I asked Siri if it knew what to expect at WWDC 2026 and its answer was so predictably disappointing

Siri's sandbox of information is so limited at times that it's enough to make you want to throw your iPhone into the abyss, but then we'd have to worry about the clueless digital assistant not knowing or understanding what's going on:

Siri: "Wait. Did he just throw us into a ditch?"

Also Siri: "Do you want me to use ChatGPT to answer that?"

Still Siri: "I guess, but why don't I know?"

Siri again: "I can't answer that question."

In the two years since Apple promised a new, exciting, and far more intelligent and self-aware Siri, the rest of the AI world has moved on. The environment Siri might have entered in 2026 is vastly different from the one it faces now.

Understanding the phone in your hand and all the data you share with the device or a cloud-based network is essentially table stakes. Just look at Google's Gemini-infused I/O. It was wall-to-wall AI, and questions about what you might let Google do with your data appeared as an afterthought.

Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more.

The assumption is that, if you're under the Google umbrella, you will tie together your email, docs, spreadsheets, location, shopping, clothing, eating habits, health, you name it, all in a quest to have an AI that actually understands and works for you.

Time for a different approach

Apple's adherence to the principles of security and privacy is, while laudable, starting to sound, if not quaint, then antiquated.

If you use AI, you expect it to understand your intentions and the context of every request based on the corpus of information it has about you.

Apple's slow, steady, heck, plodding approach to the fast-moving world of AI has done it no favors. Sure, I appreciate caution, but this comes across as stumbling and then dragging an unwilling corpse over a massive suspension bridge. On one side is the safe island of Apple Intelligence, with unsatisfying image creation, a lack of self-awareness, and a dimwitted Siri that relies on powerful friends to feed it the answers. On the other side is the land of Gemini, ChatGPT, and Claude.

In that world, call it "AI-landia", rules and caution are for suckers. These AI giants move faster than the speed of thought. Nothing is more important than a better frontier model, especially one that outdoes its nearest competitors.

Don't be fooled by calls for temperance or caution. Any of these AI companies would sell its youngest offspring for the world's best Frontier Model.

In the meantime, I'm sitting here just hours before Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC 2026) keynote (Monday at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm BST), feeling less than confident that Apple will finally deliver the goods.

Even with the promised help from Google, which should be providing some Gemini juice to Apple's own frontier models, I remain unconvinced. Apple is cautious to a fault. Recent rumors say it will once again release the next Siri as a beta. Haven't we seen this show already?

Asking Siri a simple question

It's time for Apple to throw caution to the wind, get the new Siri out there as a full release, and then iterate the heck out of it to fix any issues. That's not Apple's way, of course, and for much of its 50-year history, such care has worked in its favor. Now, though, things are different. Apple has never been perceived as falling this far behind in one of the most important spaces in tech history.

Think of it this way. Imagine if, a decade after the explosion of the modern World Wide Web, Apple didn't have a web browser and wasn't even using its own protocols to help you connect and navigate the internet. Maybe they were worried about viruses or that the Internet is such a wild, uncontrolled space.

That never happened, obviously, and mainly because Apple is usually canny about knowing when and how to enter a market. Sure, it can be a purposely late, to let other people fail or falter while it fixes all their mistakes with the near-perfect product (iPod, iPhone, Bluetooth earbuds, smartwatches), but it doesn't partially release half-baked products and then say, "Whoops, hold on, we got it, almost, here it comes, just a minute..." Or at least it didn't…

Generative AI is not a failing or unrealized category that Apple can reinvent and invigorate. Apple knows this, but it just seems stuck or confused.

In search of an Apple that plays out of touch but secretly gets it, I asked Siri, "What should I expect for WWDC 2026?"

Siri: "Do you want me to use ChatGPT to answer that?"

It could have said, "Just wait and see," or "Wouldn't you like to know?"

No wink and nod, no sly, digital grin, just flat confusion and a call on big brother AI, who knows everything.

I'm not encouraged, but I hold out hope.

What do you think? Can Apple save Siri and pull off another industry-shaking surprise? Let me know in the comments.

Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds.

A 38-year industry veteran and award-winning journalist, Lance has covered technology since PCs were the size of suitcases and “on line” meant “waiting.” He’s a former Lifewire Editor-in-Chief, Mashable Editor-in-Chief, and, before that, Editor in Chief of PCMag.com and Senior Vice President of Content for Ziff Davis, Inc. He also wrote a popular, weekly tech column for Medium called The Upgrade.

Lance Ulanoff makes frequent appearances on national, international, and local news programs including Live with Kelly and Mark, the Today Show, Good Morning America, CNBC, CNN, and the BBC.