Apple debuts rebuilt Siri AI at WWDC 2026 — with no Gemini inside its own models

Apple framed the new Siri as 'profoundly more capable,' adding a dedicated conversation app, expanded Visual Intelligence, and integrated writing tools across iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, and visionOS 27. The pitch centers on personal context — Siri can reason over a user's texts, emails, and photos — alongside broad world knowledge, addressing years of criticism that Siri lagged ChatGPT-class assistants.

The most-scrutinized detail is what's absent: Apple's own foundation models use none of Google's Gemini, despite reporting of a broader Apple-Google partnership. That drew developer scrutiny over the true scope of the deal and the credibility of Apple's on-device privacy positioning. Conflicting reports suggest Apple's Private Cloud Compute may lean on Google Cloud and NVIDIA confidential computing for heavier inference, leaving the exact division between on-device and cloud unclear.

Competitively, the rebuilt Siri lands as Microsoft and Apple both emphasize local AI, fueling an r/LocalLLaMA debate about when markets will price in the on-device shift. Features are in developer testing now with a user beta later this year — a cautious cadence that invites skepticism given Apple's history of pre-announcing Siri capabilities that slipped. Watch whether the personal-context features ship on time and how much genuinely runs on-device versus Google Cloud.