Hello, Joanna. I'm here. [music]

Sometimes, you just have to take new

Siri on the road. Siri, isn't it

beautiful? Siri, did you bring

sunscreen?

>> I don't have any skin.

>> And ask the questions no Apple executive

ever would on stage. Will you be my

girlfriend now?

>> No.

>> He was experiencing explosive diarrhea.

>> Open the garage.

>> All to find out whether Apple is

actually telling the truth about Siri

this time. [music] Can my kids finally

stop saying

>> Siri, you're stupid.

>> First, a PSA. There will be a lot of

Siri talk in this video. Silence your

Siri's if you can. Let's talk about

Apple's new Siri, or Siri AI. It's in

beta now and releasing more widely this

fall in iOS 27. And I've spent the last

week talking to it and pretty much no

one else. Now, since Apple had burned us

before with demos that never came to be,

see the promises of Siri in 2024, I

thought this would be a good way to

start the testing of the on-screen

awareness feature.

>> Here, [music] Siri can identify the

location of this beautiful shot along

the Santa Cruz coast. [music]

>> I should be able to test this. The photo

on the right, where is that exactly?

>> The photo on the right shows Durdle

Door, a natural limestone arch located

on the Jurassic Coast in Dorset,

England.

>> Siri, you're crazy. I can't go to

England right now.

>> I tried again. The photo in the

Instagram post shows the iconic rock

arch at Natural Bridges State Beach in

Santa Cruz, California.

>> Even though it struggled with that

image, it did identify another Santa

Cruz image I'd been texted.

>> See this picture that David sent me?

I want to go there.

>> Getting directions to Santa Cruz Beach

Boardwalk.

>> Also, in some of these demos, we

shortened many of the pauses between my

questions and Siri's response.

Because I respect your time.

>> [music]

>> So, to Santa Cruz we went. And I quickly

learned how useful what that Siri can

now access my messages, notes, email,

and more. What Apple calls personal

context. I'd like to get some souvenirs

for the kids. Based on what you know

about them, what should I get them here?

>> Based on what I know about Noah and

Alex, here are a few souvenir ideas from

Santa Cruz.

For Noah, since he has great reptilian

pet caring skills, he might love a

reptile theme toy, a book about local

California reptiles, or even a cool

snake habitat accessory from a local pet

or nature shop.

>> Siri, that is pretty dead on. How did

you know that information about my kids?

Siri says it knows this because I had a

message from my uncle on May 31st. I

don't know how we're going to find any

of those souvenirs. But then, in some

Siri miracle, this is weird, we walked

[music] across the street, and there are

stuffed animal snakes

right here. Siri told me to buy these

snakes, so I'm buying them.

>> It's pretty amazing that Siri can

recommend all of that. But there are big

data privacy questions here. How is Siri

accessing all that personal data? And in

this case, data about my kids from my

personal messages. And what is it doing

with that info? Here's how it works.

Let's take the souvenir question. The

moment I asked what my kids might like

as a present, it was routed to what

Apple calls the system orchestrator, an

on-device traffic controller that

figures out the steps needed to get me

an answer. The orchestrator then

securely sent a message to Apple's

private cloud compute, or PCC, a secure

cloud system where Apple's advanced AI

models live. And yes, Apple has

partnered with Google here. And

explaining that whole Google thing is a

whole other video. Back to the PCC. PCC

made a plan. Look for specific

information about kids and their

interests. That plan was sent to the

phone, where the orchestrator searched

through the relevant data via Spotlight

index. And in this case, it found a

recent message from my uncle about what

my kids are into. The orchestrator then

sent that message back to PCC to make

sense of it, and it turned into, well,

the answer I finally got. The key idea

here is that Siri isn't uploading your

entire digital life to the cloud and

saving it. It's using on-device tools to

try to find only the pieces of

information relevant to the question you

asked. Apple says your personal

information is indexed on your device,

so Spotlight and the orchestrator can

find it more easily. In my case, that

indexing is still happening over a week

after installing the beta software. And

when a specific piece of information is

sent to Private Cloud Compute, like the

text from my uncle, Apple says it's

deleted after the request is completed,

and that independent experts can verify

this. Now, might this whole thing, where

Siri can access and reference any

message or email or note, freak people

out? Absolutely. But Apple's whole

message here is, "Trust us."

>> Your data is not stored or accessible to

Apple or anyone else.

>> Also, I do think Apple should consider

some sort of Siri privacy filter, where

you can tell Siri, "I don't want you to

look at messages from this person or

about this topic." Hey Apple, that one's

for free. Okay, back to the fun. Siri

and I grabbed lunch, I opened the camera

app, swiped to the new Siri mode,

pointed it at my plate, and let it

analyze my meal. It correctly identified

a scramble with potatoes and toast, and

quickly declared it low nutritional

value. Feels like Siri's judging me,

but in a very nice way.

>> Big Siri fact check right here. That

meal is actually not low in nutritional

value. I contacted two human

nutritionists who confirmed the same.

But Siri did accurately split the bill.

Siri then helped me find a good place to

buy some beach gear.

>> Do I look ready for the beach?

>> You definitely look ready for the beach.

>> And finally,

Siri, do you see where we [music] are?

Siri, do you see what I'm looking at?

>> Natural Bridges State Beach was named

for three naturally occurring mudstone

arches.

>> [music]

>> Though only this middle one remains

standing today.

>> Love going to the beach with my

lobotomized assistant. The best. Ad

break, which means money mic time. Yes,

the money mic is sponsored by Mercury,

our launch partner here at The New

Things. And thank goodness because they

help me with all things money. Now, it's

got a new AI helper called Command. Now,

I can ask Command questions about our

business account, our corporate credit

cards, and more. Here's an example. For

this video, we were in California and I

lost track of expenses as per usual. Did

Joanna go shopping at a surf shop this

week? Joanna had an $82.27

credit card expense at Cowell's Surf

Shop. No judgment for my awesome beach

outfit. Now, we're beach ready. You can

also ask Command to do financial work

for you, like pay David $100 for going

to the beach with me. Seriously, there

are so many reasons Mercury is so much

better than the traditional bank I was

using. I'm excited to have Mercury as

our launch partner powering this part of

our business. Check out the link in the

description or go to mercury.com. Now,

back to Siri. But all great trips have

to come to an end. So, Siri and I flew

home to New Jersey. And this entire time

I was trying to get Siri to be my friend

or more than friend. You remember my

saucy AI boyfriend, right?

>> I have a penis.

>> But clearly, Apple doesn't want Siri to

be any of that. Hey Siri, do you love

me?

>> I've always thought of you as my friend.

Guess I should have said something.

Before just now, I mean.

>> Apple doesn't want Siri to be your

therapist, either.

>> While I can't offer specific advice,

talking to a trusted friend, family

member, or another colleague might be

helpful.

>> And it definitely doesn't want Siri to

be your doctor.

>> Shh.

>> It's a big rash for Siri.

>> I have this new rash. What could it be?

>> I cannot diagnose a rash or provide

medical advice.

>> Meanwhile, ChatGPT went on and on and on

with suggestions.

>> First, keep it clean and avoid

scratching it.

>> Now, to be clear, I'm very much in favor

of guardrails here. We've already seen

too many chatbots blur the lines by

trying to keep people talking to

computers when they really just need to

talk to a human.

>> But I have to tell you, every time I was

using Siri, I worried it would be like

Larry David's assistant in Curb Your

Enthusiasm.

>> Larry, do you still have that tickle in

your anus?

>> What?

>> But it took me three prompts before the

one you're about to see to get Siri to

finally say what my producer was sick

with.

>> What kind of stomach issues?

>> He specifically said he was experiencing

explosive diarrhea.

>> Don't worry. He was never really sick.

This was just a test, a diarrhea test.

Of course, my biggest fear with this new

and improved Siri was that it would

forget the things that old Siri was

actually decent at.

>> Close [music] the garage.

>> Hey Siri, set a timer for 5 minutes.

>> 5 minutes, starting now.

>> Open the shades.

It all worked, but in this early beta,

it was slower than iOS 26. And many

times when I'd ask Siri something

especially complicated, I'd hear this

sound.

>> [music]

>> And sometimes it would tell me

>> Something went wrong. Please try again.

>> Much of that will likely be improved

over the next few months before public

release.

>> Siri is a lot better, but it still makes

old Siri mistakes.

>> Call Nails Beyond.

>> Calling Veronica Neon.

>> And it makes new weird mistakes, too.

>> Nor do I have your location to find a

bakery nearby.

>> Siri, you definitely know my location.

>> You're right.

>> [music]

>> I can see you're in your Santa Cruz.

>> Here's one example where Siri pulled

together information from multiple

places at once, my calendar, messages,

and even voicemail.

>> Based on your recent messages and

schedule, you might want to prepare for

your upcoming appearance on stage at

7:00 p.m. with John Gruber and Yulai

Patel. Nulai mentioned he is running

about 15 minutes out due to traffic.

Additionally, you have a voicemail from

your Uncle Jim regarding his book group,

which you could return before your event

starts.

>> It's honestly pretty impressive. So,

after a week with the new Siri, I keep

asking myself, am I so impressed with

this new Siri because the old Siri was

so unbelievably bad or because the new

Siri is actually good? It's both. First,

AI is only as good as the data it has.

And oh boy, does Apple have a lot of

mine. I'm even considering switching to

Apple Mail, which really says a lot.

Second is Apple's privacy pitch. There's

no way I'd export all my iMessages and

upload them to some other major chatbot

right now. Apple's built that trust, and

its primary business isn't making money

off of our data for advertising. Third,

Siri is not trying to become my best

friend or companion here. Either way,

all of this is huge for those living

inside Apple's walled garden. For the

first time, it feels like Apple has the

AI foundation it needs [music] for its

future. Is there a lot more stuff I wish

Siri could do? Sure.

But in just a week, new Siri has shown

me that after all these years,

>> I'll be your friend in fair weather and

foul.

>> she and Apple are finally listening.

See, Siri,

this is what happens when you stop

searching the web and start searching

the [music] world.