In his final earnings call as Apple's CEO, Tim Cook mentioned that the company's long-awaited Siri AI upgrade might include paywalled features for heavy users. Cook said that while these plans are not finalized, Apple envisions allowing users to purchase more compute for Siri AI through its existing iCloud+ subscriptions, which provide extended cloud storage. 'We do believe there will be people that want to use [Siri AI] a lot, and so we will have some kind of upgrade possibilities on iCloud+, where people can buy up the stack on iCloud+,' Cook stated. 'We could not be more excited about where [Siri AI] is.'
Most AI providers, including Anthropic and OpenAI, offer a limited free version with the option to upgrade for more usage. The enhanced Siri AI is currently available in the iOS 27 beta and is set to roll out more widely this fall. As John Ternus, Apple's longtime Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering, steps into Cook's role, he will lead the company through a pivotal period. Apple has lagged in developing an advanced AI assistant, even licensing a custom Gemini model from Google to enhance Siri. The Siri AI overhaul was so delayed that Apple had to pay $250 million to settle a class-action lawsuit over how it marketed the iPhone 16’s AI capabilities.
Source: techcrunch
