Apple will use Siri conversations to train its AI models: iOS 27 asks for consent at first launch
For years Apple's answer to "what do you train your AI on" was a single sentence: your private personal data and interactions are never used to train our foundation models. On 9 September the sentence lost its full stop. The company's Responsible AI page now reads "never used to train our foundation models unless you explicitly choose to help improve them", and iOS 27, due on Monday 14 September, asks for that choice the moment you switch on Siri AI. Say yes and Apple may keep your audio, the transcripts of what you said or typed, and Siri's replies, and let staff listen to some of it.
In brief
- Apple quietly rewrote its Responsible AI principle: user data is off limits for training "unless you explicitly choose to help improve" the models.
- The iOS 27 release candidate shows a dialog when Siri AI is enabled: agree, or tap a faintly coloured "Not Now". The dialog cannot be dismissed without choosing.
- What opting in covers, per the privacy text in the build: all interactions with Siri and dictation, including audio, transcripts of spoken and typed requests, and Siri's responses; not linked to your Apple Account, reviewed in part by Apple staff.
- Timing: the same week Apple announced watches that keep the last 15 seconds of audio and summarise your day as Siri Recap, both of which run through the cloud Apple promised was private.
What changed, word for word
The edit was reported by heise online on 12 September after developers with the iOS 27 release candidate described the new consent screen. Apple's research page on its third-generation foundation models, updated on 9 September, carries the amended principle. The same page still says in its training-data section that "we do not use our users' private personal data or user interactions when training our foundation models", listing public web data, licensed data, open datasets, dedicated studies and synthetic data as the sources. Both sentences are on one page. The first describes the rule; the second describes the past.
The privacy notice inside the iOS 27 build is the operative text. It says Apple may store "all your interactions with Siri and Dictation, including audio data and transcripts of your typed and spoken Siri requests, as well as Siri's responses". The data is said not to be tied to the Apple Account, Apple "takes steps to ensure that personal data is not stored or used", and a portion may be "reviewed by review personnel", with audio heard only by Apple employees. Who those personnel are, how long recordings are kept and what "steps" means are not spelled out.
How the dialog is built
- You update to iOS 27 and turn on Siri AI, the new assistant that Apple announced in June and is shipping now.
- A screen asks you to help improve Siri. The consent button is prominent; "Not Now" is rendered in a muted colour underneath.
- There is no way to close the screen without picking one. "Not Now" is a decline, but the wording invites a repeat ask.
- If you agreed, or are not sure what you tapped, go to Settings, Privacy & Security, Analytics & Improvements, and switch off the Siri improvement toggle. The switch reverses future collection; it does not retrieve what was already sent.
Why the cloud promise is part of this
Siri AI and most Apple Intelligence features run on Private Cloud Compute, the server system Apple describes as being as private as on-device processing: requests are not stored, not accessible to anyone including Apple, and verifiable by outside researchers. With iOS 27 the largest of Apple's server models also runs on NVIDIA hardware in Google Cloud under the same guarantees. A training programme that keeps audio and transcripts sits next to that architecture, not inside it, and the distinction will be invisible to most people: the same assistant, the same voice, one path that forgets and one that remembers, separated by a tap made during setup.
Apple has been here before. In 2019 contractors described listening to Siri recordings that captured medical conversations, deals and sex, under loose rules; Apple suspended the programme, apologised and brought human review back as opt-in. The new dialog is the second time the company has asked. It arrives in a week when Apple's privacy claims are being tested from more than one side, from a UK order over iCloud encryption that Congress is now fighting to a watch that listens continuously. The difference this time is that the recordings are wanted for a product, not for quality checks.
What to do on Monday
If you do not want your voice in a training set, tap "Not Now" when Siri AI asks, then check Analytics & Improvements once, because the toggle also governs older Siri and dictation review. If you manage devices for a family or a company, the setting is per device and per user; a shared iPad will ask whoever sets it up. And if you have already agreed and changed your mind, the switch stops new data but Apple's text gives no way to delete what has been collected, so assume anything said to Siri between the update and the change of heart may be kept.
