Apple May Turn Siri Into an AI Chatbot to Compete With ChatGPT.
Last week, Apple finally acknowledged that it would need to team up with Google to fulfill its two-year-old promise of contextual Siri integration, which would allow the virtual assistant to integrate with content like text messages or emails to answer personal questions and perform actions on your behalf. Now, according to a new report, the iPhone maker may go even further and transform Siri into a full-fledged AI chatbot—on par with ChatGPT, and possibly even more sophisticated.
Currently, Siri has built-in artificial intelligence, but only technically, and it’s certainly disappointing : you can use it to get technical support for Apple products or forward questions to ChatGPT, but otherwise, Siri works pretty much the same as always. But according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman , who has previously reliably reported Apple inside information, the company is finally committed not only to making Siri smarter but also to changing the way you interact with it. The new Siri chatbot interface, planned for iOS and macOS 27 and called “Campos,” will still work on Gemini, but will allow you to both type and speak to Siri, ensuring full continuity between your conversations. This update will complement the features already announced.
In other words, it will look roughly like the chatbot interface from the ChatGPT app or the standalone Gemini app. Yes, you can technically type to Siri now, but it mostly functions as a separate input method rather than a full-fledged conversation. You can’t scroll through your previous questions to Siri or view the assistant’s previous responses, and if you ask Siri to refer to a message you sent her two weeks ago, she won’t have a clue what you mean. This lags significantly behind what other AI-powered chatbots currently offer .
The update also appears to expand Siri’s capabilities beyond the already announced contextual and personalization enhancements. Gurman says that while contextual enhancements will be able to pull information from other apps like Messages, chatbot-style Siri will be “integrated into all of the company’s major apps, including mail, music, podcasts, TV, Xcode, and Photos.” Essentially, Siri will have greater access to your iPhone than other AI-powered chatbots, and these integrations will go beyond what was previously promised. This may make it more or less appealing to you, depending on your preferences for AI integration .
When might the new Siri appear?
Since the chatbot interface is planned for release in iOS 27, it will likely arrive after the contextual updates, rather than simultaneously. This is because, as Gurman previously stated, these updates are planned for the spring. He predicts we’ll learn more about it during this year’s WWDC, which, if the pattern is consistent with previous years, will take place in June.
Turning Siri into a chatbot may seem like a long-overdue upgrade, as Google already did the same with Gemini on Android, but it’s also somewhat surprising, as Apple has previously stated that it has no intention of turning Siri into a “supplemental chatbot” for Apple Intelligence.
But Apple was likely talking about the quality of the user experience, rather than any significant negative sentiment among the development team toward chatbots, meaning that turning Siri into a chatbot could signal that the company is finally happy with the direction it’s headed. It’s also possible, however, that the stated skepticism about turning Siri into a chatbot was intended to appeal to those skeptical of AI in general. Unfortunately, if you’re still skeptical of AI, it looks like iOS 27 will be a dull update for you, as Gurman indicated that the new Siri chatbot will be the operating system’s “major innovation.”
Regardless of your personal feelings, Siri as a fully-fledged AI chatbot could seriously undermine ChatGPT’s market dominance—ironic, given its early integration with Apple Intelligence. Currently, OpenAI has reportedly acknowledged its critical situation, losing market share to Google and introducing advertising to boost profits. A new Siri powered by Gemini is unlikely to harm Google (though it will have more access to your phone than the standalone Gemini app), but its ease of use could make it a new favorite among iPhone users, which could harm virtually all AI companies that Apple doesn’t partner with directly.