After two years and a $250 million lawsuit, Apple is preparing to launch a revamped AI Siri for your phones, laptops, and even the mixed reality headset, assuming you’re among the few who actually utilize the Apple Vision Pro. At Monday’s WWDC keynote, Apple disclosed a wealth of new details regarding these anticipated AI-driven updates that are designed to leverage our hardware, which is claimed to be “built for Apple Intelligence.”

Honestly, it’s quite challenging for AI to captivate me enough to incorporate it into my everyday activities. I remain skeptical about LLMs consistently providing accurate information, I find it ethically questionable (and undesirable) to rely on AI for writing assistance, and I lack a strong desire to see my likeness as a Studio Ghibli character. Nonetheless, the allure of AI occasionally entices me.

That’s the sentiment I experienced while viewing Apple’s Siri AI demonstrations, which envision a reality where your phone is equipped with a perpetually active, ever-helpful assistant that understands everything about you and can assist in managing conversations across around 12 different applications simultaneously.

To echo Katy Perry, it feels so inappropriate (what are the privacy concerns?), yet it feels so suitable (I am inundated by my phone and crave help to navigate it all).

I envision Siri as my own personal Emily from “The Devil Wears Prada”—a “second brain” that foresees my needs even before I identify them. I want Siri to analyze my messages and automatically create an event when a friend and I decide to have dinner on Thursday. I want Siri to alert me when I pass by CVS that I have a prescription awaiting collection. If I neglect to respond to an essential work email, I want Siri to nudge me regarding my lack of response.

While the Siri AI won’t be capable of executing all of that immediately, it is certainly progressing in the correct direction. During one WWDC example, Justin Titi, an Apple senior director focused on AI engineering, prompts the smart assistant to remind him of a dessert his daughter recently mentioned. Siri searches through Titi’s phone to find a text from about a month prior, when his daughter expressed a desire to make coconut cookies. It’s straightforward, but enlisting Siri to locate that message saves time compared to scrolling through an entire month of chats to find that one particular text.

The revamped Siri is intended to utilize “personal context,” which includes any information entered into Apple-native applications such as iMessage, Notes, Calendar, Mail, Photos, and more. Siri will also recognize what appears on your screen, for instance, if you view a picture of a beautiful park on Instagram, you can ask it for the location of that park. (It remains unclear whether Siri will be able to connect with non-native Apple apps; it appears it might depend on developers to facilitate that.)

There are existing applications like Poppy and Poke that attempt to offer this kind of mobile, autonomous AI. However, the dilemma with these AI personal assistant tools is that utilizing them requires relinquishing a significant amount of personal data and privacy, which may lead to more complications (remember the incident when a Meta researcher used OpenClaw and inadvertently erased her entire inbox?).

I can’t say I’m fond of sharing my personal information with any tech corporation, but Apple at least appears to prioritize security more than other FAANG (or MANGOS?) companies. On-device AI will consistently be more secure and less resource-intensive than cloud computing, as the data is processed directly on your device. (This is how current Apple Intelligence features like email summaries and AI emojis are produced.) However, for the more complicated tasks Siri will face, Apple has innovated private cloud compute (PCC), a method for devices to analyze complex data via the cloud without exposing your data to Apple itself. (If hacking PCC is feasible, it hasn’t been accomplished yet, despite Apple offering a $1 million bounty for bugs.)

During a recent discussion with writer Calvin Kasulke — who is so immersed in the internet that he authored a novel set entirely on Slack — I admitted to what feels like a forbidden desire to delegate all of my “life admin” tasks to an AI.

“When you address the clutter of tech remnants in your life… I think the pertinent question is, ‘Is everything you have truly necessary?’ If it is necessary, shouldn’t you cultivate the skills and dedicate time to do it?” Calvin remarked. “I don’t believe those are skills someone should let fade away.”

He raises a valid point: Perhaps instead of instructing Siri to remind me of the TV series my friend suggested, I could focus more during my conversations with friends. I don’t want to develop a pattern of overlooking significant details from my discussions.

“I’m sorry, but all those advertisements that are like, ‘What if I had the computer purchase a birthday present for my child?’ I’m like, ‘What if you discovered what your child enjoys?’… like, I don’t know, it appears [they] don’t want to engage in the essential act of being a human,” he said.

Perhaps when I express a desire for Siri to emulate Emily from “The Devil Wears Prada,” I should recall that Emily’s character is on the brink of a breakdown. I understand I can’t psychologically affect Siri as Miranda Priestly did to Emily, but will I morph into someone who cannot operate without the friendly robotic voice in my phone? Do I wish to become that individual?

At least if I opt to step back from all of this, Apple will provide that option. Unlike Google’s contentious search redesign, the new AI Siri can be switched on and off, so using it is not compulsory. Until then, I’ll have to evaluate whether it’s worthwhile to indulge in the allure of Siri AI.