alt Hacker NewsApple's Siri AI Can Be Swapped Out for Claude, ChatGPT, Code Shows
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It’d be short sighted to not have a wrapper around which AI to use, even without implementation for them. Like, having an abstract parent class with a Siri implementation of it would be baseline good software engineering.
And you can also sideload apps (only in the EU), change you default navigation app from apple maps (only in the EU), and use more features of the NFC reader (only in the EU).
The code for all of those things is there, but not enabled if for most iOS users. There's a non-zero chance this code is there for Apple to try and convince the EU to let them release a Siri AI, and then just like sideloading have some impossible-to-actually-use alternative path to make the DMA happy.
My favorite Siri behavior is telling it, on my phone, to turn on a focus state only for it to transfer the request to a nearby HomePod that tells me it can't help with that. I hope the new changes to it are an improvement, but the bar is currently buried in the dirt.
This is a very clever platform play. If you make Siri / your mac the central access point for all AI related workflows and make models interchangeable, then Apple has a huge weapon in the AI race.
That’s actually a good solution. Create a platform where app actions can be invoked with a permission model by any AI model.
Maybe apple can even have something similar to MCPs for tool invocations of apps and publish it so all models can actually be trained to use that framework
I would pay a good chunk of money if Apple released a local AI hub to coordinate all AI usage locally (including photo indexing).
I pray for the possibility of not only choosing the provider, but being able to choose the thinking level.
I've been using the new siri, and it seems more or less stuck in instant-answer mode, which gives really terrible answers with any provider.
I wish more people were talking about this, but if you can't crank up the models to extended thinking, the technology is more or less stuck at 2004 levels of usefulness.
Once Siri gets MCP support, it’ll be my main orchestrator.
I built an app that lets me run terminals on my MacBook. It’s a Next app so I can go to that website on my phone using Tailscale. It has a built-in MCP server, so I can connect it to ChatGPT and have it create terminal sessions, orchestrate terminal sessions, all that good stuff.
Down the line, I’d like to be able to connect it to Siri and just talk to my phone and it can control terminal sessions and projects that I’m working on on my laptop.
Apple Foundations Models Framework already aimed towards some generalized API for models. Personally I like it, just as I would be a little happier if instead of codex/claude/antigravity (rip gemini cli) I would have single standardized interface.
With mobile devices especially where ideally models could be shared across several apps.
But this specific code I'd assume is targeted to comply with EU regulations more than anything.
OT:
Since I've moved to Spain my principal Apple account is still in my home country but I've made another one for local app-store (since some local apps aren't available if you're not in the Spanish store).
iPhone is acting really strange, I'm logged to my principal account for iCloud+ and anything and local App Store.
If I log back to my principal account, I loose HCE mode and my building NFC app stops working until I re-log in the Spanish Apple Store.
If I'm logged at the Spanish account, I loose Siri AI which is blocked in the EU...
Third-party calls won't eat into Apple's compute, so it's not entirely against the interests of Apple as they put caps on people's AI use.
I wonder what the margin on this stuff is for them:
Some Apple Intelligence features in the Home app, such as
video summaries, are available for a limited number of
cameras depending on your iCloud+ plan — up to 1 camera
in the 2 TB plan, up to 2 cameras in the 6 TB plan, and
up to 5 cameras in the 12 TB plan. Supported camera
counts and other iCloud+ plan features may change over time.
Seems Apple's first attempt AI failing two years ago is turning into a blessing. Now they can buy AI as a commodity from the cheapest supplier. Well played.
I don't want to tell Siri to ask Claude or GPT - I want Siri to automatically delegate to another model of my choice when it can't answer something, instead of showing irrelevant web searches.
Don't they need that for China for compliance with their law?
That would be really cool, if you can route your local model for it.
One can imagine a scenario where 1) this requires a Claude or ChatGPT subscription, 2) this subscription needs to be purchased through the iOS app. AI providers get new users, Apple gets its App Store tax, everyone wins.
this does not provide much value on Mac, as Claude and ChatGpT apps both have global key activation.
iPhone is different, one button hold on phone without touch the phone is arguably Apple's last and only moat.
In my opinion the OS should broker the communication between harnesses (which is part of Siri), LLMs and app functionality. It can take into account the permissions, the user could configure which LLM to use at an OS system settings level and complex workflows can integrate permissions like FaceID only once as the harness then interacts with APIs exposed by applications (arguably already there with app intents).
Self promotion blog article:
https://braw.dev/blog/2026-04-06-mobile-os-as-agentic-broker...
Nice, thanks EU for forcing Apple. I guess it was possible all along.
Is there any hint that Siri can be connected to arbitrary MCP providers?
Siri, and Alexa, would be significantly more useful if it could be connected to ChatGPT etc.
What does a full integration of claude or openAI models into the phone even mean? What additional functionality can one get and what are those use cases? Does it actually pull in more users to the voice/Siri interface? I mean even with vastly superior models, does it move the needle enough to attract more users?
"Designed" is a stretch here, lmao.
It would be great if AI could be completely removed from iOS altogether, including any underlying frameworks.
this is likely true for most applications accessing the standard APIs, a good thing in my book
Neat. Now let me point it to an OpenAI-compatible API endpoint of my choosing, like a Mac Mini running Hermes on my LAN.
I do not want my personal data or the queries against it to leave my network boundaries if at all possible. This should be a default option.
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Just playing the devil advocate: what happens when the answers from a not-Apple LLM are garbage? Who the users are going to blame, Apple or OpenAI, Anthropic, etc..? I'm not 100% on Apple side on this, I would love to chose whatever I want, even local models, but I get why trey trying to control 100% of the user experience. If they could trust any provider with customers data, they would let them in, since they're not competitors. They would even let Apple not spend a ton of money on developing LLMs....
Siri was the first widely available AI bot but they forgot to open it to developers. The ecosystem would have grown a million fold in all these years
Never underestimate the power of a bored programmer
Now that's an agent I'd use. Can we start with Siri for the terminal?$ Siri 'List the files in this folder'