Apple is considering a profound change in the technology that powers Siri., considering abandoning its own AI models to focus on third-party solutions such as those from OpenAI and Anthropic. The company, which has always championed internal development and full product integration, is seeing how the AI race is testing its limits and forcing it to rethink its strategy.
The trigger for this movement has been The accelerated progress of generative AI-based assistants such as Google's Gemini or Alexa+, which have left Siri in a inferior position both in contextual understanding and in handling complex queries. In recent months, internal frustration in Cupertino has been growing., as promised Siri capabilities have been delayed and even canceled, resulting in leaks, key personnel departures, and a loss of confidence in Siri's own developments.
Negotiations with Anthropic and OpenAI: Claude or ChatGPT at the heart of Siri?
Apple is in advanced discussions with both Anthropic (developer of Claude) and OpenAI (behind the scenes at ChatGPT). to achieve a tailored integration of these models into Apple's private infrastructure. The goal is for new versions of Siri to run on proprietary servers, equipped with high-performance Mac chips, thus ensuring the privacy and the control over user data; a hallmark of all the company's products.
Initial internal tests indicate that Claude adapts especially well to Apple's standards and the technical and privacy requirements for Siri. However, the financial terms are still a matter of debate: Anthropic claims multi-billion dollar settlement which grows year after year, so Apple does not rule out strengthening its alliance with OpenAI or even looking for other options if negotiations do not prosper.
Currently, there is already a partial collaboration with OpenAI, which allows Siri to rely on ChatGPT for some general queries and, soon, for image generation and analysis in the context of iOS 26. However, the core of the assistant still depends on Apple's own technology.
Internal Impact: Tensions Between Apple's AI Teams
This approach assumes a major shift in the way Apple approaches the development of key technologiesHistorically, the company has preferred to build on its own foundations, but the pace at which artificial intelligence is evolving is challenging this tradition. Internally, the change has not been received enthusiastically by all engineers: some have seen the preference for external solutions as a discrediting of their work and have considered changing companies in the face of multi-million dollar offers from firms like Meta and OpenAI itself.
The reorganization has also left its mark on the top management: Mike Rockwell and Craig Federighi have taken over as CEOs at Siri., displacing John Giannandrea, a traditional defender of internal models. In addition, projects such as Swift Assist (an AI programming assistant for Xcode) have been canceled, and other development groups have been relocated within the company.
The possibility that the integration of third-party AI into Siri could lead to an expansion of this approach to other areas of the Apple ecosystem is worrying some employees, who fear a loss of technical and strategic autonomy.
Privacy, proprietary servers, and staggered rollout of new features
One of the Apple's main requirements in the negotiations is to guarantee privacy. Therefore, Anthropic and OpenAI models are being trained to run on the company's Private Cloud Compute servers, which are designed to maximize the security of personal data. In this way, Apple is trying to differentiate itself from the competition by offering AI improvements without neglecting its historic commitment to the protection of its users.
Current forecasts indicate that The most powerful version of Siri based on generative AI will not arrive with iOS 26., but will be a core feature of future iterations of the operating system, likely starting with iOS 27 in 2026. Until then, gradual improvements are expected, such as expanding ChatGPT capabilities within devices and opening up local models to third-party developers, thus allowing the creation of new AI-based features within the Apple ecosystem itself.
At the same time, Apple is exploring other parallel options, such as the possible acquisition of Perplexity AI., to diversify its artificial intelligence strategy and maintain a flexible position in the face of potential market demands or regulatory changes that may affect it, especially in the current agreement with Google for web search.
Competitive pressure, the strong advance of Android assistants, and the need to retain talent in an increasingly competitive sector place Apple at a turning point. The outcome of the negotiations and the speed of implementation of the new alliances in Siri will determine its position in the next decade of current artificial intelligence. The company prefers pragmatism to technological purity, seeking to keep pace with innovation without compromising its brand essence.
