Apple's personal assistant is getting a major upgrade, but some paywalled limits could come with it. During the last earnings call he led as Apple's chief executive, Tim Cook said Thursday that the upcoming Siri AI overhaul may include some paid restrictions.
Cook put it this way: "We do believe there will be people that want to use [Siri AI] a lot, and so we will have some kind of upgrade possibilities on iCloud+, where people can buy up the stack on iCloud+, and we'll see how the pickup for that is."
Cook acknowledged the arrangement is not finalized. As he described it, this is a way for Apple to sell more computing capacity to people who want it.
The key detail is the word "some." Not everyone, he said, but the people who lean on it hardest.
Apple's push into Siri AI has not gone smoothly. Apple has struggled to keep pace in the race to develop an intelligent assistant, and it even turned to rival Google by licensing a customized Gemini model to enhance Siri.
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The legal bill is not the only thing changing. John Ternus, who has been Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering, will succeed Tim Cook as CEO at a pivotal moment.
Apple has not said exactly what the paid iCloud+ compute tiers would cost or how much usage would be included in the free version of Siri AI. Cook did confirm that the paid upgrade would be tied to the existing iCloud+ subscription rather than a separate AI service.
Siri AI needs serious computing power, and that power has gotten more expensive. Apple faces the same supply challenges as other hardware makers when it comes to getting enough components to satisfy customer demand. Industry-wide memory shortages caused by AI have raised hardware production costs, prompting Meta, Samsung, Microsoft, and Sony to increase prices on certain products. Last month, Apple increased Mac and iPad pricing, while leaving current iPhone prices unchanged.
Apple would not be inventing the free-plus-paid playbook. Anthropic, OpenAI, and most other AI vendors use the same model: a free tier with restrictions, plus paid upgrades for extra usage. That model has become standard in the industry, and Apple's proposal fits the pattern of vendors charging for higher usage limits while keeping a basic version available.
Siri AI is arriving alongside rising hardware costs and increased competition.
Cook closed the discussion with a vote of confidence. "But we could not be more excited about where [Siri AI] is," he said.
For the rest of us, the practical question is simple: a better Siri is coming, and Apple has indicated some users might pay for additional compute. Apple already sells iCloud+ as a subscription, so adding computing power to that plan would give the company a straightforward way to charge heavy users while keeping the base Siri experience free.
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