Apple explores replacing Siri with OpenAI or Anthropic AI

Apple is reportedly considering replacing Siri’s AI technology with third-party solutions from OpenAI or Anthropic, according to Bloomberg sources, after the company failed to deliver on its promised AI-powered Siri upgrade for the iPhone 16. This represents a major strategic retreat for one of the world’s largest tech companies, which has faced multiple lawsuits from shareholders and customers over misleading claims about Apple Intelligence features that never materialized.

What you should know: Apple originally promised an AI-powered Siri upgrade when it launched the iPhone 16 in September 2024, but has repeatedly delayed the feature and now may abandon its in-house development entirely.

• The company initially said Apple Intelligence features would “roll out later this year and in the months following” the iPhone 16 launch, with Siri capable of autonomously completing “mundane tasks” for users.
• In June 2025, Apple delayed Siri’s AI upgrade until at least 2026, citing the need to avoid further disappointing customers.
• Anonymous sources told Bloomberg that Apple has asked both OpenAI and Anthropic to train versions of their large language models to run on Apple’s cloud platform for testing.

The legal fallout: Apple’s unfulfilled AI promises have triggered a series of lawsuits from both shareholders and customers who purchased the $799 iPhone 16 based on misleading marketing claims about forthcoming AI capabilities.

Who’s in the running: Anthropic appears to be the frontrunner for potentially powering Siri’s AI capabilities, with sources indicating that Siri chief Mike Rockwell and his team believe Anthropic’s Claude would best align with Apple’s needs.

The bigger picture: Apple’s potential pivot to third-party AI solutions signals the company may be stepping back from the AI arms race that has dominated Big Tech for the past two years.

• In February, Apple announced a $500 billion investment in US tech manufacturing over four years, including a 250,000 square foot server facility in Houston and an engineering academy in Detroit.
• Around the same time it delayed Siri’s upgrade, Apple’s Machine Learning Research lab released a white paper criticizing the AI industry for “massively overhyping” the abilities of top AI models.
• The research specifically challenged OpenAI’s claims that its chatbots can “reason,” a key selling point CEO Sam Altman has used to attract users.

Why this matters: Apple’s retreat from in-house AI development would make it the largest tech company to publicly question the current AI hype cycle, potentially serving as a bellwether for how other major technology firms approach artificial intelligence investments and capabilities.