AI at Apple: Sorry about Siri, better visual intelligence, more ChatGPT

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At Apple's keynote for WWDC 2025 on Whit Monday, many observers wondered whether the company would also provide information on postponed important new Siri functions. And indeed, software boss Craig Federighi briefly mentioned the topic after speaking positively about Apple Intelligence, which was introduced last year. The executive said they had already communicated that "we're continuing our work to make Siri even more personalized." This work "took more time to reach our high quality criteria". They are now looking forward to "sharing more about this [with you] in the coming year". There had previously been speculation that Apple could possibly show the improved Siri as early as the fall, after the company had restructured the relevant department.

Three Siri functions are still missing

Federighi emphasized that Siri had already been made "more natural and helpful" with Apple Intelligence. However, the new features were actually very limited. For example, Siri should be able to "hold" conversations for longer, i.e. refer to previous statements. In practice, however, this only works halfway. The three most important features announced by Apple are still completely missing: personal context for the voice assistant, working directly with apps and recognizing what is currently on the screen.

Visual intelligence for screenshots

However, Apple now wants to implement the latter at least partially with iOS 26, albeit in a different way than originally planned: In the form of an improved Visual Intelligence function. The function has already been around for some time and allows camera content to be analyzed with the help of other services such as Google. For example, you can enter concert dates or receive information about places of interest. What is new is that Visual Intelligence can now also handle screenshots. To do this, you use the typical shortcut on the iPhone and can then select to have the screenshot analyzed. At the keynote, this was demonstrated for finding a jacket on the Internet, for example, and it is also possible to mark areas of the image. The use of screenshots is clever because the user retains full control over what is transmitted to the AI. Apple not only uses its own technology and Google, but also Open AI processes. However, some of the AI functions are also carried out on the device using Apple's own models.

Image generators from OpenAI

Finally, Apple is expanding its image generators with iOS 26. The company will not only use its own models in future, but is also adding the option of using ChatGPT for creation to its Image Playground app. It initially remained unclear how extensive this will be, but Apple initially only seems to want to enable "certain styles", as is already known from its own limited models. Image Playground will now also be available as an API for developers to save costs. The Genmoji function, the second Apple image generator for creating ideograms, will be able to do (slightly) more in future. Two existing emojis can be combined and there are more facial expressions and hairstyles for those that resemble people. iOS 26 will be available in the fall, a beta phase for developers is currently underway, followed by a public beta in July. Incidentally, Apple did not provide any information about the integration of Google Gemini in Apple Intelligence, although Alphabet boss Sundar Pichai had already given the first hints about this.

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