Apple ships Gemini-powered Siri AI, but not in EU

Apple's rebuild of Siri follows a long stretch of delays that the article says cost people their jobs, and it leans on Google's Gemini models to close a gap Apple could not close alone. The assistant runs partly on the device and partly through Private Cloud Compute, and Apple says personal data is neither stored nor made accessible to the company. Beyond Siri, Apple is spreading AI across the system — Photos tools like Spatial Reframing and Extend, photorealistic images in Image Playground through Private Cloud Compute, and planned Audio Intelligence features for the Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4.

Early reviews are mixed in a specific way. TechCrunch's Ivan Mehta calls the new Siri a step forward for multi-step requests and screen context, and Dan Moren of Six Colors reports everyday wins but warns about misunderstandings and hallucinations. MacStories' Federico Viticci is more critical, finding that Siri repeatedly failed questions about personal context even when the information was in his messages, with some answers out of date. That gap between promise and personal-context performance is likely to shape how quickly users trust the assistant again.

For now the rollout is narrow. Siri AI is a beta in English only, with more languages set to follow next month, and the EU and China are excluded while Apple works through privacy, security and regulatory questions. Server-side features come with daily usage limits, and expanded access is set to cost money down the line — so the test of this launch may be less about the model under the hood and more about whether Apple can extend availability and fix the personal-context gaps testers flagged.