Apple's new Siri ships as a beta, on models built in collaboration with Google.
The release says the models behind it were custom-built with Google, and it ships switched off in the EU and in China.
On September 14, 2026, Apple turned on a new Siri. The newsroom release, Siri AI, a profoundly more capable and personal assistant, is here, went up the same day as the updates that carry it: iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, watchOS 27 and visionOS 27.
I went in looking for what the assistant can do now. The sentence that stopped me was about where the intelligence comes from.
- Available
- September 14, 2026
- Siri AI
- Beta in English, more languages coming in October
- Models
- Custom-built in collaboration with Google and its Gemini models
- Not in
- Initially the EU, and China
- Server features
- Subject to daily usage limits
Apple's models, built with Google
Apple has always described the intelligence in its products as its own. The release still does, and then it keeps going in the same sentence.
These new capabilities are powered by the next generation of Apple Foundation Models, custom-built in collaboration with Google and its Gemini models for deeply integrated Apple Intelligence experiences.
Those models "run on device and on servers using Private Cloud Compute", the arrangement Apple uses when a request is too big for the phone. The release says that while Private Cloud Compute is handling a request, the personal data in it "is not stored nor made accessible to Apple or anyone else".
The headline feature is a beta
Siri AI "begins rolling out today in beta in English", and Apple names the languages that follow: French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish, in October. A yearly software release usually saves the word beta for the things that aren't ready, and Apple has put it on the assistant the whole update is named for.
Siri AI is a more capable and conversational assistant with personal context understanding, broad world knowledge, onscreen awareness, and even more systemwide app actions
Two of those are worth spelling out. Personal context lets Siri answer from a user's own messages, emails and photos. Onscreen awareness lets it act on whatever is in front of you.
Where it isn't, and what runs out
Two places don't get it. "Siri AI will not be available initially in the EU in iOS, iPadOS, and watchOS", and in China neither Siri AI nor the other new Apple Intelligence features arrive "while Apple works through regulatory requirements".
There's also a ceiling on the rest of it. Anything that leans on Apple's servers is "subject to daily usage limits, including but not limited to Siri AI, intelligent photo editing tools, Image Playground, and AFM 3 Cloud models in Shortcuts".
The release gives no number for those limits. It says they "may vary by feature, request complexity, system demand" and other factors, and sends you to a support page.
A demo answers what Siri AI can do. The number I want is how many requests a day you get before the new assistant hands you back to the old one, and Apple hasn't printed it.