Apple Says It Rebuilt Siri From Scratch for iOS 27

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- Apple had built a working first version of Siri AI last year that added tool calling on top of the original Siri, but scrapped it because it didn't deliver on the intended vision, per Siri VP Mike Rockwell
- Apple rebuilt Siri "from the ground up" for iOS 27, running on new foundation models that colleague Amar Subramanya detailed in the same WWDC tech talk
- The new Siri is natively multimodal, designed with "privacy from the ground up," and delivers a single unified experience across iPhone, iPad, Mac, Watch, Vision Pro, CarPlay, and AirPods
- Mike Rockwell took over Siri leadership in March 2025 after the Apple Intelligence rollout faltered, and the rebuilt assistant is the first major product under his tenure
- The explanation came during a post-WWDC tech talk that also featured Apple's Craig Federighi discussing the company's collaboration with Google on Siri AI
Why it matters: Apple publicly chose a total rebuild over shipping a working but underwhelming incremental upgrade — a deliberate bet that a from-scratch Siri running on new Apple-built models was worth the extended delay, with the new assistant now reaching every device in Apple's ecosystem simultaneously.


