Siri AI could come with a paywall for power users

In his final CEO earnings call, Tim Cook hinted that Apple's upcoming Siri AI upgrade might involve paywall restrictions. While not final, Cook suggested that users could purchase extra computing power for Siri via iCloud+ subscriptions, which provide additional cloud storage. Cook explained, "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 expressed excitement about Siri AI's potential, noting it is available in the iOS 27 beta and slated for a wider release this fall. This announcement comes as Apple aims to catch up with competitors like Anthropic and OpenAI, which charge for advanced AI services. Apple's Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering, John Ternus, will lead the company as it navigates the competitive AI landscape.

The delay in developing Siri has led Apple to settle a $250 million class action lawsuit over iPhone 16's AI claims. Moreover, Apple faces material challenges, including a RAM shortage impacting hardware costs, leading to price hikes for Samsung, Meta, Microsoft, and Sony devices. Despite these issues, Apple continues to raise iPhone prices, but has not yet adjusted existing models' prices.