Originally published at: See the Behind-the-Scenes Prompts That Power Siri AI - TidBITS
When it comes to our personal information—unlike Liquid Glass—transparency is always better than the alternative. Apple’s selling point for Siri AI and Apple Intelligence is that it can use our personal information to answer queries such as “who did I have lunch with during 2025?” and carry out tasks, like creating appointments, building shortcuts, or composing messages. Because of the peculiar nature of AI large language models (LLMs), Apple has to “talk” to Siri AI just like we talk to ChatGPT or Claude. But what does Apple say in these system prompts?
You can find out, as Apple lets us see those prompts. Go to Settings/System Settings > Privacy & Security > Apple Intelligence Report > Export Activity to get a structured accounting of what was said. The report exports the last 15 minutes of queries by default, but you can change that window to 7 days.
The report is formatted in JSON (JavaScript Object Notation), which is not meant to be read by humans. However, you can open it in a JSON reader, such as the free JSON Viewer, for a color-coded view that’s easier to examine, or cut and paste it into a text editor or word processor. Reports can get large, though, and JSON Viewer only handles files up to 10 MB. Try OK JSON if you hit that limit ($24.99 with a 7-day free trial). Neither app soft-wraps long lines, so I copy the prompts into BBEdit ($59.99, free mode available) for searching and viewing.
For instance, I wondered about the accuracy of an article I was reading that broke out the monthly net income of a Seattle man who was earning $50,000 a year. I asked Siri for more information, but it cut me off before I finished. Nonetheless, it interpolated enough to provide a concise answer. However, the Apple Intelligence Report showed that Siri had crafted a much longer response, apparently ready to show if I tapped or asked for more information without another query.
Apple Intelligence and Siri AI can complete some queries using local models on your device; others require Private Cloud Compute (PCC), Apple’s method of creating a protected, anonymized bubble that keeps our data secure and unavailable for inspection, even by Apple, system administrators, or others with access to the servers. Regardless of where the computation happens, it’s fascinating to see the Siri AI “thinking” behind the scenes. There’s a lot going on, but Apple is letting us see the sausage factory’s machinery. You might even want to feed the Apple Intelligence Report into a chatbot for reformatting and summarization, but keep in mind it contains personally identifiable information, so you’ll need to redact personal data, which is tedious, or be comfortable sharing that with your chatbot of choice. (Some chatbots have an incognito/privacy mode, but you have to believe that the company or its agents will avoid retaining or learning from what you provide in those modes.)
Even if you have no desire to use Apple Intelligence, you can’t deactivate it altogether. However, there is a simple way to downgrade Siri and turn off certain Apple Intelligence features in one place. Go to Settings/System Settings > Screen Time > Content & Privacy, enable the feature, choose Siri, and then select Siri Classic, which reverts to the version found in OS 26. You can then turn off additional Apple Intelligence features. Apple has also published a guide explaining where to turn off or modify these and other Apple Intelligence controls in macOS, iOS, and iPadOS.
People have widely varying opinions about the utility, ethics, environmental cost, and privacy issues surrounding the use of chatbots and related AI features. Apple’s privacy-focused approach to AI is distinct from all its competitors, and I’m still wrapping my head around where it fits into the larger landscape. The company seems to be making a good-faith effort to offer many of the capabilities of leading AI systems while providing more transparency and protecting our privacy in a stricter fashion than the rest.
Glenn Fleishman and Joe Kissell have a new book, Take Control of Siri AI and Apple Intelligence, that’s all about the new features, how to make the best use of Siri, which apps and services offer Apple Intelligence features, what we think isn’t worth using, and, of course, their analysis of Apple’s approach to privacy.