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Apple unveiled a revamped Siri at WWDC on Monday, but is it enough to put the company back in the AI race?
After a multi-year wait, Apple finally launched its new AI-powered Siri at WWDC on Monday, conveniently named Siri AI. It keeps some familiar Siri functionality Apple users are accustomed to, but improves what the assistant can do with Apple Intelligence, the company's subtle, privacy-first AI offering announced two years ago at WWDC 2024.
But making the most of the new Siri could come with additional fees. Here's what we know.
This "entirely new version of Siri," as Apple called it, is now more conversational and can pull information from the internet as well as interpret what's on your screen to answer questions and complete tasks more seamlessly. It's backed by Apple Intelligence, which has been enhanced with Google's Gemini through a partnership the two companies announced in January.
Basically, it should do what users have come to expect from AI assistants like Gemini and Claude, and perhaps what users already wanted out of Siri before AI assistants presented a competitive option. Much like the context-sourcing Gemini Personal Intelligence, Siri AI can access your entire Apple ecosystem and source what you're looking for from messages, photos, emails, and other apps based on a quick conversational prompt.
Ask Siri AI to pull up that restaurant your coworker recommended, for example, or a hotel reservation from your email (pretty much like Gmail Live, which Google launched at I/O last month). It can also draft emails, edit photos, and help you brainstorm what to bring to the potluck your group chat is cooking up, alongside taking more accurate dictation.
Rather than only engaging with Siri in its ambient, called-upon form on your device -- yes, "Hey Siri" still works -- you can now also open a standalone Siri AI app that houses past conversations, similar to ChatGPT and Claude. The app syncs across all your devices, so you can start a conversation with Siri AI on your phone and finish it on your laptop or iPad.
