside to become executive chairman and John Ternus, senior VP of hardware engineering, will become Apple’s next CEO.
Watch Apple’s movie-trailer-style sizzle reel for Siri AI:
From Variety US