A new report seems to hint that a true AI iPhone will not be here until 2026 at the earliest. That’s when Apple is supposed to offer a more conversational “LLM Siri.” Judging by today’s slate of AI chatbots, Apple can certainly take its time.
The wait will be pretty excruciating either way. On Thursday, Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman—a reliable Apple tipster—reported that Apple’s working on a so-called “LLM Siri.” The LLM refers to “large language models,” the algorithmic backends that support modern AI chatbots. This version of Siri could hold a conversation better than the current rendition of Apple’s assistant. According to Gurman, it could also handle more complicated requests, citing anonymous sources.
We’re expecting Siri to get cross-app connectivity next spring. This should allow you to ask Siri to search through your emails for that dinner reservation, and when Siri finds it, you could ask the assistant to add it to your calendar. It’s essentially what Google’s Gemini app currently does, and you can get it on Android or iOS.
The next, next version of Siri could also take control of third-party apps and perform complex actions across the device. Essentially, what Apple is attempting is something called “agentification.” Almost every other phone maker worldwide has the same idea, and we’ll likely see much more of it in 2025.
While Apple hasn’t provided an official launch date for the updated LLM Siri, the conversational Siri may not arrive until 2026. Gurman noted that Apple may announce this assistant update after it shows off iOS 19 and macOS 16. In June, the Cupertino, California tech giant revealed Apple Intelligence during WWDC 2024. If the company were to make a big deal of upcoming iOS features, it would be at WWDC 2025, but there’s always a chance the company will push the announcement back.
It may not matter if Apple is late to the party. Gemini Live is neat, but it’s currently limited. Gemini Live can’t access your phone’s apps. While it can access information from the internet, you can’t see the text from your chat until you exit the Live interface. In conversations, you quickly learn it’s merely a gussied-up chatbot that sounds more human but is still prone to all the mistakes and confident fibbing as a typical LLM. Just because it can string more words together doesn’t mean it’s more effective.
It’s why you have people who never took a humanities course in college proclaiming that OpenAI’s GPT 4o is somehow a revolution in human creativity. On Wednesday, OpenAI said it updated its chatbot to be better at “creative writing.” Then you had AI evangelists having ChatGPT create a rap with bars like:
“Yo, I’m tangled with the beat, spooky action in the booth,
Split the atom with a pattern, every bar’s a burst of truth.”
Even if the LLM improves, the emotional void left by the chatbot will still be as apparent as ever. A better Siri that can respond human-ish doesn’t really change how I use an iPhone. The cross-app connectivity promises some new use cases, but I don’t necessarily trust it to complete my tasks to the letter. For now, I’m happy laughing at Apple’s AI notification summaries as they summarize my plans for drinks with friends by saying, “Reply: is good for classic dinkle.”
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