In his final earnings call as Apple CEO, Tim Cook said the company’s long-awaited Siri AI upgrade could come with some payment restrictions. While Cook admitted that these plans are not set in stone, he speculated that users could purchase additional computers for Siri AI through existing iCloud+ subscriptions, which offer expanded cloud storage.
“We believe that there will be a lot of people who want to use (Siri AI), and so we will have the possibility of some upgrades in iCloud+, where people can buy a stack in iCloud+, and we will look at how to collect for that,” Cook said on Thursday. “But we couldn’t be more excited about where[Siri AI]is.”
Most other AI providers such as Anthropic and OpenAI operate similarly, offering a limited free version to consumers with the option to upgrade to support more usage.
The new and improved Siri AI is available in the iOS 27 beta, and plans to roll out widely this fall.
As Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering John Ternus steps into Tim Cook’s shoes, he will be at the helm at an important time for the company. Apple has lagged behind in its efforts to build an advanced AI assistant, despite impressing direct rival Google by licensing its custom Gemini to complement Siri. Siri AI improvements have been so delayed that Apple had to pay $250 million to settle a lawsuit over how it marketed the iPhone 16’s AI capabilities.
Apple, like other hardware manufacturers, is looking at a crazy path for access to the devices it needs to meet customer demand. Due to the scarcity of AI-driven RAM across the industry, it’s more expensive to build hardware, which makes companies like Meta, Samsung, MicrosoftAnd Sony to raise the price of some equipment. Apple raised the prices of Macs and iPads last month, but has yet to adjust the prices of existing iPhone models.
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