{"id":12348,"date":"2025-09-09T19:31:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T19:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/12348\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T19:31:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T19:31:08","slug":"apples-new-iphone-17-devices-dont-have-an-ai-powered-siri-yet-it-doesnt-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/12348\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple’s new iPhone 17 devices don’t have an AI-powered Siri yet. It doesn’t matter."},"content":{"rendered":"

At yet another splashy event, Apple on Tuesday introduced its latest lineup of iPhones: the iPhone 17<\/a>, 17 Pro, 17 Pro Max,<\/a> and a new slimmer version dubbed the iPhone Air.<\/a> The \u201cAir\u201d branding is meant to bring to mind other lightweight \u2014 and sometimes<\/a> less expensive \u2014 Apple products like the MacBook Air and iPad Air. But it also recalls a time when smartphone makers were<\/a> chasing<\/a> an ever-thinner phone. In the AI era, however, it\u2019s not necessarily the device\u2019s size that matters; it\u2019s what the software it runs can do.<\/p>\n

On this front, Apple has lagged its competitors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At its iPhone 17 event, the company only referenced AI technology a few times: to rehash some updates announced in June at WWDC<\/a>, like Visual Intelligence and its on-device models, and in some aspects of its camera upgrades, like the iPhone 17\u2019s front camera, which it calls<\/a> Center Stage.<\/p>\n

The most compelling use of AI wasn\u2019t even introduced as a phone upgrade; it was the AI-powered Live Translation feature coming to Apple\u2019s AirPods 3<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There was no mention of Siri at all, AI-powered or otherwise. <\/p>\n

Much<\/a> has<\/a> been<\/a> made<\/a> about<\/a> how<\/a> Apple\u2019s miscalculation on AI could negatively affect its industry standing and future success.\u00a0Meanwhile, Google last month rolled out its latest release of an AI-powered Android phone with its Pixel 10<\/a>, as iPhone owners still await an AI Siri that\u2019s been delayed until 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Until now, Apple has only released what could be considered baseline AI features<\/a> for its devices, like AI writing tools, summarization, generative AI images (which some<\/a> complain<\/a> are not very good), live translation, visual search, and Genmoji<\/a>, among others. Yet a digital assistant that understands a wide range of questions \u2014 without deferring to ChatGPT \u2014 or one that can provide further context from your iPhone apps<\/a> remains overdue.<\/p>\n

Recently, it was reported that Apple is looking to third parties to help it catch up in the AI race. An AI-enhanced Siri could be running some other technology \u2014 like Google Gemini<\/a> \u2014 under the hood.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At first glance, this delay, combined with the decision to rely on a third party \u2014 or even, possibly a sizable acquisition<\/a> \u2014 seems like it could spell bad news for Apple. However, Apple\u2019s decision to outsource some of the phone\u2019s AI technology could actually become a selling point for consumers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s iPhone owners often swap out Apple\u2019s technology for Google\u2019s by opting for Gmail, Google Drive and Docs, Google Maps, and Chrome over Apple\u2019s own apps like Mail, its iWork suite, Apple Maps, and Safari, for example. When people search the web, they turn to Google\u2019s Search app, not Apple\u2019s built-in Spotlight search, despite its many integrations over the years<\/a> to offer basic facts and answers, leveraging sources like Wikipedia.\u00a0Why, then, shouldn\u2019t they be able to use Google\u2019s AI technology, too?<\/p>\n

If Apple does proceed with a third-party deal to integrate AI into its devices, it may work out to be an even bigger win for iPhone owners. It would mean that high-performing AI technology would be integrated into the device more natively. It would feel more seamless, more a part of the iPhone experience itself than simply running an AI app. And Apple could get there without having to invest as heavily in the infrastructure<\/a> required to compete in the AI race, which is good for the company\u2019s (already healthy) bottom line.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Plus, given the speed with which AI technology has been evolving, this design would leave room for Apple to swap out models or expand support to include others, as AI companies edge themselves ahead of others.<\/p>\n

The result for consumers would be the best of both worlds: the aesthetics and hardware quality (thinness and all!) of the iPhone, with Google\u2019s technology (or Anthropic\u2019s or OpenAI\u2019s) powering some of the key AI components.\u00a0That could also be beneficial to Apple\u2019s overall brand.<\/p>\n

It also means that the look-and-feel of updated iPhones themselves and their hardware advances will continue to drive sales and upgrades, allowing Apple to do what it does best: focus on build quality, camera improvements, privacy-preserving tech<\/a>, intentional software design changes like Liquid Glass<\/a> \u2014 and yes, super thin phones.<\/p>\n

Apple could continue to market itself as a best-in-class hardware maker first, not an AI device maker; customers could still long for the latest iPhones, as always, without having to sacrifice the latest technology advances when they make the choice to buy a phone from Apple.<\/p>\n

Of course, this scenario only plays out if and when Apple opts to launch a version of Siri that runs a third-party\u2019s AI technology to enhance its own. (Or if it buys an AI company). But if Apple decides to only rely on its Apple Intelligence offerings without getting them up to speed quickly, the outcome could be much different.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At yet another splashy event, Apple on Tuesday introduced its latest lineup of iPhones: the iPhone 17, 17…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12349,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[365,351,4718,363,364,353,6992,111,139,69,3379,145],"class_list":{"0":"post-12348","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-apple","10":"tag-apple-event","11":"tag-artificial-intelligence","12":"tag-artificialintelligence","13":"tag-iphone","14":"tag-iphone-17","15":"tag-new-zealand","16":"tag-newzealand","17":"tag-nz","18":"tag-siri","19":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}