Here comes the new Siri

Apple has been on the back foot AI-wise for the past few years. But in a strange way, playing from behind might not be such a bad move.

At WWDC on Monday, Apple is gearing up to reintroduce the new Siri. Again. As a reminder, we met the new Siri in 2024 when Apple “launched” Apple Intelligence. Siri came with a new flashing border, different voice options and the ability to prompt questions in ChatGPT. The whole “intelligence” bit of the Siri redesign is coming soon, Apple has promised. It didn’t. In fact, its advertising around Apple Intelligence was so misleading that the company is settling a class-action lawsuit and requiring iPhone owners to pay for features it didn’t ship. What’s funny is that by fumbling the ball so badly, Apple may be holding back an advantage.

Let’s be clear; If there is such a thing as a race for an AI assistant, Apple is losing badly. Gemini is already ordering Ubers and DoorDashing teriyaki. It can check your calendar and find out when you need to leave for the airport. Gemini wins the race, fair and square.

But distrust of AI is growing, especially from young people. It is has It is going to live up to its promise of a truly helpful assistant. But do you want your AI assistant to anticipate your next move and actually see it happen? They are very different things. I willingly give Gemini access to my Google Photos and Gmail, but hearing Gemini say my son’s name out loud always makes my skin crawl. When these things become available – the risk of the job – but the public reaction will be more telling when these types of features start trickling into the mainstream.

The new Siri will be built on top of Gemini in some fashion. There’s no doubt that Apple is overpaying for this privilege, but there’s potential upside to being a step removed in this way. Do you know what company? No Has its name been attached to a large, infamous data center project? Apple. Google isn’t about winning friends and influencing people to launch massive construction projects in backyards across the country. Even if Google’s payments are directed toward better data center infrastructure, Apple will keep its hands clean.

And then it’s all Copilot; Factor in AI—buttons—everywhere. Siri’s attempts to summarize messages are funny and often annoying, but at least Siri isn’t summarizing it in every one of my work documents. On the other hand, you can’t open a Google app these days without coming face-to-face with the Gemini Sparkle, and it’s at risk of becoming too old and too fast.

Don’t get me wrong; I think Apple likes Siri to write my emails, perfect my photos as “memories,” and talk me through the next steps to rehabilitate the dying plants in my yard. Siri still can’t do anything. When we meet this new Gemini-enhanced Siri, let’s see where and how aggressively it manifests itself. According to BloombergIn reporting, we’re sure we’ll be seeing it in a number of places: Dynamic Island, Photos, and maybe even its own dedicated Siri app for the first time. It’s a very different Siri from the timer-setting voice assistant we know now, mostly hidden behind a screen.

I suspect Apple is going to play the thing it already likes to play: privacy. You can bet we’ll be hearing a lot about private cloud computing, which keeps your data as safe as if it never left your device. The updated Siri may come with an option to automatically delete chats after a certain period of time, instead of keeping that data by default. The promise of a more private, secure AI experience may entice people who are reluctant to provide even more personal information to Google. But it doesn’t do much for someone who’s sick of having an AI in their face all day in every piece of software.

An advantage, especially the kind you stumble upon, disappears as soon as it arrives.

Apple could easily pass off its slower AI rollout as a more responsible move. Google execs regularly talk about being “bold and responsible” with AI, but lately they’ve been too busy hammering out new Gemini features and getting to the bottom of privacy. Avoiding delays isn’t a bad bet as it takes time to get things right, but the time for false starts is over. Siri really needs to pull it off this time; When a second chance like this comes, you can’t count on it coming back.