According to people familiar with the matter, Apple plans to allow users to choose their preferred third-party artificial intelligence model for "Apple Intelligence" in its next-generation operating system, including but not limited to ChatGPT. Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman reported that Apple is developing system-level interfaces for iOS 27, iPadOS 27 and macOS 27 launched this fall, allowing external chatbots to access and drive many of Apple’s AI features.
In the existing plan, these third-party models will be called "Extensions" within the system. They can not only take over Siri's conversational capabilities, but also provide underlying model support for Apple Intelligence functions such as Writing Tools and Image Playground (image creation). This means that when users call the system's writing assistance, image generation and other functions, they are expected to freely switch between Apple's own models and models from different manufacturers, forming a more open AI capability combination.
The report also pointed out that Apple is also testing to allow users to specify different Siri voices for different AI models. For example, when Siri is powered by Apple's self-developed model, it can use one set of voices, and when Siri is run based on ChatGPT or other third-party models, it switches to another voice so that users can intuitively distinguish which set of AI is currently running behind it in daily use.
According to the exposed information, in the future users can start from the "AI model service provider that chooses to access", provided that the relevant service provider actively adapts and "opts in" to this expansion mechanism through its App Store application. Once a compatible AI app is installed, users can set it as the preferred AI model in system Settings, making it the default choice everywhere in Apple Intelligence.
Mark Gurman said that Apple is already testing model integration solutions with companies such as Google and Anthropic. Among them, Google's model is also regarded as one of the key underlying technologies for Apple's upcoming Siri overhaul, and this expansion plan further extends this cooperation to the system's wider AI usage scenarios. Currently, Apple has integrated ChatGPT from OpenAI into Apple Intelligence, but it has been the only third-party model officially connected. This "single supplier" status is obviously no longer Apple's final direction in the future.
If the above plan proceeds as scheduled, iOS 27 and the same series of systems will transform from "only built-in ChatGPT access" to an open architecture of "multiple models in parallel, user-selectable". This not only provides users with greater freedom, but will also further strengthen Apple's platform role in the terminal-side AI ecosystem. Without directly providing its own unified cloud services, it will provide a unified access channel for various AI model manufacturers through system-level entrances.