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With the launch of Apple Intelligence in 2024, Apple began to take AI seriously. But it took the company another two years to finally get its Siri assistant to the level of generative AI robots like Google Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
With a little help from Google, the new and improved Siri AI will come to millions of iPhones, iPads, and Macs this year, first in public beta versions of iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 Golden Gate, and then with full releases later in 2026.
There are improvements in almost every aspect of how Siri works: its responses are better, it’s more contextually aware, and finally it syncs your chats between devices. It’s effectively the Siri 2.0 update that should have arrived with Apple Intelligence, and now it’s also appearing as its own app for the first time.
You can even change the expressiveness of Siri AI, although these advanced customizations are exclusive to the newest and most powerful Apple devices: iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max or iPhone Air, iPad models with an M4 chip or later and at least 12 GB of RAM, and Macs with an M3 chip or later and at least 12 GB of RAM.
When you get access to Siri AI, you can use it with a “hey Siri” command, pressing and holding the side button, or by launching the app. It is available through Dynamic Island on iPhones, through Spotlight on iPads and Macs, and through the menu bar on Macs.
Once Siri is listening, here’s what you can do.
Ask more questions and get smarter answers
One of the areas where Siri AI improves over the old Siri is in real-world awareness. Now you can ask questions like “when is Taylor Swift’s concert in New York?” or “how many days until the NBA season starts?” and get accurate, informed answers, usually with additional context attached.
Siri AI is also better at a broader range of queries, whether you want to explain DNA in a simple way or need the assistant to brainstorm ideas for a 5-year-old’s birthday party. These are indications that AI bots like ChatGPT have been adeptly handling for several years, and Siri AI means Apple has caught up.
Try asking how to reset an iPhone, how to replace a shower head, or what are the best ways to attract birds to your garden, and Siri AI will give you appropriate, intelligent answers that make sense. Many of these more advanced questions would have stumped the old Siri, or at least depended on its previous ChatGPT extension.
What Siri AI can’t do and ChatGPT and Gemini can is generate images. To do this, you need to head to the Image Playground app on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac. This has also been greatly improved and can now generate a wider variety of image styles (including photorealistic images) and make specific edits to your AI art.
Interact with applications and what appears on the screen
Siri AI also interacts better with your apps and devices. Try asking it to increase the screen brightness or turn on airplane mode. You can have it “compose a new email” or “set a reminder” and it will interact with the appropriate Apple app accordingly, making controlling your devices with your voice easier.
You can take this to another level. If someone named Sophie has texted you her address before, you can tell Siri to “remind me where Sophie lives” and she’ll know what you’re talking about and figure out the details. It also works with photos: a command like “show me photos of Paris but only with the family in them” will also work.
Additional tricks that Siri AI has learned have to do with what’s on the screen. You can ask the AI assistant “where is this?” if there’s a photo of a location currently showing, or say something like “give me some ideas for this event” if a friend sends you an email inviting you to a costume party.
You can be a little more precise if you’re on a Mac running macOS 27. Press the shortcut Shift+Cmd+6, drag a rectangle across the part of the screen you want to focus on, and then select Ask Siri to ask a question about it. Maybe you want to identify a phone model or a type of tree, for example, or you’ve seen a picture of a meal on the web and want instructions on how to prepare it.
Siri AI typing and customizations
If you must use AI-generated text for your notes, emails, and other writing, Siri AI offers improvements here as well. For example, in an open email draft, you can ask him to compose a stern complaint to your landlord, or in a blank note, you can ask him to include you on a shopping list for a buffet for five people.
On iPhones and iPads, it’s easier to just say these commands (you can also let Siri AI do the work of launching apps). On Mac, voice works too, but there is also the option to right-click inside any text field to find the Ask Siri option, whether you’re in your browser or Pages (by the way, no AI help was used when writing this article).
As mentioned above, on the latest Apple devices, you can now find additional customization options through siri in Settings (iPhone and iPad) or System configuration (Waterproof). You can choose from a selection of voice styles, and you also get sliders that adjust the pace and “expressiveness” that Siri AI uses when speaking.
Don’t forget the standalone app too, which is new with Siri AI. You can launch it like a regular app, and the interface lets you browse recent conversations with the assistant, pick up where you left off (even if you’re now on a different device), and delete chats you no longer need.
Disclosure: Ziff Davis, the parent company of Popular Science, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in April 2025, alleging that it infringed Ziff Davis’ copyrights by training and operating its AI systems.
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