The AI upgrade to Siri, Apple’s creaky old voice assistant, has been brewing for some time. Now we have more details, courtesy of a report from Apple super-scooper Mark Gurman.
As expected, the new version of Siri — codenamed Campos — will use a fine-tuned version of Google Gemini for its on-board intelligence. But the bigger claim is how embedded it will be throughout the iPhone experience — and the features it is adding in common with Gemini and its OpenAI rival, ChatGPT.
Here’s how Gurman describes what Apple insiders consider the “central feature” of its all-new Siri, apparently set to be unveiled by Tim Cook at WWDC 2026: “A chat-like feel and the back-and-forth conversational abilities of OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini.”
If unveiled in June and released in September as reported, all iPhone, iPad, and Mac users will be able to upgrade to ChatGPT-like chatter, courtesy of pressing a button or saying the magic word “Siri.” Everything they could formerly do on the ChatGPT app would be directly accessible anytime they’re holding their phone.
And oh yes, word to OpenAI (and Google, for that matter) — Apple almost certainly won’t include ads, as the free model of ChatGPT is about to add. Apple’s business model has long revolved around selling luxury hardware with the least software friction.
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What would a ChatGPT-like Siri mean?
If this all turns out to be the case, the result could be earthshaking for the AI business. Here’s why:
The iPhone is in the lead, breaking away from Samsung for the first time as of this year. Increasingly, it’s the world’s bestselling smartphone. If the entire iOS gets a chatbot upgrade baked in, and if ChatGPT doesn’t give you anything you can’t get via Siri, including the friendly chatty l’il know-all chatbot experience, the question becomes: How many out of the estimated 67 million daily active users of ChatGPT would still want the friction of opening an app?
Apple is reportedly working on an AI pin wearable that is AirTag-sized
A mass migration on iOS would come at the worst possible time for Sam Altman, who is reportedly burning through a billion dollars of OpenAI’s war chest a month.
And Altman’s problems may pale in comparison to Nvidia’s if another part of Gurman’s report pans out. Google and Apple are discussing hosting those millions of iPhone-based Siri chats on Google servers, using the company’s specialized TPU chips — a direct rival to Nvidia’s line of GPU chips that have made it, for the moment, the most valuable company in the world.
Apple, currently the third most valuable company in the world, in concert with Google, now the second-most valuable, may be about to turn that around — even before the arrival of a new CEO.
