The new Siri AI has what Apple calls "personal context understanding". Once you install iOS 27, you may notice a notification in the Settings app about "Optimize Search and Siri." This means your device is learning everything about you, from emails to messages. The process takes a while to complete (it will run faster when your phone is locked, charging and on Wi-Fi), but it's essential for Siri AI to work. With this knowledge about what's on your phone, Siri becomes much more powerful and smart.

An innocuous setting allows Apple to analyze your conversations with Siri and other built-in voice features like translations and dictation. If the Improve Siri & Dictation toggle is enabled, you're giving the company permission to store and review the transcripts and audio of your interactions with Siri, as well as translation or dictation requests. You'll be asked if you want to enable this when setting up a Apple device, but you might have done that a long time ago and forgot. If you've already turned it on, you might have done so without knowing the extent of Apple's data processing and retention policies. The speech processing models supported by this data are essential to Apple's AI initiatives, which are even more relevant now with the arrival of the new AI-powered Siri in iOS 27.

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Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Creator Playbook Look Up Back to School Mashable Selects Say More Trending Now Good Connection: Uplifting stories for a digital age Switch Off Mashable Voices Safety Net Versus All Series You can try the new AI assistant now. Chase joined Mashable's Social Good team in 2020, covering online stories about digital activism, climate justice, accessibility, and media representation. Siri, that little robot in your phone, gets its awaited upgrade. Apple's Surprise and Shine event is sure to be full of surprises, but the imminent launch of the new AI-powered Siri is not one of them. The tech giant has been dangling its new, technologically advanced Siri over the heads of Apple users for years, following a 2024 announcement that Apple was overhauling its famed assistance as the company dived deeper into AI.

Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Creator Playbook Look Up Back to School Mashable Selects Say More Trending Now Good Connection: Uplifting stories for a digital age Switch Off Mashable Voices Safety Net Versus All Series Apple's Siri Recap will remember your conversations for you Is the new Apple Intelligence feature an innovative audio tool or privacy nightmare? Chase joined Mashable's Social Good team in 2020, covering online stories about digital activism, climate justice, accessibility, and media representation. Siri will listen in on and report back your conversations. With Apple Intelligence, you don't need to worry about emails or texts or calendar alerts. You can clear your skin and track your health stats and even generate entirely new realities.

The Apple event revealed much more than a new lineup of iPhones. Maria Diaz is a staff writer with a passion for home automation, smart home devices, and tablets. The iOS 27 general release is almost here. It features many upgrades like recomposing photos. It also optimizes app launches and improves performance.

Apple is still playing a cautious catch-up game with Google and Samsung in deploying agentic AI features and AI assistant capabilities. But the company is looking to change that with the upcoming release of iOS 27 and a complete overhaul of Siri. But if you want to change Siri's voice or make a few additional tweaks to the iOS mascot, you don't have to wait for the new update to roll out in mid-September. On current versions of iOS and iPadOS, go to Settings Apple Intelligence & Siri Voice. Select one of the available options, listen to the playback, and decide whether it's the right option for you.

Siri's ability to speak notifications is great in the right circumstances, but if it won't shut up about incoming alerts in the car, you can turn this off. Back in Settings on your phone, choose Notifications Announce Notifications. If you want to use this feature outside of CarPlay, keep the top toggle on and select the CarPlay menu. There, disable Announce Messages and Siri won't read anything that comes in during a trip. Back on the Announce Notifications page, you might also want to turn on Reply Without Confirmation.

If Siri suddenly remembers how to do its job as soon as the phone leaves CarPlay, the connection becomes highly suspect. For wired and wireless CarPlay, the potential connection problems are a little different. If you're using wired CarPlay, Apple suggests using a different USB cable or a compatible USB port. Wireless CarPlay requires both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, with Auto-Join turned on for the CarPlay network, so either connection can cause odd behavior even if the CarPlay interface appears to be working normally. Apple's troubleshooting list includes restarting the iPhone and the vehicle, forgetting the car under Settings General CarPlay and pairing it again.

Apple has laid off employees in its Vision Pro and Siri teams as it shifts focus to smart glasses and next-gen AI tech, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported. The cuts are said to affect around 200 workers, with 100 cuts in the Vision Pro division and another 100 in the Siri and software divisions. The Vision Pro layoffs are focused largely on gaming and immersive video teams, according to the report. The Siri cuts, meanwhile, are aimed at teams working on the old version of the Siri assistant, as the new Siri AI system requires personnel with a different type of expertise. Apple acknowledged that it was making cuts and realigning teams based on a changing product mix. "While we will create new roles as part of this change, it will also impact a limited number of existing roles," the company said.