Apple May Ditch In-House AI For Siri In Favour Of OpenAI Or Anthropic Tech

Apple in Talks with OpenAI and Anthropic

Insiders say Apple has reached out to Anthropic, creator of Claude, and OpenAI, behind ChatGPT, to see if custom versions of their huge language models could run on Apple's own Private Cloud Compute. Under this plan, the updated Siri, now targeted for 2026, would lean on these partners to heavy lifting while still fitting Apple's privacy-first design.

Tests already pitted Apple's in-house Foundation Models against Claude and ChatGPT, and leaked results showed Anthropic pulling ahead, leading to the deeper conversations we see today.

Strategic U-Turn on Generative AI

Rumours of a course correction reveal how deeply Apple is wrestling with generative artificial intelligence. Once, the company promised its next wave of Siri features powered by internally built models in 2025; now, disappointing progress has extended that target all the way to spring 2026.

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Siri’s future has shifted hands: Mike Rockwell and Craig Federighi now oversee the group once guided by Apple AI chief John Giannandrea. Their job is straightforward yet daunting: assess whether borrowing outside tech could plug the gaps left by Apples own efforts. So far, the answer appears to be yes-in-house models simply lack the punch needed today.

Apple’s Internal AI Team Faces Pressure

Those inquiries have stirred genuine unrest inside Apples AI division. Whispers of low morale circulate, especially among researchers who feel their work has been pushed to the background. Ruoming Pangs foundation-model team, reporting to Daphne Luong, privately worries that leaning on third-party tools paints their own progress in an unflattering light.

Adding fuel to the fire, rivals such as Meta and OpenAI are waving paychecks billions above Apples usual scale. Reports say Meta has tempted some AI hands with annual packages ranging from 10 million to 40 million. By contrast, Apple still sticks to more modest compensation, making it harder to keep its talent in house.

Apple has seen some talent leave, most notably senior LLM researcher Tom Gunter, and the company only just kept its MLX team after scrambling with counteroffers.

Ongoing Financial Negotiations

Anthropic is now Apple’s top pick for breathing new life into Siri, yet the two sides keep butting heads over costs. The startup wants a multibillion-dollar, escalating yearly contract, so Apple is also flirting with OpenAI to keep its options open.

In the meantime, Apple has already slipped ChatGPT into web queries, Writing Tools, and image analysis, with a bigger rollout planned for iOS 17 later this year.

No Plans to Abandon In-House AI Completely

Even while courting outside partners, Apple is not ready to shutter its in-house AIs. It still plans to power on-device tasks with its own models and give third-party developers access later this year.

That said, some engineers worry that if external systems outshine Auntie Siri, she could be among the first features handed off entirely.

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Broader AI Strategy and Future Outlook

Apples executive team green-lit a multibillion-dollar AI infrastructure budget for 2026, yet spacers still keep details of the long-term plan flexible. Internally, engineers are pushing several AI-heavy prototypes, such as a lidar-enabled tabletop robot and mixed-reality smart glasses.

On the acquisition front, sources say Apple has eyed Perplexity AI and previously discussed a buy with Thinking Machines Lab, the studio co-founded by ex-OpenAI CTO Mira Murati.

In a related move, Swift Assist-feared as redundant-was shelved; the new line is to embed models such as ChatGPT and Claude straight into Xcode by late 2025.

Plans to slot third-party AI from OpenAI or Anthropic into Siri mark a striking turn for a firm that once prided itself on full vertical control. If the rollout sticks, Apple could narrow the generative AI gap, boost Siris smarts, and reframe how customers meet everyday tasks with AI. Still, the pivot lays bare rocky internal debates, morale slips, and the deeper question of whether-or how-Apples proud engineering culture can keep pace in an AI world that alters faster than the seasons.