Apple on Monday released a new version of the iPhone software called iOS 27, which includes the company's redesigned Siri AI personal assistant, before the latest iPhones hit store shelves this week.
The new Siri AI is in beta, Apple said, and users have to opt in through the settings app, though they may have to add their names to the waitlist before getting access.
Apple is positioning the forthcoming iPhone 18 models as ideal for artificial intelligence because of their speedy chips and the personal data such as calendars and texts that are stored on them.
"It's personal intelligence that's actually personal," Apple CEO John Ternus said at the company's iPhone launch event last week, his first since succeeding Tim Cook at the helm on Sept. 1. The "iPhone sits at the center of an amazing ecosystem of intelligent features and experiences that work seamlessly across the products you use every day," he said.
Apple first revealed the Siri AI assistant in June. A version of the company's AI-powered Siri announced in 2024 was delayed last year.
Compared to frontier AI from companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google, Apple uses smaller models it develops that can often run on the chips in its phones and laptops. However, for more complicated Siri AI queries, Apple has what's called Private Cloud Compute that uses Google Cloud infrastructure with Nvidia and Intel chips. Apple is also using Google's Gemini to build its own models.
Apple said that some of its Siri AI and Apple Intelligence features that utilize its cloud servers will be subject to daily usage limits, and that expanded limits will "be available for a fee in the future."
"Daily limits may vary by feature, request complexity, system demand, system policies, and other factors," Apple said in a release.
Apple's new Siri uses large language models to search through a user's local personal data, including texts, emails, and calendar appointments. For example, it can search through the user's messages to find addresses, recipes, and instructions. It can also answer general questions and search the web.
Siri AI can also be accessed through a new Siri app which saves previous queries. Compared to Apple's older versions of Siri, users can reply to the assistant's replies, making the software feel more conversational.
Siri AI is available in English and will get support for French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish next month. Apple said it won't be initially available in the EU or China because of regulatory reasons.
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