- Apple will reveal an AI-powered Siri update at its WWDC show in June
- The company will push privacy as its AI differentiator, a new report claims
- But the new features might be labeled ‘betas’, despite arriving two years late
As Apple struggles to catch up in the AI race, the company may finally have found a way to make Siri stand out from rivals like ChatGPT and Gemini — by making it more private, not more powerful.
With Apple gearing up for its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 8, the tech world is wondering how the Cupertino giant is planning to close the gap between itself and its artificial intelligence (AI) rivals. One way, according to a new report, is to stick with something that has always helped Apple stand out from the crowd — but there’s a notable catch to the plans.
Writing in his latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman believes that Apple will push privacy as the biggest differentiator between itself and companies like OpenAI and Google that also maintain AI-infused products. And that could enable Apple to argue that its pro-privacy approach — one that it has long adopted — is a “fundamentally different” pathway to AI.
One way Apple could do this, Gurman believes, is through building disappearing messages into its revamped Siri virtual assistant. The iOS 27 update that’s set to debut at WWDC will put Siri in a standalone app for the first time, and this app could automatically delete any prompts that you send to Siri. The options will be to keep messages for 30 days, one year or forever; if you select one of the first two choices, Siri will remove your conversations without you having to lift a finger. That could protect you from data leaks and your private info being used to train an AI model.
Apple will also “place tighter limits around how [Siri’s] memory works,” Gurman says, “including restrictions on what information can persist and how long it can be retained.” Apple’s stance is that settings like this should be “built into the system itself,” according to Gurman, rather than being an optional extra as with rival AI systems from the likes of Meta and OpenAI.
The new Siri may emerge with ‘unfinished’ features
Auto-deleting messages are not the only new AI feature due to arrive at WWDC. There’s a whole Siri revamp in the works that should see features announced way back in 2024 finally make it to users’ iPhones. Yet even that two-year delay might not be enough, Gurman warns.
Writing in Power On, Gurman explains that Apple might frame the refreshed Siri as a beta version come WWDC. The reporter adds that “there is a strong chance that this approach will be used in developer beta versions and even when iOS 27 ships this fall.” That’s because Gurman has been informed by his sources that test versions of iOS 27 contain the beta labels for Siri. Given that we are less than a month away from WWDC, those flags could remain when the operating system is unveiled in June.
Proclaiming the upgraded Siri to be in its beta phase would signal to users that the new features are still “unfinished,” Gurman says, and it’s hard to argue with that assessment. With Apple’s competitors pushing further and further ahead in the world of AI, this year’s WWDC will be crucial for Apple to show it has what it takes to hold its own. If the new AI Siri spends too long as a beta, it will be increasingly difficult for the company to do that.
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alexblake.techradar@gmail.com (Alex Blake)
