Apple's briefly revealed AI — is it still worth looking forward to?

What happened

In the early hours of March 31 many Chinese iPhone users found a new Settings entry labeled “Apple Intelligence & Siri,” and opening it reportedly unlocked a preview of Apple’s next-generation AI. The option appeared to invoke the new feature the same way as Siri, but it has been reported that the backend referenced multiple large models — from OpenAI, Google and Baidu (百度) among others — suggesting a hybrid approach rather than a purely in‑house stack. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman called the rollout a “mix‑up”; it has been reported that Apple has not received Chinese regulatory approval and did not intend to flip the switch publicly.

What’s inside (and coming)

Apple introduced Apple Intelligence in June 2024 for markets outside China, and the company is expected to make AI a central theme at WWDC on June 9 with a revamped Siri and a separate chatbot app codenamed “Campos,” reportedly bundled into iOS 27, iPadOS 27 and macOS 27. The redesign is said to pair Apple’s foundation models with Google’s Gemini and to include an Extensions system letting third‑party chatbots — Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and potentially China’s Doubao (豆包) — plug into the experience. Amar Subramanya, a former Google Gemini engineering lead who took over Apple’s AI team, reportedly pushed that Google collaboration, reflecting Apple’s shift from “we’ll do everything ourselves” to a mixed strategy.

Why it matters

Apple faces a twofold problem. First, Siri’s long‑standing reputation for poor UX has left many iPhone users relying on third‑party AI apps; the market has already moved from chatbots to “agent” apps that actually get things done. Second, regulatory and geopolitical realities complicate any China launch: cross‑border data controls, domestic approval processes and US export restrictions on advanced AI chips mean features and backends available abroad may not be deployable in China immediately. Yet Apple still controls a massive global hardware and software distribution network — over 3 billion activated iPhones — and reportedly is even prototyping an AI camera to give Siri “eyes.” So will a rehashed chat interface win back users, or is it too little, too late? The answer may depend less on features and more on whether Apple can stitch world‑class models, regulatory compliance and native agent‑style capabilities into a single, reliable experience.