Craig Federighi

In 2025, Craig Federighi became central to Apple’s effort to reset Siri, including reported testing of third-party AI models and a leadership reshuffle around the AI organization.

Who they are

Craig Federighi is an Apple executive whose coverage spans the company’s software-platform decisions, from Swift and iPad multitasking to privacy disputes, but has increasingly cast him as a senior operational voice on Siri and Apple’s AI direction. Stories place him alongside Apple leaders including Tim Cook, Eddy Cue, John Giannandrea, Mike Rockwell and Greg Joswiak.

The recent arc

Coverage shifted sharply from software-interface explainers toward AI execution and organization. In May 2024, reporting said Federighi and John Giannandrea tested ChatGPT and concluded Siri was antiquated; by March 2025, sources said Federighi and other executives worried that personalized Siri was not working properly and might require a rebuild. Federighi subsequently acknowledged that Siri AI features needed more time.

The recent arc

The 2025 stories then broadened his reported remit: Bloomberg said he and Mike Rockwell evaluated external models for Siri, with Anthropic’s technology emerging as promising in testing, while The Information reported his opposition to open-sourcing Apple AI models over public-perception concerns. Apple’s announcement that Amar Subramanya would report to Federighi after John Giannandrea stepped down reinforced the coverage’s portrayal of Federighi as more central to AI management. Alongside that transition, his June 2025 interviews on iPadOS 26 framed him as still responsible for Apple’s core software experience.

The tension

The central tension is Apple’s attempt to make Siri competitive in generative AI without abandoning its product-control and user-centered posture. Reports of external-model evaluation, including Anthropic’s, suggest pressure to move faster than Apple’s in-house capabilities allowed, while Federighi’s reported resistance to open releases and his June 2026 criticism of companies pursuing “AI for the sake of AI” point to caution over how that acceleration is delivered.

Why it matters

If this trajectory holds, Federighi’s decisions could shape both the pace and character of Apple’s AI rollout: whether Siri is rebuilt around outside technology, how tightly Apple controls model access, and how AI is integrated into iPhone, iPad, Mac and other software. The unresolved question in the coverage is whether that more cautious, experience-led approach can produce a credible Siri upgrade quickly enough to meet the competitive pressure that prompted the reset.

Related: Apple · Siri · iPad · Eddy Cue · Apple says AI chief John Giannandrea is stepping down and will retire · Sources: Mike Rockwell and Craig Federighi started a project to evalua