Apple software engineering chief Craig Federighi and marketing chief Greg Joswiak spoke with Mostly Human after WWDC, discussing changes to Siri in iOS 27, Apple’s vision for AI, new child safety protections, and much more.
Apple decided to offer an AI utility, not an AI companion. When asked if users could create an AI boyfriend or girlfriend with the new Siri, Federighi said absolutely no. Siri is supposed to help, and Apple didn’t want to focus on engagement like other AI companies. From Federighi:
Quite the contrary, because as you may know, if you use a lot of existing chatbots, they are really focused on engagement to a large extent. And sycophancy, right? They want to somehow lure you in. They may encourage you to reveal things about yourself and then use that as a basis for building a connection.
We see things the opposite. I mean, the way we designed Siri, Siri really wants to say, “Look, that’s not what I’m here for, right?” I’m here to help you. I can help you get things done. I can help you discover the world. But if you’re trying to engage Siri as a romantic partner, Siri isn’t up for it. Siri is not 100% interested in this.
Joswiak said Apple didn’t want to do AI for AI’s sake, and that the company wanted AI to blend into the iPhone’s existing features.
We love it when technology disappears, don’t we? You just focus on what you want to do or the content. And it’s the same with AI. (…) We don’t do AI for AI’s sake. “Hey, look at us, we’re doing AI.” How does AI make everything better? And that makes our products better, our features better.
He added that he doesn’t want iPhone users to be forced to be “quick experts” in using AI. “We want to meet them where they are,” Joswiak said. “Products and features are improving, and this is just really useful technology to improve those features and products.”
Federighi wanted to make clear that Apple’s approach to AI is focused on privacy.
I think it’s hard for a lot of people to understand the distinction between what your iPhone knows and what, say, Apple as a company knows. Your iPhone is yours, right? Your data belongs to you and stays on your phone and under your control and Siri uses it for you. Apple doesn’t know any of this, and it’s very different from what I think of most in the industry, and I think that’s very important.
The full interview covers other topics such as child safety, AI and jobs, iOS 27 features, Apple’s 50th anniversary, the future of AI, scammers and much more.
