Apple’s Siri Update Could Include a Major AI Privacy Twist

More rumors about Siri’s big makeover are leaking ahead of Apple’s annual developer conference—and one big change could have a lot to do with data privacy and security. Apple is expected to launch a standalone app for its embattled AI assistant, Siri, which will operate as a chatbot-like interface, similar to Anthropic’s Claude or OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Users are expected to be able to type or speak requests. Although the app will be able to store conversations to mine for contextual information for future requests, Apple is expected to differentiate itself from its competitors by allowing users to auto-delete their conversations, according to a report from Bloomberg. This is much like the way Apple allows users to auto-delete their text messages, which works so well, Bloomberg notes, that it has invited complaints over government officials using the feature to delete their messaging histories. Apple also plans to establish stricter guidelines around what information does hang around in the system and how long it can be kept. Competitors typically allow users to toggle on temporary incognito modes that prevent conversations from being used to train AI models. It’s worth noting that Apple has brought in Google’s Gemini and cloud infrastructure to keep the Siri update functioning and on schedule—after costly delays. Apple first introduced its Apple Intelligence as a mix of on-device and cloud-based computing that it billed as similar to iPhone security but in the cloud. Called Private Cloud Compute, it was expected to operate on Apple’s own servers and chips. Bloomberg reports that Apple will still call its system “Private Cloud Compute,” but the mechanics of how it might operate aren’t clear, given the Google integration. The two-year delay around the roll out of an updated Siri has proved to be a stain on Apple’s recent track record, as well as an expense, because of a recent $250 million settlement on a class-action suit that alleged false advertising. But if Apple is successful in relaunching Siri with an emphasis on privacy, it could justify to consumers the longer wait time, especially as concerns gather about what people are sacrificing in the name of cutting-edge AI features. Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference will kick off on June 8. The tech giant is expected to announce iOS 27, as well as software for Mac computers and iPads. And the graphic for the conference, featuring glowing lettering, hints at a new look and functionality for Siri. BY CHLOE AIELLO @CHLOBO_ILO

They Won a Prestigious Writing Prize. Then These Key Giveaways Sparked Allegations of AI

A London-based literary competition is facing major scrutiny after three of five winners have been accused of using AI—partly or wholly—to write their prize-winning stories. The 2026 Commonwealth Short Story Prize selected one winner each from five regions that span Africa, Asia, Canada and Europe, the Caribbean, and the Pacific. Following publication of the winning entries in literary magazine Granta, online sleuths called foul. The Caribbean regional winner, Jamir Nazir, was praised for the “lyrical precision and haunting atmosphere” of his short story “The Serpent in the Grove,” as well as “the confidence and restraint of its voice,” according to a post on social media platform X by Commonwealth Foundation Creatives. But internet denizens allege that the very same voice that won the prize may not be human at all. Nabeel S. Qureshi, an AI marketing entrepreneur and a former visiting scholar at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, flagged certain signs he said were AI tells such as “‘Not X, not Y, but Z’ sentences,” as well as the use of the word “‘hum,'” in a post on X. He concluded by writing: “A major milestone for AI, at any rate …” Following the allegations, Wired ran the text of “The Serpent in the Grove” through AI detection tool Pangram, which the publication notes has consistently outperformed other similar tools. It determined that the text was 100 percent AI-generated. It’s worth noting that no AI-detection tools are totally accurate. “The Serpent in the Grove” isn’t the only story under scrutiny. Pangram determined that “The Bastion’s Shadow” by John Edward DeMicoli, the winner from Malta, was also fully AI-generated and that “Mehendi Nights” by Sharon Aruparayil, the winner from India, was partially written using AI. Holly Ann Miller’s “Second Skin,” and Lisa-Anne Julien’s “Me and Ma’am,” however, were ruled “fully human-written” by Pangram, according to Wired. The regional winners were chosen from 7,806 entries, which the Commonwealth Foundation noted on its site is the “second highest number in the Prize’s history.” A final winner from among the five will be announced on June 30. Following the allegations, the Commonwealth Foundation released a statement on its website, acknowledging the challenges generative AI poses to literary and creative work. The statement also noted that the foundation’s judging process is robust, but judges do not currently use AI checkers in any stage. “We are aware of allegations and discussion regarding generative AI and our Short Story Prize. We take these claims seriously and are committed to responding to them with care and transparency,” the statement reads. “When they submit stories to the Prize, writers accept our entry rules and guidelines. These include confirming that their submission is their own original work. All shortlisted writers have personally stated that no AI was used and, upon further consultation, the Foundation has confirmed this.” The foundation also noted that until a reliable tool emerges with which the organization can screen unpublished work for AI, the prize competition “must operate on the principle of trust.” As always, Redditers had much to say about the subject, some assuming AI guilt, others questioning the accuracy of the AI checking tools, and many picking at the quality of the stories more broadly. “This…doesn’t surprise me given the state of contemporary literary prose. It honestly just reads like bog-standard ‘MFA voice,’” one Redditor wrote of Nazir’s story. A recent report from digital marketing agency Graphite found that since the debut of ChatGPT in 2022, there has been a meteoric rise of AI-generated content on the internet. The number of articles written by AI now equals that of human-written content, although the overall share seems to have plateaued. Axios reported at the time that the quality of AI-generated writing has meaningfully improved, not to mention that it can be difficult to determine what constitutes AI writing. Whereas some content is mostly or entirely AI-generated, some writers use AI tools throughout the process of drafting and editing. BY CHLOE AIELLO @CHLOBO_ILO

AI is changing the internet forever. Here’s how

There’s a simple reason Google is making sweeping changes to its iconic, decades-old search engine: users are making complicated requests. “People are asking much longer and harder questions that no longer have a clear response anywhere on the internet,” said Robby Stein, vice president of product for Google Search. Stein spoke to CNN about a new feature that lets Google generate custom visuals, interactive graphics and even mini-apps running on Google’s search page in response to queries by piecing together sources from across the web. It’s one of many updates the internet giant announced at its annual conference this week. The most valuable real estate on the internet is evolving to reflect the new ways people find information online, the latest example of how artificial intelligence is changing the internet across search, social media, online shopping and more. People are starting to use longer, more specific search terms instead of succinct generic keywords, according to Google, and are increasingly beginning their searches in apps like ChatGPT, experts say. Fake, AI-generated influencers are causing a stir on social media. And people are increasingly using AI to compare and buy products. It’s getting impossible to avoid using the internet without somehow encountering AI, despite growing anxiety about the tech and its impact on jobs, safety and the environment. “After a while, it just becomes part of the way you live,” said Joseph Turow, a University of Pennsylvania media professor who will soon be releasing a book about AI’s impact on internet advertising. ChatGPT ‘trained’ people to search differently Google says its search box is getting its biggest upgrade in 25 years. The new search field expands to fit more text and makes it easier to add other media to a search — like photos, files and Chrome browser tabs. The goal is to shrink the number of steps for a user to complete a search, according to Stein. That includes tasks like performing a search based on a photo or switching to Google’s AI Mode before asking a follow-up question. Searches that involve questions based on snapping a photo or circling something on a phone screen are growing 60%, year-over-year, he said. Searches in AI Mode, or the version of Google tailored for back-and-forth interactions, have more than doubled every quarter since they launched a year ago, and AI Mode queries are triple the length of a regular search on average. Data from SEO and marketing firm Semrush indicates some people are starting to search Google the way they type to ChatGPT. Searches containing 11 words or more increased from 3.27% to 5.37%, and conversational queries jumped from 5% to 20%, while keyword-style searches decreased. Yet the median query still contains just three words, suggesting that most people still search the old-fashioned way. Robert Langenback, president of SEO marketing agency Eight Oh Two Marketing, said he’s observed people typing in more searches that range from three to five or five to 10 words instead of two to three words. That started before ChatGPT’s arrival in late 2022, although it’s ramped up significantly since then. “(AI has) really almost trained people how to search differently,” he said. People generally use a mix of AI apps like ChatGPT and Google. More than 20% of ChatGPT referral traffic goes to Google, Semrush found after analyzing 1 billion lines of US clickstream data, or “trails” of user activity across the web. Google is typically used for direct questions or transactions, while ChatGPT is used for summarizing information, making comparisons and drafting materials, Semrush said in an email to CNN. “There’s a lot of just, ‘I’m trying to find something and help me get to it right away,’ that is the bulk of the queries that have gone into Google over time,” said Leigh McKenzie, director of organic visibility at Semrush. The rise of AI influencers AI’s reach extends far beyond search. Take Aitana Lopez’s Instagram profile. Online she looks like any other social media influencer, photos showing her posing at glitzy events, hitting the gym and sharing beauty tips to nearly 400,000 followers. But she’s not real. Lopez is one of the most prominent AI-generated characters to rise to internet stardom, along with Lil’ Miquela, Lu do Magalu and Granny Spills. Nearly 80% of marketers have increased spending on creator content that uses generative AI in the last 12 months, according to social agency Billion Dollar Boy. There are even awards celebrating the best AI-generated internet personalities. AI personalities are appealing to brands because they’re typically cheaper than high-profile human influencers and can morph to fit specific campaigns, said Turow. Tech giants want to make AI an even bigger part of social media. Meta is integrating its Muse Spark model into apps like WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook and is testing side chats with its AI assistant in group conversations. On Tuesday, Google announced Gemini Omni, a new AI model that people can use to generate realistic avatars of themselves. The race to own online shopping Traffic to US retail sites from AI services grew 393% year-over-year in the first three months of 2026, according to Adobe, with Meta, Amazon, Google and OpenAI all introducing AI shopping tools. Google this week introduced a new “universal” shopping cart that allows users to add items from different retailers across the web. Amazon recently folded its Rufus shopping assistant into a new tool called Alexa for Shopping, which incorporates the AI helper into the online retailer’s search bar so shoppers can ask it to compare products and pricing history, among other things. But even as AI directly answers shoppers’ questions at the top of Google, Stein says there’s still a need for quality websites created and maintained by humans. Google says it still send billions of clicks to websites every day, although Pew Research data last year found that Google users are less likely to click links when viewing an AI summarized answer. Langenback says that while his clients are seeing less traffic, the traffic they are getting is leading to higher engagement — completing a purchase, booking an appointment or requesting a quote. “You just have to be ready to adapt, because (search) could look a lot different six months or a year from now,” he said. By Lisa Eadicicco

Google is making its biggest change to the search bar in years

To get ahead in the new internet age, Google wants to help you google less. The company on Tuesday revealed a flurry of AI-powered features for its search engine, AI assistant Gemini and other services. It’s part of Google’s latest effort to revamp its decades-old business model to fit the era of artificial intelligence. Among those updates is a new version of the search bar that can crawl the web on a user’s behalf and a new mode in Gemini that can work autonomously over periods of time. The changes bring Google’s search engine closer to the likes of its biggest competitors today: Anthropic and OpenAI, whose sophisticated AI models have taken over some of the duties of search tools and web browsers. Revamped search Google for years has been moving away from delivering a list of blue links in response to search queries. But the refreshed search engine, which runs on the company’s new Gemini 3.5 Flash model, represents what may be its biggest shift yet toward AI and away from traditional search. The new search field expands to accommodate longer queries that are more conversational, aligning with the way one might type or talk into Gemini or ChatGPT. Users will be able to create “agents” in Google’s search engine that can track or research topics on their own. Google says it’s useful for tasks that require tracking and monitoring announcements and listings over time, like apartment hunting or new apparel releases. One can, for example, enter a query like “Keep me updated when any of my favorite athletes announce sneaker collabs or signature drops” to prompt Google to monitor announcements from notable athletes and brands, the company cited as an example in a press release. Google will also now generate custom visuals and mini apps in response to certain requests, such as creating a fitness tracker that incorporates a person’s location, weather data and apps connected to their Google account. A new Spark Since it launched the AI-powered Gemini, Google has struggled to differentiate the assistant from its main search engine. Spark, a new mode within Gemini that can work on tasks in the background, is its latest attempt to change that. Spark will be able to work on recurring long-term tasks like monitoring credit card statements and email inboxes for important updates and creating summaries or to-do lists. It can also reference content across certain apps, like compiling notes from Google Docs, Gmail and Slides, and the company says more third-party apps will be supported in the future. The company is also adding Spark to the Gemini app on Mac computers so that it can work with local files, and users will be able to monitor what their agent from their phones through a new feature called Android Halo. The agent will stay active even when the person’s laptop is closed or their phone is locked, Google says. The focus on autonomous features seems like a direct response to OpenClaw, the buzzy AI agent that made waves in Silicon Valley earlier this year for its ability to run programs and commands without constant prompting from the user. Building AGI Google has been pursuing AI agents for years, although use cases have mostly focused on specific tasks like shopping or email management and haven’t taken off with consumers broadly. That’s largely because the technology simply hasn’t been reliable enough. “I think there’s this uncanny valley where the models aren’t yet good enough, so you can’t trust them fully, and so you aren’t really sure what you can and cannot do,” Tulsee Doshi, senior director of product management at Google DeepMind, told CNN. Google hopes the updates will bring it closer to its big-picture goal of developing artificial general intelligence: a theoretical stage of AI in which the technology becomes as intelligent as a human at broad range of subjects. OpenAI, Meta and others are racing to be the first to get there. But AI will have to get better at updating its own intelligence before AGI is possible, said Koray Kavukcuoglu, chief technology officer at Google’s DeepMind AI lab and the company’s chief AI architect. “Right now, our models (have) some sort of capability in doing that, but you can imagine that they’re a little bit static in time,” he told CNN ahead of Google’s conference to announce the updates. DeepMind DeepMind is at the center of the company’s AI strategy and has become one of its biggest assets in the AI race. It’s Google’s “secret weapon in the AI wars” according to Dave McCarthy, an analyst covering cloud and infrastructure services for market research firm The International Data Corporation. Most tech companies don’t have massive consumer reach and direct access to a research lab and cloud systems. “Google is the only company that I can think of that actually has a play in every one of those areas,” McCarthy said. Yet Anthropic and OpenAI are largely perceived as being ahead of Google in AI business products; Anthropic has been releasing new models and AI agents for coding, finance and other office work at a rapid clip this year. Anthropic accounted for 34.4% of paid AI business subscriptions in the US in April while OpenAI accounted for 32.3% and Google’s share was just 4.5%. That’s according to finance platform Ramp, which analyzed contract and transaction data with AI companies from more than 50,000 American businesses. AI is also causing concerns over the future of jobs, safety and the impact of data center construction on local communities and the environment. Half of American adults say the increased use of AI in everyday life makes them feel more concerned than excited, according to Pew Research. But Google, like many companies, is staking its future on the technology. Gemini now has more than 900 million active users, and the company expects to spend about $180 to $190 billion this year on expenses related to AI infrastructure and chips, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said in a press briefing ahead of the conference. And the technology will undoubtedly continue to move quicky. Varun Mohan, a director at Google DeepMind who works on Google’s Antigravity AI coding product, said they ship a new release “close to every day” for internal developers. “We’re open to the fact that we are going to need to make changes very quickly, because otherwise we are going to have a product that is old for our users,” he said. “And we’ll be doing our users a disservice if we just hold on to our ideals of what the product is today.” By Lisa Eadicicco