RenAIssance: How Apple will drag Siri into the modern era

AppleInsider

Apple's digital assistant Siri is poised to receive a considerable upgrade in the near future, involving an awful lot of generative AI and machine learning changes.

Siri already has AI elements, but it can be better

Siri was once considered a great introduction to the iPhone and the Apple ecosystem. Over the years, the shine certainly wore off the digital assistant, with Google Assistant proving to be a highly capable rival.

Since the rise of ChatGPT and other large language model (LLM) AI initiatives in recent times, there's been an AI gold rush. With Siri seemingly staying static and being passed by by rivals, there is now an expectation for Apple to make considerable changes to its smart feature.

According to the New York Times, executives including Craig Federighi and John Giannandrea spent weeks looking at ChatGPT in 2023. It was said at the time by sources that ChatGPT made Siri appear antiquated.

The discovery led to Apple reorganizing and pushing forward with its own AI projects, to try and catch up.

Now, Apple is anticipated to show off what it has worked on at WWDC on June 10. That is expected to include a Siri that's more conversational and versatile, as well as a generative AI system enabling it to chat.

Three people familiar with the work say Siri will be better at dealing with tasks it already can do, such as setting appointments and summarizing text messages. It's an attempt to stand out from ChatGPT's creative leanings and to be more directly productive to users.

Apple also plans to use its on-device processing as a major plus point to customers, since it will be more private than sending data off to the cloud.

AI in progress

We've been talking about -- and exclusively breaking -- Apple's efforts in the space for some time.

The story so far for Apple's publicly-viewable AI work consists of a few key projects. That includes the multi-modal LLM "Ferret" released in October that can recognize and act upon queries involving regions of images.

A follow-up, Ferret-UI, followed the same concept to handle complex user interfaces. This enables the LLM to understand what's happening in an app, potentially to explain the information to the user, or to trigger other tasks.

There has also been considerable discussion about Ajax, an LLM that can cover many different functions that Siri can theoretically perform. For example, text summarization analyzing whether contacts are involved, and providing more intelligent results to Spotlight.

One thing that Ajax has running for it is that, while complex queries may have to require server-side processing, it is still able to generate rudimentary text-based responses on-device.

To highlight the seriousness of Apple's focus on AI, it has taken the path to try and make its work as legal as possible.

While rivals have gone down the route of scraping public sources for data, earning criticism in the process, Apple thought differently. Instead, it offered millions to publishers to access news archives, keeping its own AI training above board.

However, it remains to be seen how effective its year of crunch on AI has been for Siri. We won't truly know until we get to try it out on our own devices in the coming months.



Read on AppleInsider

mikethemartian

Siri Pro. 

canukstorm

mikethemartian said:

Siri Pro. 

Knowing Apple, they'll charge a subscription fee.

Fred257

Siri has been surpassed by Googles assistant for many years.

tht

So, what features will these LLM algorithms enable? The answers are always vague.

They can summarize emails, so I would need to read them anymore, and just read a one sentence summary. Similarly true for web pages, or anything involving reading. They provide document templates based on inputted materials. I presume a Swift code generator based on prompts will be coming.

Hmm, the response from website advertisers will be interesting. There are many instances where I'd like to extract the 0.1% of a website that is actual content versus the ad-load that takes up 99.9% of the data and 99.999% of the computing power. That's a want, but I never use ad-blockers and decide to either read the website as is, or ignore it.

chasm

Maybe I’m the anomaly, but Siri has always worked very well for me for the basic reminder, calendar, weather conditions, currency exchange/math problems, calling, texting, “what song is this” and similar “life organization” tasks I throw at it. The only and only thing that drove me up a wall with Siri was working out the exact wording needed to get it to play my college radio station.

Finally, I discovered that “Play WPRK 91.5 FM on Tune In” was the magic combination of words that worked every time. If you left out any part of this phrase, it would mysteriously play an unrelated rap track of some kind, which was infuriating!

So I am in no way suggesting that Siri is somehow secretly better than the other vocal assistants in this area, or that the rest of you must be “using it wrong,” as I have no direct experience with any other vocal assistants. I just know that Siri works pretty well for me most of the time, but my requests are not very far-ranging and random, either.

That aside, I have noticed in the past few months that Siri is already getting “smarter.” On the rare occasion I need to venture outside of the categories above, I get a lot less “here’s something I found on the web” or some similar non-answer than I did before.

The other day, I idly asked “what is the chemical composition of steel?” and to my astonishment it gave me the correct one-sentence summary answer.

So at least SOME “AI” is already at work, and none of my Apple devices are recent, so it’s not just doing this on new items.

chasm

canukstorm said:

Knowing Apple, they'll charge a subscription fee.

I very much doubt it.

loopless

I would agree with Chasm's comments, all this "Siri" bashing is out of date. For complex text messages, Siri gets it right 99% of the time, and I can compose long emails with excellent accuracy.  All this BS about "Hey Siri, tell me the most home runs by a team with a name starting with B" or some garbage query , who cares. For most basic tasks , that cover most situations,  and that you need Siri to help with ( especially when driving) Siri does a really excellent job.

williamlondon

chasm said:

Maybe I’m the anomaly, but Siri has always worked very well for me for the basic reminder, calendar, weather conditions, currency exchange/math problems, calling, texting, “what song is this” and similar “life organization” tasks I throw at it. The only and only thing that drove me up a wall with Siri was working out the exact wording needed to get it to play my college radio station.

Finally, I discovered that “Play WPRK 91.5 FM on Tune In” was the magic combination of words that worked every time. If you left out any part of this phrase, it would mysteriously play an unrelated rap track of some kind, which was infuriating!

So I am in no way suggesting that Siri is somehow secretly better than the other vocal assistants in this area, or that the rest of you must be “using it wrong,” as I have no direct experience with any other vocal assistants. I just know that Siri works pretty well for me most of the time, but my requests are not very far-ranging and random, either.

That aside, I have noticed in the past few months that Siri is already getting “smarter.” On the rare occasion I need to venture outside of the categories above, I get a lot less “here’s something I found on the web” or some similar non-answer than I did before.

The other day, I idly asked “what is the chemical composition of steel?” and to my astonishment it gave me the correct one-sentence summary answer.

So at least SOME “AI” is already at work, and none of my Apple devices are recent, so it’s not just doing this on new items.

You're not an anomaly, it's just that there exists a very vocal group of negative nellies that rush into every Siri thread to denounce it cuz trolls gotta troll.

tht

loopless said:

I would agree with Chasm's comments, all this "Siri" bashing is out of date. For complex text messages, Siri gets it right 99% of the time, and I can compose long emails with excellent accuracy.  All this BS about "Hey Siri, tell me the most home runs by a team with a name starting with B" or some garbage query , who cares. For most basic tasks , that cover most situations,  and that you need Siri to help with ( especially when driving) Siri does a really excellent job.

Hehe, Siri is basically the last voice assistant standing. Alexa plateaued and Amazon couldn't figure out how to make money with it. Google Assistant plateaued, they couldn't figure out how to make money with it and now they waiting on their LLM, where they are waiting things to happen to make it profitable. MS Cortana is long dead. I'm waiting to see if they can make some profits with Copilot. Uh, does anyone use their voice with Copilot?

How LLM chatbots relate to Apple is basically a "who-knows?" They don't need an in-house one. They could do one, but really don't need to.

It's a feature and a service, and mostly a keyboard based one. Voice interfaces suck, and most people won't use it with their voice anyways. So, you even have to wonder what the usage rate between voice and keyboard will be with these chatbots.

danox

williamlondon said:

chasm said:

Maybe I’m the anomaly, but Siri has always worked very well for me for the basic reminder, calendar, weather conditions, currency exchange/math problems, calling, texting, “what song is this” and similar “life organization” tasks I throw at it. The only and only thing that drove me up a wall with Siri was working out the exact wording needed to get it to play my college radio station.

Finally, I discovered that “Play WPRK 91.5 FM on Tune In” was the magic combination of words that worked every time. If you left out any part of this phrase, it would mysteriously play an unrelated rap track of some kind, which was infuriating!

So I am in no way suggesting that Siri is somehow secretly better than the other vocal assistants in this area, or that the rest of you must be “using it wrong,” as I have no direct experience with any other vocal assistants. I just know that Siri works pretty well for me most of the time, but my requests are not very far-ranging and random, either.

That aside, I have noticed in the past few months that Siri is already getting “smarter.” On the rare occasion I need to venture outside of the categories above, I get a lot less “here’s something I found on the web” or some similar non-answer than I did before.

The other day, I idly asked “what is the chemical composition of steel?” and to my astonishment it gave me the correct one-sentence summary answer.

So at least SOME “AI” is already at work, and none of my Apple devices are recent, so it’s not just doing this on new items.

You're not an anomaly, it's just that there exists a very vocal group of negative nellies that rush into every Siri thread to denounce it cuz trolls gotta troll.

It is the same as saying the iPad doesn't run Mac OS.

avon b7

danox said:

williamlondon said:

chasm said:

Maybe I’m the anomaly, but Siri has always worked very well for me for the basic reminder, calendar, weather conditions, currency exchange/math problems, calling, texting, “what song is this” and similar “life organization” tasks I throw at it. The only and only thing that drove me up a wall with Siri was working out the exact wording needed to get it to play my college radio station.

Finally, I discovered that “Play WPRK 91.5 FM on Tune In” was the magic combination of words that worked every time. If you left out any part of this phrase, it would mysteriously play an unrelated rap track of some kind, which was infuriating!

So I am in no way suggesting that Siri is somehow secretly better than the other vocal assistants in this area, or that the rest of you must be “using it wrong,” as I have no direct experience with any other vocal assistants. I just know that Siri works pretty well for me most of the time, but my requests are not very far-ranging and random, either.

That aside, I have noticed in the past few months that Siri is already getting “smarter.” On the rare occasion I need to venture outside of the categories above, I get a lot less “here’s something I found on the web” or some similar non-answer than I did before.

The other day, I idly asked “what is the chemical composition of steel?” and to my astonishment it gave me the correct one-sentence summary answer.

So at least SOME “AI” is already at work, and none of my Apple devices are recent, so it’s not just doing this on new items.

You're not an anomaly, it's just that there exists a very vocal group of negative nellies that rush into every Siri thread to denounce it cuz trolls gotta troll.

It is the same as saying the iPad doesn't run Mac OS.

It doesn't. That's why it has a different name and is a completely different beast when compared to a Mac. It is also basically the number one iPad complaint. That it cannot realise its full potential because iPad OS holds it back. 

That situation has now come front and foremost with the M4. 

The codebase is irrelevant if in userland functionality isn't available. 

saarek

I’d be happier if they enabled more queries to be dealt with on device. I find that my HomePods almost need to warm up first thing in the morning. Almost every time I give it a first instruction, such as “turn on bedroom light” I get a response similar too “there is no device like that in your home”, wait 10 seconds and ask the same question and no problem, it handles the query.

Really pisses me off.

canukstorm

avon b7 said:

danox said:

williamlondon said:

chasm said:

Maybe I’m the anomaly, but Siri has always worked very well for me for the basic reminder, calendar, weather conditions, currency exchange/math problems, calling, texting, “what song is this” and similar “life organization” tasks I throw at it. The only and only thing that drove me up a wall with Siri was working out the exact wording needed to get it to play my college radio station.

Finally, I discovered that “Play WPRK 91.5 FM on Tune In” was the magic combination of words that worked every time. If you left out any part of this phrase, it would mysteriously play an unrelated rap track of some kind, which was infuriating!

So I am in no way suggesting that Siri is somehow secretly better than the other vocal assistants in this area, or that the rest of you must be “using it wrong,” as I have no direct experience with any other vocal assistants. I just know that Siri works pretty well for me most of the time, but my requests are not very far-ranging and random, either.

That aside, I have noticed in the past few months that Siri is already getting “smarter.” On the rare occasion I need to venture outside of the categories above, I get a lot less “here’s something I found on the web” or some similar non-answer than I did before.

The other day, I idly asked “what is the chemical composition of steel?” and to my astonishment it gave me the correct one-sentence summary answer.

So at least SOME “AI” is already at work, and none of my Apple devices are recent, so it’s not just doing this on new items.

You're not an anomaly, it's just that there exists a very vocal group of negative nellies that rush into every Siri thread to denounce it cuz trolls gotta troll.

It is the same as saying the iPad doesn't run Mac OS.

It doesn't. That's why it has a different name and is a completely different beast when compared to a Mac. It is also basically the number one iPad complaint. That it cannot realise its full potential because iPad OS holds it back. 

That situation has now come front and foremost with the M4. 

The codebase is irrelevant if in userland functionality isn't available. 

"That it cannot realise its full potential because iPad OS holds it back." =>  Tha's like saying the Mac Pro can't realize its full potential because of macOS and Apple should make a special version of macOS to take advantage of the Mac Pro's power.  I disagree with this.  Apple never bifurcates their lineup with different operating systems.  One iOS for all iPhones.  One macOS for all Macs.  One iPadOS for all iPads.  And so on.  I'll be very shocked if those changes.  And I'm not of the mindset anymore that iPadOS is holding the iPad Pro back.  What it needs is apps that take advantage of its hardware performance and we starting to see that now with Apple's first party apps and third-party developers.  

That's not to say that Apple won't add features to iPadOS every year, they will.  But don't expect to see macOS on iPad Pro.

13485

avon b7 said:

It is the same as saying the iPad doesn't run Mac OS.

It doesn't. That's why it has a different name and is a completely different beast when compared to a Mac. It is also basically the number one iPad complaint. That it cannot realise its full potential because iPad OS holds it back. 

That situation has now come front and foremost with the M4. 

The codebase is irrelevant if in userland functionality isn't available. 

"[IPad] is a completely different beast". Yes. Everyone who buys one knows that and doesn't care that it doesn't have Mac OS.

Why would Apple add Mac OS to iPad when it has a variety of perfectly great Macbooks that serve the same purpose?

Oh, I get it--you (and others) are really asking for "Touch" AND Mac OS, so really you want a Surface.

Not going to happen. 2023 Surface sales USD $3.5 billion to iPad USD $28 billion (admittedly down years for both, and all computers).

There may be room for something new in the market, but a Mac Surface ain't it

mpantone

saarek said:

I’d be happier if they enabled more queries to be dealt with on device. I find that my HomePods almost need to warm up first thing in the morning. Almost every time I give it a first instruction, such as “turn on bedroom light” I get a response similar too “there is no device like that in your home”, wait 10 seconds and ask the same question and no problem, it handles the query.

Really pisses me off.

You know, my LG OLED television set is unresponsive to remote control commands for about ten seconds after the screen comes on. I figure it's logging into the mothership and uploading all of my credit card data and latest photos of my pets.

Not a big deal.

Maybe someday Apple will release the $1000 HomePod Pro which will reduce the boot-up time to 7 seconds. You should buy that. Followed by the HomePod Pro Ultra at $1200 which will reduce boot-up to 5 seconds.

avon b7

13485 said:

avon b7 said:

It is the same as saying the iPad doesn't run Mac OS.

It doesn't. That's why it has a different name and is a completely different beast when compared to a Mac. It is also basically the number one iPad complaint. That it cannot realise its full potential because iPad OS holds it back. 

That situation has now come front and foremost with the M4. 

The codebase is irrelevant if in userland functionality isn't available. 

"[IPad] is a completely different beast". Yes. Everyone who buys one knows that and doesn't care that it doesn't have Mac OS.

Why would Apple add Mac OS to iPad when it has a variety of perfectly great Macbooks that serve the same purpose?

Oh, I get it--you (and others) are really asking for "Touch" AND Mac OS, so really you want a Surface.

Not going to happen. 2023 Surface sales USD $3.5 billion to iPad USD $28 billion (admittedly down years for both, and all computers).

There may be room for something new in the market, but a Mac Surface ain't it

Did you read the comment I was replying too? 

welshdog

For me there is always this bit of discomfort using Siri - it just feels weird talking out loud, but not to a person. I don't even like talking on a cell phone around other people unless there is no convenient place for privacy, not to mention it's rude to people nearby. Regardless of my hangups, Siri of course often fails at simple requests and it would be nice to see it improve. Her inability to find and play specific songs or even bands is pretty maddening. As far as using Siri for complex requests, I would think most of the time it would be easier to just do it yourself on a Mac or phone rather than wasting time to figure out how to get Siri to understand what it is you want. Is AI really going to improve Siri's request comprehension or just make it worse? We'll see I guess.

avon b7

canukstorm said:

avon b7 said:

danox said:

williamlondon said:

chasm said:

Maybe I’m the anomaly, but Siri has always worked very well for me for the basic reminder, calendar, weather conditions, currency exchange/math problems, calling, texting, “what song is this” and similar “life organization” tasks I throw at it. The only and only thing that drove me up a wall with Siri was working out the exact wording needed to get it to play my college radio station.

Finally, I discovered that “Play WPRK 91.5 FM on Tune In” was the magic combination of words that worked every time. If you left out any part of this phrase, it would mysteriously play an unrelated rap track of some kind, which was infuriating!

So I am in no way suggesting that Siri is somehow secretly better than the other vocal assistants in this area, or that the rest of you must be “using it wrong,” as I have no direct experience with any other vocal assistants. I just know that Siri works pretty well for me most of the time, but my requests are not very far-ranging and random, either.

That aside, I have noticed in the past few months that Siri is already getting “smarter.” On the rare occasion I need to venture outside of the categories above, I get a lot less “here’s something I found on the web” or some similar non-answer than I did before.

The other day, I idly asked “what is the chemical composition of steel?” and to my astonishment it gave me the correct one-sentence summary answer.

So at least SOME “AI” is already at work, and none of my Apple devices are recent, so it’s not just doing this on new items.

You're not an anomaly, it's just that there exists a very vocal group of negative nellies that rush into every Siri thread to denounce it cuz trolls gotta troll.

It is the same as saying the iPad doesn't run Mac OS.

It doesn't. That's why it has a different name and is a completely different beast when compared to a Mac. It is also basically the number one iPad complaint. That it cannot realise its full potential because iPad OS holds it back. 

That situation has now come front and foremost with the M4. 

The codebase is irrelevant if in userland functionality isn't available. 

"That it cannot realise its full potential because iPad OS holds it back." =>  Tha's like saying the Mac Pro can't realize its full potential because of macOS and Apple should make a special version of macOS to take advantage of the Mac Pro's power.  I disagree with this.  Apple never bifurcates their lineup with different operating systems.  One iOS for all iPhones.  One macOS for all Macs.  One iPadOS for all iPads.  And so on.  I'll be very shocked if those changes.  And I'm not of the mindset anymore that iPadOS is holding the iPad Pro back.  What it needs is apps that take advantage of its hardware performance and we starting to see that now with Apple's first party apps and third-party developers.  

That's not to say that Apple won't add features to iPadOS every year, they will.  But don't expect to see macOS on iPad Pro.

It seems you agree with me. In part. 

An iPad doesn't run macOS. 

File management alone on iPad OS is a severe handicap when compared to macOS. 

saarek

mpantone said:

saarek said:

I’d be happier if they enabled more queries to be dealt with on device. I find that my HomePods almost need to warm up first thing in the morning. Almost every time I give it a first instruction, such as “turn on bedroom light” I get a response similar too “there is no device like that in your home”, wait 10 seconds and ask the same question and no problem, it handles the query.

Really pisses me off.

You know, my LG OLED television set is unresponsive to remote control commands for about ten seconds after the screen comes on. I figure it's logging into the mothership and uploading all of my credit card data and latest photos of my pets.

Not a big deal.

Maybe someday Apple will release the $1000 HomePod Pro which will reduce the boot-up time to 7 seconds. You should buy that. Followed by the HomePod Pro Ultra at $1200 which will reduce boot-up to 5 seconds.

Might not be a big deal to you, and that is fair enough. After all, what annoys me may well not annoy you.

Still, when a very old £29 2nd generation Amazon Echo Dot from 2016 can do it first time every time (my daughter has one) I feel I’m not unreasonable in expecting my £299 HomePod from 2023 to do the same. It’s far more modern and powerful and It does cost 10X the price after all!

baconstang

I never got in to using Siri, maybe I'll give it another try...