Apple has finally brought what it calls “real AI” to Siri, directly benchmarking the updated assistant against OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The move signals a major shift in how the company approaches voice assistants and artificial intelligence, and it intensifies competition in a space that has been dominated by chatbots and large language models.
What “Real AI” Means for Siri
For years, Siri has been seen as lagging behind rivals like Google Assistant and Amazon’s Alexa in natural language understanding and conversational ability. Apple’s latest update changes that. The company says Siri can now handle more complex requests, maintain context across interactions, and generate responses that feel less scripted. The improvements are powered by Apple’s own large language models, which the company has been developing internally.
Apple is not just relying on its own technology. The company is also integrating third-party models into Siri, creating a multi-model ecosystem. This means users could get answers from different AI engines depending on the task, with Siri acting as a gateway. The approach is a departure from Apple’s traditionally closed ecosystem, where the company controlled every layer of the user experience.
Benchmarking Against ChatGPT
In its announcement, Apple directly compared Siri’s performance to ChatGPT, the chatbot from OpenAI that has become a cultural phenomenon. The company claims that on several standard benchmarks for reasoning, summarization, and code generation, the new Siri matches or exceeds ChatGPT’s capabilities. Apple did not release the full benchmark data, but the comparison itself is notable. It shows that Apple is no longer content to let third-party AI assistants define the conversation.
The move also puts pressure on OpenAI, which has been racing to expand ChatGPT’s capabilities and user base. Apple’s integration of AI into its ecosystem — including iPhones, iPads, Macs, and the HomePod — could give Siri a distribution advantage that ChatGPT lacks.
Apple’s strategy reflects a broader industry trend. Instead of relying on a single AI model, companies are building platforms that can tap into multiple models for different tasks. Google has its own models but also offers access to third-party ones through its cloud. Microsoft has invested heavily in OpenAI but also develops its own models. Apple’s approach is similar: Siri will use Apple’s models for privacy-sensitive tasks on-device, but can also call on cloud-based models for more complex queries.
This hybrid model could appeal to users who are concerned about privacy. Apple has long marketed itself as a privacy-first company, and running AI on-device reduces the amount of data sent to the cloud. At the same time, the company acknowledges that some tasks require cloud computing power, and it says it will handle that data with strong encryption and minimal retention.
Competition Heats Up
The AI assistant market is more crowded than ever. OpenAI’s ChatGPT has over 100 million weekly active users. Google’s Bard (now Gemini) is being integrated into Android and Google Workspace. Amazon is revamping Alexa with generative AI. And now Apple is re-entering the fray with a Siri that can actually hold a conversation.
The timing is critical. Apple’s next major software update, expected later this year, will bring the new Siri to millions of devices. If the assistant performs as advertised, it could change how people interact with their iPhones and other Apple products. But if it falls short, the company risks being seen as a follower rather than a leader in AI.
One open question is how developers will respond. Apple is opening Siri to third-party apps in a limited way, but Whether that will be enough to build a rich ecosystem of AI-powered features. The company has not announced a specific release date for the updated Siri beyond “later this year.”
