Former apple siri engineer launches AI agent that operates within imessage

Nikhil Gupta, a former Apple Siri and Apple Intelligence engineer, has launched an AI agent named szn, which operates directly within iMessage conversations. The AI can assist users in browsing websites, making purchases, and communicating with merchants on their behalf. The service is currently open for registration, offering early access to select users, with plans to expand in October. Unlike traditional chatbots, szn can perform actions on behalf of users, such as extracting and analyzing data from shared notes, Find My locations, and iCloud files. Gupta stated that each user will have a separate AI model with its own name, email, and phone number, enabling it to interact with external services like contacting merchants or handling orders. The method by which szn connects to iMessage remains unclear. Apple has previously restricted third-party access to iMessage, but Poke became the first AI agent approved to connect to the Messages for Business platform. Meanwhile, Apple is enhancing Siri with new iOS 27 features, and OpenAI has added iMessage reading capabilities to its Mac version of ChatGPT.