Apple’s plan for AI could make Siri the animated center of your smart home

Apple is developing a bunch of products and features to deliver its vision of AI, including multiple robots, a smart home display, and a revamped version of Siri with new technology powering it, according to an extensive report from Bloomberg. The company’s generative AI efforts lag those from other big tech companies, and it delayed some upgrades to Siri earlier this year, but these rumored new initiatives point to the smart home as a key place for its AI technology

One of the robots is apparently a tabletop robot that “resembles” an iPad mounted to an arm that can move around and follow users as they move around a room, Bloomberg says. Apple has already shared a preview of what this could look like: earlier this year, the company published research showing a tabletop robot that looks like a real-life version of the Pixar logo with a lamp on the end of the arm. In videos, it’s quite charming — it can even dance.

A key part of the device, which Apple is aiming to launch in 2027, would be a more visual version of Siri that users could have more natural conversations with, like what’s possible with ChatGPT’s voice mode. Bloomberg says Apple has tested using an animated take on the Finder logo for Siri, but the company is also apparently thinking about ideas that are more like Memoji. Apple is also revamping Siri so that it’s powered by LLMs.

Apple is working on other robots, too, including an Amazon Astro-like robot that has wheels, and it has “loosely discussed” humanoid robots, according to Bloomberg.

By the “middle of next year,” Apple plans to launch a smart home display that will let you do things like control your smart home, play music, take notes, and do video calls, Bloomberg says, and this device could have the new look for Siri. The display and the tabletop robot may have a new OS that can be used by multiple people, and could be able to personalize what’s shown to a user by scanning their face with a front-facing camera. Bloomberg says the smart home screen resembles a Google Nest Hub but has a square display.

In addition to the smart home display, Apple is also working on a security camera, and it plans to develop “multiple types of cameras and home-security products as part of an entirely new hardware and software lineup,” Bloomberg says.