PRODUCTS

Apple is retooling Siri for a run at ChatGPT

Apple is behind in the AI race, largely because it has failed to deliver on its promise to upgrade Siri into a more advanced personal intelligence system. However, a new report points to an overhaul that would make Siri more like the world's most popular AI tools.

Bloomberg Apple watcher Mark Gurman reported that Apple has plans to turn Siri into the company’s first artificial intelligence chatbot, code-named "Campos," according to people familiar with the plan. Campos will be “deeply embedded” across the Apple ecosystem, including the iPhone, iPad and Mac operating systems, replacing the current Siri interface, according to the report. 

In addition to helping with regular chatbot tasks, such as searching the web and generating content and images, it will also provide more personalized assistance, such as using personal data to take action and locating files, texts, and other media, Gurman reports.

Beyond being powered by a custom AI model developed by the Google Gemini team, the chatbot may be hosted directly on Google's servers rather than Apple’s Private Compute servers. This would be a sharp deviation for the company that has built a reputation for prioritizing privacy on its devices by using its proprietary servers. 

In terms of a timeline, it won’t be launched until Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), which typically takes place at the beginning of June. The report also stated that Campos will feature both voice and typing modes and will be integrated into iOS 27. 

Before that, the highly anticipated iOS 26.4 Siri update will likely still launch in the coming months. This update will not be as major, with Siri keeping its current interface and adding features such as better web search, access to personal data, and screen analysis. 

While Apple is internally testing the chatbot as a standalone Siri app, similar to the ChatGPT and Gemini apps that are already leading the market, the company does not plan to release it to consumers. Rather, the plan is to limit the rollout to the operating systems, according to Gurman's report.

Apple continues to play from behind in the AI race. It unveiled Apple Intelligence after peers had already launched advanced AI offerings, and touted features that have yet to come to fruition. Yet by leveraging Google’s advanced AI models and combining them with Apple’s hardware, which has the competitive advantage of extreme customer loyalty, the company might still find its entry point into the market. However, in doing so, it is important that Apple balances its desire to compete with what makes the brand special, such as prioritizing user privacy, ease of use, and design excellence. 

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OPEN SOURCE

Chinese open-source AI draws U.S. demand

China’s open-source AI prowess has been a looming threat. Now, US labs may be seeking it out. 

On Thursday, WIRED published an analysis of more than 5,000 research papers from the AI conference NeurIPS, which found that about 3% involve collaboration between US and Chinese institutions. The research also found that Meta’s Llama family was a key element in more than 100 papers from Chinese institutions, while Alibaba’s Qwen models were a part of more than 60 papers from US authors. 

The analysis underscores a broader uptick in the popularity of Chinese open source AI models. Earlier this month, the Qwen family of models surpassed 700 million downloads globally on Hugging Face, outpacing Meta’s Llama models on the platform. The use of these affordable models has begun to take root in Silicon Valley, with many choosing to build on Chinese open-source systems rather than on proprietary US-made ones. 

And tech executives at the World Economic Forum in Davos have echoed this sentiment: 

• Arthur Mensch, CEO of Mistral, said in an interview with Bloomberg on Thursday that the idea that Chinese AI lags behind that of the West is a “fairy tale,” noting that the region’s open-source tech is “probably stressing the CEOs in the US.”

• And Tencent Senior Vice President Dowson Tong pushed the narrative that an open ecosystem prioritizing interoperability is the most viable path to reaping real benefits from AI. 

The buzz around China’s more efficient, open AI ecosystems stands in stark contrast to the push in the US to develop powerful proprietary systems domestically. The emphasis from both leading US AI firm OpenAI and the government in recent months position the country’s AI dominance as vital and necessary.

Of course, there are concerns to be reckoned with when dealing with Chinese open-source models, including security and capabilities. But as companies and researchers alike shift towards leaner, cheaper open-source models, many are weighing the trade-offs they’re willing to make for efficiency and affordability. Even if US models are verifiably ahead by six months, that marginal gap in capability doesn’t render Chinese models useless. With AI costs growing and ROI moving in the wrong direction, AI pragmatists may be seeking to do more with less. 

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CULTURE

Entertainment and AI: Backlash vs. boom

The entertainment industry is sending mixed signals about its feelings toward AI. 

As movie studios and music labels continue to forge deals with AI firms, hundreds of artists are joining together to protest AI’s place in entertainment. On Thursday, a coalition of writers, actors, musicians and more launched a petition titled “Stealing Isn’t Innovation,” protesting AI training with unauthorized content. 

The petition, which counts Scarlett Johansson, Cate Blanchett, REM and Jodi Picoult among its signatories, has amassed more than 800 signatures. The campaign targets AI companies and tech giants for their “illegal mass harvesting of copyrighted works.” 

“AI companies are endangering artists’ careers while exploiting their practiced craft, using human art and other creative works without authorization to amass billions in corporate earnings,” Human Artistry Campaign Senior Advisor Dr. Moiya McTier said in a statement. 

The efforts follow a broader fight by Hollywood actors and artists to separate their work from the technology. In December, a number of big entertainment industry names launched the Creators Coalition on AI, aiming to organize a “central hub for cross-industry discussions about how AI is impacting the entertainment industry.” The coalition counts Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Natasha Lyonne, Daniel Kwan and several hundred others as members. 

But not everyone is so strongly opposed to the tech’s use in creative flows. On Wednesday, ElevenLabs launched “The Eleven Album,” the fruits of a partnership between the voice AI company and artists Liza Minnelli, Art Garfunkel, and more, using AI to “co-create” studio-quality music. 

The partnership follows several major music labels partnering with AI-powered music platforms like Suno and Udio, signaling that the music industry may be more keen on leveraging AI than its silver screen counterparts. 

Some, meanwhile, might see a middle ground: In his annual letter to the YouTube community published Wednesday, CEO Neal Mohan highlighted that, while putting an end to AI slop and unregulated deepfakes remains a priority, “AI will be a boon to the creatives who are ready to lean in.”

These moves mark the latest in Hollywood’s heated battle to figure out where, if at all, AI fits into the creative process. But generative AI’s growing foothold in the creative industry itself represents a paradox. Generative models rely on authentic works by real people to create passable mimicry. But these models, it seems, are threatening the livelihoods of those who create that art in the first place. While generative AI feeds on artists to survive, artists have been creating for several millennia without technology. 

LINKS

• Capital One acquires fintech firm Brex for $5 billion

• Cloud platform Railway raises $100 million for easier AI deployment

• Yelp acquires AI agent startup Hatch for $300 million

• Andreessen Horowitz leads $150 million seed round in AI startup Inferact

• Voice AI firm LiveKit raises $100 million

• OpenAI recruits former Newsom, Clinton Adviser Ann O’Leary to lead policy

• PersonaPlex 7B: A real-time, open source conversational AI voice model by Nvidia.

• Gen-4.5: A new Image-to-Video model by Runway built for longer stories and more precise camera control.  

• Praktika: An agentic language learning system built on OpenAI’s GPT‑4.1 and GPT‑5.2.

• Rho-alpha: Microsoft’s first physical AI model for bimanual manipulation.

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POLL RESULTS

Do you regularly use an AI chatbot app on your phone?

Yes (41%)
No (41%)
Other (18%)