Siri AI Hands On: A Smart, Helpful Assistant

Apple's revamped voice assistant, set to roll out publicly later this year as part of a new operating system, is conversational and personalized based on a user's messages, photos, and emails, representing a significant evolution from the previous limited version. The assistant is powered by a partnership with Google's underlying model and integrates throughout the phone, including with the camera app, allowing users to ask follow-up questions in back-and-forth conversations that are stored for later reference. The update matters because it changes how the assistant functions, offering bite-sized replies rather than endless responses and providing results more attuned to what users are looking for rather than just suggesting website links. The company claims its privacy-preserving approach means it does not store user data, though using these features requires the phone to index personal data on the device, which took over a week in testing.