Apple’s struggle to develop artificial intelligence might reach the point where the iPhone-maker will need to outsource one of its core technologies: Siri. A promised AI upgrade for the voice assistant may be powered by large language models created by Anthropic or OpenAI, not Apple itself, according to an unconfirmed report published Monday.
But this is only a possibility — no decision has been made.
Apple might need to use Anthropic or OpenAI to make Siri smarter
Apple promised “the start of a new era for Siri” at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June 2024, thanks to a hefty infusion of artificial intelligence. The company laid out a glowing future for the voice assistant and said the new version of Siri would come as part of an update to iOS 18.
More than a year later, the project remains AWOL after Apple announced a significant delay in March.
Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, explained in early June that Apple pushed back the launch of the improved Siri after the first round of the company’s AI system provided inadequate results. Apple’s now working on a second version. But at the same time, the company’s reportedly exploring another possibility if the second round fails to live up to expectations.
“Apple Inc. is considering using artificial intelligence technology from Anthropic PBC or OpenAI to power a new version of Siri,” Bloomberg reported Monday.
“After multiple rounds of testing, [Siri chief Sam] Rockwell and other executives concluded that Anthropic’s technology is most promising for Siri’s needs,” the Bloomberg report goes on. “That led Adrian Perica, the company’s vice president of corporate development, to start discussions with Anthropic about using Claude.”
Apple plans for worst-case scenario
To be clear, this is supposedly Apple simply covering its bases and exploring what seems like a worst-case scenario. “A competing project internally dubbed LLM Siri that uses in-house models remains in active development,” said Bloomberg.
Turning to Anthropic or OpenAI to power Siri would give Apple a black eye for multiple reasons. For one, it’s proof positive that the company can’t keep up in artificial intelligence. For another, Apple’s strategy to differentiate its AI emphasizes privacy. Critics as well as regular users undoubtedly will question that commitment to privacy if Siri commands must go through Claude or ChatGPT.
Siri already can pass questions to ChatGPT, but users must approve the handoff for each query. Putting an LLM from Anthropic or OpenAI at the heart of Siri is a completely different thing.
What to expect from an AI-enhanced Siri
Ideally, the smarter Siri, as shown in a video at WWDC last year, would be capable of doing almost anything an iPhone user can do. The current version of Siri can “Turn on the kitchen light” when ordered to. The future Siri is up to handling “Send the photos from the cookout on Saturday to Malia.”
Apple’s AI efforts remain focused on typical users. An average iPhone user doesn’t need AI to generate a heist movie starring puppets, as some rivals can do. So that sort of advanced capability will not become a part of Siri. Instead, the goal is to make voice-driven system better at understanding what users want and performing complex everyday tasks. Apple calls it “AI for the rest of us.”
