Apple settles 'Siri AI' lawsuit for $250M as Gemini-powered Siri enters iOS 27 beta

Apple's $250 million settlement closes a class action over the long-delayed Siri AI features first previewed back in June 2024. Eligible owners of certain iPhone models may receive up to $95 each, a tangible cost for Apple's stumbles in shipping the revamped assistant. The revamped Siri AI, powered by Apple Intelligence, is now available in the iOS 27 developer beta after being formally announced at WWDC 2026.

The most strategically revealing detail is that Apple developed Siri AI in collaboration with Google — a Gemini-powered rebuild that acknowledges Apple couldn't get there alone on its own models. That dependency drew mixed sentiment on r/LocalLLaMA, with users worrying about Google reliance and 'years of damage to the Siri brand,' and local-first advocates skeptical of a cloud-dependent architecture.

That skepticism connects to a second report: Apple is reportedly interested in a startup, PrismML, that runs giant AI models directly on iPhone without servers. That would let Apple reconcile its privacy-and-on-device brand with the reality that its assistant currently leans on Google's cloud model — reducing the Gemini dependency over time while preserving the marketing story. For now, the settlement plus the beta mark Apple finally shipping something after years of delay, but at the cost of admitting it needed Google to do it. The competitive question is whether Apple can eventually bring frontier-quality assistance fully on-device, or whether Siri remains structurally dependent on a rival's model — an uncomfortable position for a company that sells privacy as a feature.