Apple improved Siri’s artificial intelligence features in the first beta of iOS 27. Business Insider reported on Friday that the new Siri could index texts, emails, notes and calendar events, allowing it to answer users’ somewhat vague questions.

Siri has been seen as lagging rival services. The author of the original article said he had been disappointed enough to place ChatGPT and Gemini separately on his iPhone home screen, but after using the first iOS 27 beta for several days he used Gemini less. That is because the new Siri’s intelligence is based on the Gemini model.

Apple calls it Siri AI. Siri found the information needed to answer questions that were not specific, such as the next personal training schedule or how long a hotel booking could be cancelled for a refund.

Its ability to answer questions about the real world also improved. When the author showed a photo of a New York Knicks parade scene, Siri accurately explained the situation and background. For questions about travel, it also offered commuting tips based on local news information.

A dedicated Siri app was also added. The author said Siri’s answers were less fawning and more concise than other large language model services.

Limits remain. Siri sometimes misheard non-U.S. accents, and it could not answer activity-related questions despite having permission to access the Health app. The assessment is based on experience with the first beta, but there are expectations that once it is released to general users this autumn it will at least escape the existing negative evaluations.