Apple may introduce a much-needed generative AI-powered upgrade to Siri that could make the voice assistant more conversational and versatile, giving it the ability to chat rather than just answer one question at a time, the New York Times reported. The new Siri upgrade, along with Apple’s other AI offerings, could be unveiled at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference on June 10.
Apple reportedly isn’t looking to compete directly with ChatGPT with the new Siri upgrade. Instead, the company is focusing on making Siri better at tasks it already does, such as setting reminders, creating calendar appointments, adding items to shopping lists and more. Siri could also get the ability to summarise text messages.
Apple is also planning to market the new AI-powered version of Siri as more private than its rivals, as it will be able to process requests directly on iPhones rather than via cloud servers. Apple’s latest approach could have some obvious advantages, such as improved privacy, faster response times and the ability to work offline or in places with poor internet connectivity.
On the other hand, on-device large language models (LLMs) may not be as powerful or knowledgeable as commercial chatbots such as ChatGPT or Gemini, which are backed by huge servers with billions of parameters.
Why is Apple providing a generative AI revamp to Siri?
The decision to give Siri a “brain transplant” was reportedly made last year after top Apple executives including Craig Federighi and John Giannandrea spent weeks testing ChatGPT, which made Siri look “antiquated”.
Siri was first introduced as a voice assistant in iPhones in 2011 and has been a staple of all new launches ever since. However, the virtual assistant has been known to struggle to carry on conversations and is instead limited to answering one-off questions. Furthermore, Apple is finally trying to catch up in the AI race, and a new upgrade to Siri is likely to be part of the company’s wider efforts to embrace generative AI across its business.
The New York Times report claims that Apple is planning to increase the memory in the iPhone 16 series to support Siri’s new capabilities. The Cupertino-based tech giant is also reportedly working on deals for complementary AI models from various companies including Google, Cohere and OpenAI.
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Published: 11 May 2024, 03:58 PM IST
