Apple has spent the past few years playing AI defense, which in the topsy-turvy world of tech might actually be a winning strategy. At WWDC on Monday, the company plans to reintroduce us to the new Siri. Again. Because the last "new Siri" - unveiled in 2024 with a glowing border, new voices, and the ability to punt questions to ChatGPT - never actually delivered on its promises. Apple Intelligence was supposed to be coming soon; it wasn't. The company's marketing was so misleading it's now settling a class-action lawsuit and paying iPhone owners for features that never shipped. But here's the twist: by fumbling so spectacularly, Apple may have accidentally stumbled into an advantageous position.
Let's be clear: if there were a race to build the ultimate AI assistant, Apple is losing badly. Gemini is already ordering Ubers, DoorDashing teriyaki, and checking your calendar to figure out when you should leave for the airport. Gemini won, fair and square. But there's a growing distrust of AI, especially among young people, and the better Gemini gets, the creepier it becomes. Wanting your assistant to anticipate your next move and actually watching it happen are very different experiences. I willingly gave Gemini access to my Google Photos and Gmail, but hearing it say my son's name out loud still makes my skin crawl.
The new new Siri will be built on top of Gemini in some fashion, with Apple presumably paying handsomely for the privilege. But there's an upside to being one step removed: Apple gets to keep its hands clean while Google takes the heat for building massive, unpopular data center projects across the country. Then there's the Copilot factor - Siri's attempts to summarize messages are amusing and often annoying, but at least Siri isn't begging to summarize every work document. Google, meanwhile, has slapped a Gemini sparkle on nearly every app, risking fatigue.
Apple would love Siri to write emails, perfect photos into "memories," and talk you through reviving your dying plants - it just can't do any of that yet. According to Bloomberg, the new Gemini-enhanced Siri will surface in many places: the Dynamic Island, Photos, and possibly even its own dedicated Siri app for the first time. That's a very different Siri from the timer-setting voice assistant hiding behind the scenes. Apple will also lean hard on privacy, touting Private Cloud Compute and the option to auto-delete chats. That might appeal to people squeamish about handing data to Google, but it won't help those tired of AI being shoved in their face everywhere.
An advantage, especially one you stumble into, can vanish as quickly as it appeared. Apple could frame its slow rollout as the responsible move - Google used to talk about being "bold and responsible" with AI, but now it's too busy firing off new features. Passing off delays as taking time to do things right isn't a bad bet, but the time for false starts is over. Siri has to pull it off for real this time; when a second chance like this comes around, you can't count on it coming back.