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In his final earnings call<\/a> as CEO of Apple, Tim Cook said that the company\u2019s long-awaited Siri AI upgrade could come with some paywalled limits. While Cook conceded that these plans are not set in stone, he envisions users being able to buy more compute for Siri AI via its existing iCloud+ subscriptions, which offer extended cloud storage.<\/p>\n \u201cWe 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\u2019ll see how the pickup for that is,\u201d Cook said on Thursday. \u201cBut we could not be more excited about where [Siri AI] is.\u201d <\/p>\n Most other AI providers like Anthropic and OpenAI operate similarly, offering a limited free version to consumers with the option of upgrading to support more usage. <\/p>\n The new-and-improved Siri AI is available in the iOS 27 beta, and is planned to roll out more broadly this fall.<\/p>\n As longtime Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering John Ternus<\/a> steps into Tim Cook\u2019s shoes, he will take the helm at a critical time for the company. Apple has fallen behind in its efforts to build an advanced AI assistant, even capitulating to its direct competitor Google by licensing a custom Gemini model<\/a> to augment Siri. The Siri AI overhaul was so delayed that Apple had to pay $250 million<\/a> to settle a class action lawsuit over how it marketed the iPhone 16\u2019s AI capabilities. <\/p>\n Apple, like every other hardware manufacturer, is also staring down a rocky road for accessing the supplies<\/a> it needs to meet customer demand. Due to the AI-driven RAM shortage<\/a> across the industry, it\u2019s more expensive to build hardware, which has led companies like Meta<\/a>,\u00a0Samsung<\/a>,\u00a0Microsoft<\/a>, and\u00a0Sony<\/a> to raise prices of some devices. Apple raised the price<\/a> of Macs and iPads last month, but has yet to adjust the price of its existing iPhone models.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission<\/a>. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/em><\/p>\n