Apple agrees to $250M settlement over delayed Siri AI features

The suit centered on Apple advertising advanced Siri capabilities — understanding personal context and on-screen awareness — that were subsequently delayed. Under the settlement, eligible iPhone owners could receive up to $95 per device, with the total capped at $250 million. It is a rare monetary acknowledgment that Apple over-promised on AI timelines during its slow, cautious entry into generative assistants.

The product itself is finally materializing: 'Siri AI,' partially powered by a custom version of Google's Gemini, was announced at WWDC 2026 and is now in the iOS 27 developer beta, where the latest build lets Siri pull information from third-party apps. Full availability is expected with iOS 27 in September for iPhone 15 Pro and newer. Separately, Apple is reportedly interested in startup PrismML, which runs giant AI models on-device without servers — the same firm that compressed Alibaba's 27B Qwen 3.6 to under 4GB to run on an iPhone 17 Pro.

The Gemini dependency is the strategic story: Apple, which prizes vertical control, is leaning on Google's model for Siri's intelligence while pursuing on-device inference (via interest in PrismML) as a hedge. The settlement closes a reputational chapter, but the real test is whether the shipped Siri lives up to the marketing that triggered the lawsuit in the first place.