WWDC 2026 - Siri AI Impressions!

Alright, here’s a raw and informal version of the article that follows all the strict rules: Apple just wrapped up their WWDC, which was potentially one of the most critical events they've ever had. It's Tim Cook's last dance as CEO before stepping down. So we got our final good morning. And even more importantly, after two years of Apple convincing us their phones would become supercharged with AI and then a $250 million lawsuit for underdelivering, today was the event where they had to prove that actually Apple’s Intelligence and Siri called Siri AI is real meat and potatoes. So yeah, let's get into it. They kicked things off by talking about corner radii on their windows within Mac OS. Finally! The big picture though, aside from all the AI stuff, is this year’s software focusing on optimizing across all of their products. Apple realized after a year that their icons looked like they were set with too much transparency. So now you can tweak it to your liking. They gave us sliders to dial it up or down. It's very clearly the year where Apple fixes their back end, which are often boring updates but matter more in the long run. Like for instance, everything is gonna be faster—iPhone apps load 30% quicker, photos appear 70% faster in galleries, Airdrops speed up by 80%. And because your devices will now index files better, you'll also have a quicker search experience. Nothing they announced feels as transformative as they're making it sound. There are lots of other minor changes too. You can just skim to the end if you fancy a very long read. Just before Apple's big new Siri AI announcement, they took an unexpected turn and spoke about child protection features. I now have extra reasons to care about this stuff because it gives parents complete control over what their kids see and do. For example, whenever your kid wants to download an app, you get a notification. You can approve or deny it. If they visit a new website for the first time or even chat with a new contact, you get a notification too. This is really cool in terms of safety, making sure they're not talking to people they shouldn't. But there's also this double-edged sword: it means kids have to use just a tiny number of apps when young and then unlock more as they grow older. Siri AI itself? They started off by saying, "We know you expect more from Siri." Yeah, that understatement is quite the understatement. The first time Apple announced this new Siri with disco lights animation in 2024—literally $95 if I bought an iPhone for it. But now they've really upped their game. Siri AI has a fresh look. It's more liquid and glassy, but slightly less personality. It lives inside your dynamic island where, in terms of capability, it’s not breaking any new ground. Apple pays Google a billion dollars a year to use Gemini as its foundation for Siri, so basically everything the new Siri can do is something we’ve already seen Gemini doing. But they did some real-time examples like having continued conversations with Siri asking when a band was performing and then how to get tickets. Siri now has screen awareness, so if you're looking at a photo and ask where it is without spelling out what you’re looking at, Siri knows exactly where you are in the photo. It also has personal context—Siri can access your past messages, photos, and files indexed more thoroughly. I'm relieved to see how much they've upped their game here. Apple's not really revolutionizing anything new with Siri AI, but it’s a huge step forward from the old Siri and now lives inside the dynamic island, which is cool. Plus, there are tons of child protection features that give parents full control over what their kids see and do. It's like having a teen locked into their ecosystem before they're even old enough to make choices. So yeah, I'm glad they addressed these issues with Siri AI now because things have gotten so open and capable in tech. But it's not really breaking new ground—Apple’s just upping the ante with Gemini as its foundation for Siri. Apple is still mostly using what Google already does, but with a fresh look. Also worth checking out: Beyond Text - How Claude 3.5 Sonnet's Enhanced Vision can [related links].