Over the past year, AI ‘Artificial Intelligence’ has undergone incredible developments. After chatGPT, Google and Microsoft also introduced their own chatbot. Apple lagged behind, but Apple Intelligence has taken the first steps.
Apple Intelligence is a personal intelligence system for Mac, iPhone and iPad that combines the power of generative models with the user’s individual context, resulting in AI that is both useful and relevant. In the near future, Apple wants to make Siri even smarter and change it to a chatbot with a large language model (LLM).
AI and Apple
The possibilities of Apple Intelligence are great, but are actually only available to users in the United States. Apple Intelligence will first be available in English (US), with other languages ​​to be added in April 2025. If desired, you can test Apple Intelligence in English outside the US, and via a detour also in the EU.
New era for Siri
Thanks to the capabilities of Apple Intelligence, Siri has been more deeply integrated into the system since iOS 18. Siri has a richer understanding of language and responds more naturally, contextually relevant and personalized, so you can get everyday tasks done easier and faster.
Siri can also understand you if you falter or misspoke. In addition, the assistant can remember the context of one question for the next. You can type questions to Siri and switch between typing and speaking at any time. Siri also has a brand new design where the edge of the screen subtly lights up when Siri is active.
Siri can help you anytime, anywhere with your device and answer if you ask how to do something on iPhone, iPad or Mac. Apple Intelligence enables Siri to perform hundreds of new actions within apps and between apps, whether from Apple or from other developers.
Siri knows and understands what is on the screen and can therefore take action based on what you are doing. This is already possible in a number of apps, and over time more and more apps will be added. For example, if a friend forwards their new address in Messages, you can tell Siri, “Put that address on their contact card.”
Apple’s assistant can also do things that are tailored specifically to you and the information on your device. For example, you could say, “Play that podcast Jamie recommended.” Siri then finds the podcast and plays it, without you having to think about whether Jamie sent that recommendation in a text message or an email.
Apple tests Siri chatbot
Although Siri has become a lot more personal and versatile since iOS 18.2, it doesn’t stop there. Sources to Bloomberg report that Apple plans to use advanced large language models (LLMs) to better compete with chatbots like ChatGPT. Apple is now testing this internally under the name ‘LLM Siri’.
This means that Apple wants to provide Siri with a chatbot function as we know from ChatGPT and Gemini from Google. The chatbot version of Siri is capable of ongoing conversations. This allows the assistant to perform more complex tasks and Siri responds more like a human. As a user you will then have the choice to use the chatbot Siri or the traditional Siri.
Siri chatbot completely local
Whether Apple will release a chatbot comparable to ChatGPT is still unclear, but a new research paper from Apple describes a new method for running so-called LLMs on ‘weak’ hardware.
LLMs are gigantic language models that ChatGPT, for example, also uses. This service uses powerful large online servers. Thanks to the new method, an iPhone would be sufficient to control a complete language model, allowing Apple to introduce a smart chatbot that runs completely locally.
For Apple, it is extremely important that artificial intelligence runs completely locally and offline on the user’s device. For that reason, Apple is still cautious about implementing AI. This new technology makes Ai for iPhone, iPad and Mac one step closer.
Siri chatbot release date
Bloomber expects that the Siri chatbot will be announced during WWDC 2025 and will become part of iOS 19. However, the function will only be added to the software in a later update, possibly not until spring 2026.