Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of engineering, said the new Siri would resist romance attempts.
Siri AI will repel users’ attempts at romance, according to Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of engineering. As Woozad reported, Federighi clarified that the Siri upgrade for iOS 27 won’t bother you like other AI in an interview with the podcast Mainly humanwith Apple marketing chief Greg Joswiak.
“Quite the contrary, because as you may know, if you use a lot of existing chatbots, they focus to a large extent on engagement. And sycophancy, right? They kind of want to lure you in,” Federighi responded when asked about the possibility of Siri becoming a user’s AI partner. “They kind of want to lure you in.
He added that other AIs could encourage users to reveal more about themselves and then use that information to make a connection. Apple, however, designed Siri to set and maintain boundaries, so to speak. “Siri really wants to say, ‘Look, that’s not why I’m here, right? I’m here to help you. I can help you get things done,'” he explained.
Joswiak added that Apple likes the technology behind its features to “disappear” into the background, so its users can simply focus on what they want to do or focus on the content itself. The company doesn’t want or need its users to become quick experts in getting the most out of Siri. “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.”
It was a nearly two-year delay before Apple officially introduced the new Gemini-powered Siri that it showed off at WWDC in 2024. The new Siri will be more deeply integrated into Apple’s mobile platform, as well as its apps, including Camera and Photos. It can search the web, understand on-screen context, and take into account the user’s personal information to perform various tasks. Apple will also launch a dedicated Siri app to compete with chatbots like ChatGPT and Claude, allowing users to speak to the assistant via text and voice.
