Is Siri Getting Roommates? iOS 27 May Let You Choose Your Own AI Model
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In an interesting twist, it seems that Apple will be taking a much more open approach to AI in iOS 27 than we expected. While the company’s next major iPhone update could finally see Siri sliding into home plate, Apple may be letting users expand their horizons beyond Apple’s longstanding — and long-criticized — voice assistant.
In a new report, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman — who seems to have a lot of information to share about iOS 27 these days — shares that Apple plans to let users choose from a selection of third-party AI models not only for a voice assistant, but for a multitude of other AI tasks.
Users will be able to select from multiple third-party AI models for tasks like generating and editing text and images, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The change is slated for iOS 27, iPadOS 27 and macOS 27 this fall, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans are private.
Mark Gurman
This echoes what Apple has already done with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which has served as an optional “extension” to Siri since iOS 18.2, and later joined Image Playground to add some more generative AI styles in iOS 26. However, it seems like Apple plans to go a big step further, allowing all the “AI hooks” in iOS 27 to call up third-party tools of a user’s choice, providing an expanded role for ChatGPT along while inviting Google’s Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude to the party.
From what Gurman’s sources have shared, these will still be considered “extensions” in much the same way ChatGPT is now, but they’ll be able to do a whole lot more than just back up Siri.
“Extensions allow you to access generative AI capabilities from installed apps on demand, through Apple Intelligence features such as Siri, Writing Tools, Image Playground and more,” according to a message Gurman shared from test versions of iOS 27.
Apple also plans to do the same with Siri, dispelling concerns that some analysts shared earlier this year that the ChatGPT integration might “die on the vine” after the more powerful Siri arrives. Instead, Gurman says that not only will ChatGPT remain available as a Siri extension, but that Apple will let users swap it out for others like Gemini and Claude.
This will likely involve deep-level integration far more complex than simply calling up the appropriate third-party apps. ChatGPT can already be used as a Siri extension without having the corresponding app installed, so it’s safe to assume that Gemini, Claude, and others will work in much the same way, with iOS 27 delivering prompts directly to the back-end servers — and likely doing so anonymously unless the user opts to sign into an account with those providers. Apple has reportedly been testing such integrations with both Google and Anthropic for at least a year now.
In what feels like a somewhat ironic strategic play, this may also help Apple to distinguish its new Siri chatbot, which is being built using Gemini’s large language models (LLMs) as a foundation, from the standalone Gemini app — clearing up any misapprehensions that Siri is “powered by Gemini.”
None of this suggests that users will be able to replace Siri with another voice assistant (at least not outside of Japan), but it could go a big step further to letting those conversations be handled by a different AI model — all through the standard Siri interface. In an interesting twist, iOS 27 may even allow users to choose different voices to help distinguish which model is speaking to them. For example, the voice used for a pure Siri response could automatically shift to something completely different when the request gets handed off to ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude.
Apple is naturally expected to load these third-party extensions up with disclaimers denying any responsibility for content generated by those models. It’s also said to be preparing an App Store section to highlight compatible AI apps, but it’s also offering these as alternatives to Siri, not replacements for it.
[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]
