(Perplexity) Apple executives have explicitly stated that the new Siri AI is intentionally designed to avoid the engagement-driven and relationship-building models used by competing chatbots.

In public remarks, Craig Federighi, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Software Engineering, contrasted Apple’s philosophy with the rest of the industry by criticizing the focus on user engagement:

“If you use many of the existing chatbots, they’re really focused on engagement to a large degree. And sycophancy, right? They kind of want to pull you in. They might encourage you to reveal things about yourself, and then use that as a basis to establish a connection.”

Federighi further clarified that Siri’s design architecture purposefully rejects this approach:

“The way that we have designed Siri, Siri really wants to say ‘Listen, that’s not what I’m here for, right? I’m here to help you. I can help you get things done. I can help you learn about the world.’ But if you try to engage Siri as a romantic partner, Siri’s not up for that.”

Key Elements of Apple’s Approach

•  Utility Over Companionship: The system is built around direct, task-focused interactions—such as on-screen awareness, searching deep within personal messages, and executing multi-step app automations—rather than prolonged, open-ended conversations designed to maximize session time.
• Rejection of Personification: Testing of the updated Siri confirms it is programmed to decline “acting human” or expressing personal feelings, preferences, or favorites.
• Privacy Alignment: Minimizing conversational engagement reduces the intake of unnecessary personal data, aligning with Apple’s reliance on on-device processing and Private Cloud Compute.

I think this is exactly the right strategy and can’t wait to try out Siri AI. Readers of this blog might remember I was a big fan of ChatGPT. I deleted my account a while back for a couple of reasons.

OpenAI had been making noises about advertising and while I never saw an overt ad, I can’t be sure it wasn’t happening under the covers. Basically, I just didn’t trust the company or Sam Altman.

And I could not get ChatGPT to stop smooching my bottom (“Great question, Steve!”) Updated my settings but the model was trained to encourage engagement to keep me coming back. Ewww!