Apple has updated all of its products, adding a host of performance improvements, child safety features and long-promised AI changes.
The updates were revealed at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, held in California this week. Usually, Apple uses the conference to reveal an array of feature updates for all of its software – but, this time around, the company focused primarily on three themes.
There are new features: the company will let people use artificial intelligence to edit photos by moving the camera around in space and having AI fill in the gaps, for instance. But it was an event marked primarily by changes in strategy.
The first two were relatively simple. One was a commitment to performance, with a range of changes especially to the iPhone that Apple promises will make it faster at loading apps and showing photos; the company also revealed a host of new safety measures intended to make it easier for parents to keep their children protected online.
But the third was both more substantial and potentially more controversial. It finally announced a long-promised new version of Siri that leans much more heavily on artificial intelligence and a users’ personal context.
That means that users will be able to ask what restaurant they visited on a trip and have the phone scan through photos and find out the place it might have been, for instance. Or they could ask when a friends’ flight is due to land and it will scan through messages, find the flight number, and look up its arrival time.
As well as the more spectacular features, Siri should also be able to be more conversational, allowing users to go back and forth in chats. And it comes with a new app, where those conversations will be stored, as well as a whole new look and an improved voice.
The new Siri is also aware of what is on screen, so that users can ask for information about where a photo was taken – and then progress through a conversation about how to drive there, for instance. And it is able to interact with apps, allowing it to control the phone as well as understand what is happening on it.
The new AI Siri is controversial in part because Apple promised much the same changes two years ago, at the same event in 2024. But over the year that followed it became clear that Apple had over-promised, or at least under-estimated how long it would take, and it eventually said that new version of Siri had been delayed.
Now it has arrived, however, along with big statements from Apple about the foundations of those same features. Apple has entirely re-imagined Siri so that it makes heavy use of new models – including those licensed from Google – which not only will finally make those features available but also provide a foundation for adding new AI-powered tools in the future, it said.
But the announcement was also a reminder of the pressure that Apple is under from critics and especially from regulators. As soon as Apple announced the new Siri – known as “Siri AI” – it said also that it would be unavailable in Europe and China because of ongoing troubles with regulators.
All of the updates are available now in early versions for developers, and will be released fully in September, alongside new iPhones. As well as the geographical limitations, most of the new features require Apple’s newer devices.
As well as the new announcements, this year’s WWDC event was notable because it was the last to be hosted by Tim Cook, Apple’s outgoing chief executive. He will be replaced by John Ternus – the company’s hardware chief – who did not appear at the event.