Your iPhone’s Siri still can’t hold a decent conversation while your friends’ Android phones are practically having philosophical debates with Google Assistant. Apple’s dirty secret? They’re finally admitting defeat in the AI arms race.
Bloomberg reports that Apple has entered serious talks with both Anthropic (makers of Claude) and OpenAI to license external AI models for Siri’s long-overdue upgrade. This represents a seismic shift for a company that typically guards its technology stack like Fort Knox.
When Pride Meets Reality
The Contenders: Safety vs. Speed
Anthropic’s pitch centers on AI safety and transparency—perfect for Apple’s privacy-first brand. Claude models excel in regulated domains and offer “thought trace” capabilities that explain their reasoning. The catch? Anthropic wants multibillion-dollar annual fees that make Netflix’s content budget look modest.
OpenAI brings raw capability and multimodal prowess. Their models already handle text, images, and video with impressive context windows. Plus, they’re already integrated into iOS 18 for basic Siri handoffs, making deeper integration smoother.
Early testing suggests Anthropic’s Claude performs better in Apple’s evaluations, but those sky-high licensing costs have executives exploring alternatives.
The Timeline Reality Check
Remember when Apple promised revolutionary Siri improvements at WWDC 2024? Craig Federighi’s diplomatic explanation that features “need more time to reach our high quality bar” translates to: we’re way behind and scrambling.
Current timeline pushes true LLM-powered Siri to iOS 27 in fall 2026. That’s not iteration—that’s buying time while competitors lap Apple in the AI race.
What This Means for Your Devices
This partnership represents more than technical necessity—it’s Apple acknowledging that vertical integration has limits. Whichever AI partner Apple chooses will fundamentally reshape how you interact with your devices.
The decision ultimately comes down to Apple’s priorities: pay premium prices for Anthropic’s safety-first approach, or leverage OpenAI’s broader capabilities and existing integration.
Either way, Siri‘s transformation from digital assistant to AI companion is finally happening—just not with Apple’s own technology powering the conversation.
