Apple goes chatbot‑agnostic
Apple is reportedly shifting to a 'chatbot‑agnostic' approach that will let multiple third‑party AI agents run alongside Apple’s own models — a major policy pivot from its historically closed ecosystem. That change implies work for OS teams around sandboxing, privacy controls and resource arbitration across neural accelerators. (youtube.com)
Bloomberg reported on March 26, 2026 that Apple will let Siri route queries to multiple third‑party chatbot services — naming Google’s Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude among potential integrations — as part of an iOS 27 overhaul. (Bloomberg). (bloomberg.com) Apple shipped an iOS 26.4 update and beta earlier this spring that adds a new “voice‑based conversational apps” category for CarPlay and the platform‑level hooks third‑party chatbots will use, indicating the company has already implemented first‑order integration APIs. (MacRumors). (macrumors.com) Apple’s internal “Answers, Knowledge and Information” (AKI) effort — first reported in August 2025 and tied to senior AI leadership — remains active even as the company opens Siri to rivals, showing Apple is pursuing both in‑house and partner models simultaneously. (Bloomberg / TechCrunch). (bloomberg.com) Moving to a multi‑agent Siri forces OS teams to expand sandboxing and model packaging: Apple’s runtime security and sandbox model already limits inter‑app data access, but supporting third‑party LLM runtimes will require new entitlements, encrypted model packages and attestation paths documented in Core ML and security guidance. (Apple Developer Security / Core ML). (support.apple.com) On‑device acceleration and arbitration will be central — Core ML explicitly mediates CPU/GPU/Neural Engine use today, and open integration will demand scheduler and quota controls across ANE/ANE‑like blocks to prevent priority inversion or thermal throttling when multiple chatbots request tensor cores. (Apple Core ML / Apple ml‑ane‑transformers). (developer.apple.com) Bloomberg’s coverage also notes Apple sees App Store subscription revenue as part of this pivot, while developer outlets warn chatbot apps will need explicit updates to take advantage of Siri integrations and the new CarPlay voice app type. (Bloomberg / 9to5Mac). (bloomberg.com)
