If the new Siri AI functions will finally do things like “play the latest episode of Jeopardy as recorded on the DVR within the Sling app”, then it might be worth the price.
But if it’s just lipstick 
on more stupid Siri, then forget it.
The only problem is that the TV remote uses BOTH Bluetooth and Infrared for different features. The former for the TV box and the latter for your TV. The Function 101 only comes either BT or IR. I like that I can turn my TV off with the remote.
Oddly, my 2022 TV 4K says it’s on tvOS 27.2 beta, but there’s no hint of Siri AI.
Do you have an Apple Intelligence-compatible iPhone or iPad?
According to the article below, “Siri AI will be available in beta with tvOS 27.2 on Apple TV 4K (2nd generation or later). The feature requires the home’s owner to have an Apple Intelligence-compatible iPhone or iPad running the latest software, with Siri AI enabled in a supported language.”
No, but Adam’s article seemed to indicate that only features like searching Messages required that. Which makes sense; why would it matter if I was just asking Siri something?
Siri and Siri AI are two different things. The old, basic Siri will work on your Apple TV, but my understanding is that your Apple TV needs to pair with an Apple Intelligence-compatible iPhone/iPad to handle the AI processing. The 2022 Apple TV doesn’t have quite enough RAM or CPU to do the processing on its own.
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The price tag notwithstanding, the privacy benefits are real. See this analysis of Smart TV privacy practices: Watching the Watchers: Privacy Analysis of U.S. Smart TV Automatic Content Recognition
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That’s not what Adam said.
So it sounds like either device should be able to run Siri AI without a paired phone.
Adam’s sentence may or may not have been a little ambiguous, but in any case, no other Apple device with the 2022 Apple TV’s specs is capable of running Apple Intelligence or Siri AI without pairing.
Apple’s footnote is the same as for the HomePod mini 2, and I didn’t want to repeat myself with the tremendously awkward phrasing I used in that article:
To use Siri AI on a HomePod mini 2, the owner of the home in the Home app must have an Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone or iPad, with Siri AI turned on and set to a supported language.
Apple says explicitly:
Siri AI is available in beta in tvOS 27.2 and requires the owner of the home in the Home app to have an Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone or iPad running the latest software version and have Siri AI turned on and set to a supported language. Personal context requests require a paired Apple Intelligence-enabled device with Siri AI turned on and set to a supported language. Siri AI will not be initially available in the EU in iOS or iPadOS.
So yes, you have to have an Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone or iPad.
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Hey, I’m an outlier. The Apple TV HD I bought 6+ years ago, during the pandemic, was $149 with the Ethernet option and more RAM. We replaced the rest of our viewing setup almost 2 years ago with a new A/V receiver and OLED screen. The receiver upscales the video from Apple TV okay, but that now-unsupported box is laggy and occasionally crashes.
Since the HD box was already the previous model, it’s 8 years old in computer years. When prices seem “whopping” or “eye-watering,” I divide them over their useful lifespan. So I figure the current box cost us under $20 a year over its lifespan (including its “pre”-lifespan).
If the new one lasts as long, it will cost under $40 a year. So much has changed in our economy in the intervening years that I just can’t get exercised about it. And we’ll get all 8 service years out of it.
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