At his final World Wide Developers Conference as Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook unveiled a slate of new AI features Monday, including a standalone Siri chatbot app, based on models Apple created in collaboration with Google.
The centerpiece of Apple CEO Tim Cook’s announcement Monday was a rebuilt Siri, which Apple describes as an “entirely new version” of its voice assistant, as the Associated Press reports. The updated Siri is more conversational, can customize its speaking style, and now has a standalone app that stores past conversations across Apple devices, according to the Verge.
Engadget reports that the new Siri can also analyze what’s displayed on a device’s screen or camera, allowing it to identify objects, answer questions about images, analyze receipts, and perform actions based on what users are viewing.
On Macs, users can reportedly highlight content and ask Siri to complete contextual tasks such as adding calendar events, conducting searches, or surfacing additional information. Apple also announced new AI-powered writing tools that can generate drafts, proofread documents, and adjust tone based on the intended audience.
Additional AI features include new image-editing tools in Photos, expanded text-to-image generation capabilities, Safari features that can organize tabs and monitor websites for changes, and natural-language Shortcuts that allow users to create automations without coding, as the Verge reports.
The new Siri is reportedly built on its Foundation Models, developed in collaboration with Google and powered in part by Gemini technology. During Monday's keynote, Apple officials emphasized privacy, saying tasks will either be processed directly on users’ devices or through its Private Cloud Compute system.
Siri AI is available to developers now and is expected to enter public beta testing later this year, though availability will initially be limited in some regions and languages.
The announcement follows Apple’s well documented struggles to deliver new AI features, including those unveiled at last year’s conference, and comes after the company recently agreed to a $250 million settlement in a lawsuit alleging it misled consumers about the availability and performance of Apple Intelligence features.
As SFist reported last August, in an effort to step up its failed AI game, Apple announced plans for a new tabletop AI robot "companion" as well as a home security system, with the latter expected to launch sometime this year, but there have been no further updates.
Cook announced in April that he was transitioning from CEO to executive chairman of Apple's board of directors in July. John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering, will take over as CEO in September.
Previously: Apple Names New CEO, John Ternus, With Tim Cook Set to Step Down This Summer
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