Apple weighs abandoning its own AI for Siri as it tests models from OpenAI and Anthropic

Apple is considering whether to have Siri run on AI models from Anthropic or OpenAI, Bloomberg reports. Such a move would mark a significant shift for the company and signal that Apple's own AI development has not kept pace.

Discussions are ongoing with both Anthropic and OpenAI to provide customized versions of their models for Apple's own cloud servers. Up to now, Apple has relied on its own foundation models and planned a new Siri version based on them for 2026. Adopting external models would be a sign that Apple can no longer compete at the top of the generative AI field.

The push for this transition comes from Siri lead Mike Rockwell and software chief Craig Federighi, who took over Siri after former AI chief John Giannandrea was moved aside. After testing Anthropic's Claude, OpenAI's ChatGPT, and Google's Gemini, Apple's team found Claude performed best. However, Anthropic is demanding a multi-billion dollar annual fee, which could ultimately drive Apple toward OpenAI.

Apple could rely on external models on internal infrastructure

The potential shift has stirred unrest inside Apple. Members of the foundation models team view it as a lack of confidence in their work and are considering leaving for higher-paying competitors like Meta or OpenAI. Leading LLM expert Tom Gunter recently left the company, and the MLX team, which manages Apple's open-source AI framework, threatened to quit before management intervened.

If Apple decides to go with an external model, it still plans to run it on its own servers equipped with M-series chips, not on third-party infrastructure. According to Bloomberg, this is intended to maintain privacy and control. Preliminary testing is already underway. Smaller AI features, such as Genmojis and email summaries, would continue to run directly on Apple's devices.

Meanwhile, Apple is scaling back other AI projects. The Swift Assist coding model has been scrapped, with future versions of Xcode expected to integrate ChatGPT or Claude. Giannandrea has also lost oversight of robotics and the Core ML teams. Apple reportedly considered acquiring AI startup Perplexity, but no agreement has been reached.