Apple brings a fully revamped Siri built on Google's Gemini, but not to the EU

September 15, 2026 | Source: THE DECODER

Tags: Apple, Siri, Gemini, Google, iOS 27, Apple Intelligence, Private Cloud Compute, EU AI regulation

Apple shipped its rebuilt Siri as a beta on iOS 27, running on Google's Gemini models via on-device and Private Cloud Compute; the assistant handles multi-step tasks and screen context for the first time, but EU and China users are excluded due to regulatory constraints.

Details

After years of delays, Apple released a fundamentally rebuilt Siri — called 'Siri AI' — as part of the iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, watchOS 27, and visionOS 27 rollout. The assistant runs on Google's Gemini foundation models, with inference split between on-device processing and Apple's Private Cloud Compute, which Apple says retains no user data.\n\nThe redesigned Siri understands personal context from messages, emails, and photos; reads screen content in real time; and executes multi-step tasks across apps. Apple demos include pulling a recipe from Messages and adding ingredients to Reminders. Third-party app support covers WhatsApp and Audible at launch, with Outlook, Notability, and Tripsy planned. A dedicated Siri app syncs conversation history via iCloud, and a new on-device dictation mode (AFM Core Advanced) rounds out the release. English-only at launch; French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish follow next month.\n\nBeyond Siri, Apple is scattering AI across the OS: Photos gains Spatial Reframing and an improved Clean Up; Image Playground generates photorealistic images via Private Cloud Compute with SynthID watermarking; Safari groups tabs by topic and flags site changes; Shortcuts accept plain-language descriptions.\n\nTwo major markets are absent: the EU and China. DMA regulatory scrutiny and Chinese AI governance rules have blocked both regions with no stated timeline. Early beta testers report meaningful progress on multi-step task handling but flag hallucinations and gaps in personal context access — this is explicitly a beta, not a finished product.