Apple’s Craig Federighi Says New Siri Is Designed to Reject Romantic Engagement
In a June 2026 interview on the podcast Mostly Human, Apple software chief Craig Federighi said the redesigned Siri is intentionally built to disengage from “engagement” tactics like sycophancy and will not act as a romantic partner, focusing instead on helping users get things done and learn. The discussion with Greg Joswiak also covered privacy and Apple’s new child safety protections, after MacRumors spotted the remarks and The Verge’s early tests showed Siri tends to stop rather than prolong conversations.
Apple’s redesigned Siri will not act as a romantic companion or encourage emotional dependency, according to Craig Federighi, Apple’s head of software. Speaking in a June 2026 interview on the podcast Mostly Human , Federighi drew a clear contrast between Apple’s approach and that of competing AI chatbots.
“As you may know, if you use many of the existing chatbots, they’re really focused on engagement to a large degree,” Federighi said. “And sycophancy, right? They kind of want to pull you in. They might encourage you to reveal things about yourself, and then use that as a basis to establish a connection.”
Federighi said Apple deliberately moved in the opposite direction. “The way that we have designed Siri, Siri really wants to say ‘Listen, that’s not what I’m here for, right? I’m here to help you. I can help you get things done. I can help you learn about the world.’ But if you try to engage Siri as a romantic partner, Siri’s not up for that. Siri’s 100 percent not into that.”
The interview, which also featured Apple marketing chief Greg Joswiak, covered additional topics including privacy and Apple’s new child safety protections. The remarks were first spotted by MacRumors.
Early testing by The Verge had already indicated that the new Siri tends to disengage rather than extend conversations unnecessarily — behavior that Federighi’s comments suggest is an intentional design choice rather than a limitation.
The stance this suggests Apple may be positioning Siri as a task-focused tool rather than a conversational companion, differentiating it from AI products offered by companies such as OpenAI and Google, which Federighi specifically referenced as examples of engagement-driven design.