Apple's Siri May Use OpenAI

Apple is thinking about using outside help to strengthen its AI Siri, according to Bloomberg. Apple is considering using OpenAI or Anthropic to power its AI-enhanced Siri, according to a report from Mark Gurman at Bloomberg.

Apple is reportedly struggling with the development of an upgraded “LLM Siri.” It has asked OpenAI and Anthropic to create versions of their large language models to test on its private cloud infrastructure.

Apple has been working for months to get its AI-enhanced Siri back on track after delaying its launch in March. Mike Rockwell, head of Vision Pro, was later appointed as the leader of AI and Siri after Tim Cook reportedly lost confidence in John Giannandrea, the team’s former chief.

Bloomberg reports that Rockwell asked his team to test Anthropic’s Claude, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, or Google’s Gemini to see which performs better at handling basic requests compared to Apple’s own models. Anthropic’s was reportedly the most promising.

Google has Gemini AI features for Android and its Pixel lineup, and Samsung licenses Google’s AI model for its phones. Apple is reportedly close to a deal with Perplexity, which already has a tie-up with Motorola. Earlier this month, Bloomberg reported Apple executives had considered acquiring Perplexity to boost its AI ambitions.

LLM Siri was absent from Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference earlier this month. Greg Joswiak, SVP of worldwide marketing, said that the technology “didn’t hit our quality standard.”

Bloomberg notes Apple’s plans to incorporate a third-party AI model into Siri are in an “early stage,” and it is still considering using in-house models.