Apple Surrenders in AI Race: New Siri Gets Outsourced Brains and a "Forget All" Button

Apple is preparing a massive overhaul of its voice assistant, the biggest in years. At WWDC on June 8, the company will unveil iOS 27, where Siri will become a standalone app with a chat interface for the first time, and under the hood, it’ll be running Google Gemini models.

Instead of the usual Spotlight summons, users will be able to open Siri by swiping down from the top center of the screen. The interface will include a chat history and start to feel a lot like familiar bots such as ChatGPT. According to Bloomberg, Apple has realized that another flop in the AI race could mean serious reputational and financial damage, which is why the company went ahead and cut a deal with Google.

Apple’s main focus is on privacy, so in Siri’s settings you’ll be able to choose how long your chat history is kept: 30 days, a year, or forever. You’ll also be able to decide whether the assistant should remember the context of your previous conversation when you start it up again, or just begin fresh. This approach stands out from the competition, where privacy is often tucked away in a separate “incognito” mode — Apple bakes protection into the system by default.

Internal beta builds of iOS 27 already have a “beta” label for the new Siri, along with a toggle to opt out. There’s a good chance this tag will stick around both in the summer developer betas and the final fall release. It’s a repeat of the original Siri launch back in 2011: the assistant debuted with a “beta” label that wasn’t removed until iOS 7 came out in 2013. Safari is also getting a major update in iOS 27 — the browser will learn how to auto-group tabs and more.

There’s also news that the Genmoji emoji generator in iOS 27 will get a “Suggested Genmoji” feature: based on the owner’s photos and frequently typed phrases, the assistant will automatically suggest options. The feature is optional and is meant to fix the original Genmoji’s shortcomings — low-quality images and rapid battery drain from the heavy workload.

What do you think? Will the new Siri, with its focus on privacy and help from Gemini, be able to seriously compete with ChatGPT? Or will the “beta” label once again be an honest admission that the assistant just isn’t ready yet? Let us know in the comments.