Microsoft dumps Cortana leaving Siri as one of the last smart assistants
Microsoft makes room for Bing Chat
Cortana's death has been a long time coming. Microsoft began removing support for Cortana on mobile in 2021 and is now killing it off on Windows as well.
According to a Microsoft support document first shared by Windows Latest, Cortana will no longer be supported in Windows starting in August 2023. While it didn't provide a specific day, it seems an update will erase this smart assistant at any time, if not already.
Of course, the news isn't a surprise as Microsoft turns its attention to the new and shiny toy provided by an OpenAI partnership -- Bing Chat. This Large Language Model-powered chatbot can answer complex questions and summarize sources with some questionable accuracy.
Other competitors in the smart assistant space that started with Siri in 2011 included Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, Samsung Bixby, and dozens of other short-lived assistants. However, it seems everyone is moving on except Apple.
During the post-COVID layoffs that hit nearly every tech company except Apple, Amazon laid off a large chunk of its Alexa division. The company seems to bleed cash from Alexa and has slowly deprioritized the division, despite releasing new hardware.
If you've forgotten about Bixby, don't worry, so has Samsung. The assistant was slowly pushed to the background in favor of Google Assistant somewhere around 2020.
But even Google seems to be backing off its pride and joy smart assistant in favor of Bard. Google mentioned "AI" over 100 times during its 2023 I/O, but with emphasis on Bard and other LLMs -- Google Assistant was an afterthought.
Siri is still a priority for Apple
That leaves Apple and Siri. Even as Apple's CEO Tim Cook states that some portion of its increasing R&D spend is going to Apple AI research, the results haven't shown in Siri -- yet. There have been alleged internal arguments about Apple's need to abandon Siri for a restart aimed at LLMs like Bard, but a concern for user privacy continues to win out.
Regardless of Apple's approach, we at AppleInsider find it difficult to believe Apple would abandon a brand like Siri, despite the cruft. Even if the company rewrites Siri from scratch, we expect whatever LLM form it takes will still be called Siri.
Apple has always been a smart brand company and is unwilling to abandon recognizable product names. It isn't about to change the name of one of its most well-known products into something unrecognizable -- that would lack business sense.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
1. MS Mobile
2. Windows (last legs)
3. Cortana
4. Bing Schming (as heavily used as MySpace)
5. Surface (dying days)
Companies like MS are product-wise linked to Google: one-hit wonder. And then they sit around looking for new paths to forge. So they look at the fruit in Cupertino and they come up with tablets; services; phones; headphones and on and on. And they fail miserably.
And just as they are coming up for air Apple outpaces them by a trillion miles with Vision Pro. I am certain that Google with its poor hardware record will never attempt anything similar (remember Googles Myopic Glasses
Where is the monopoly of DOS?
They should have kept the name Cortana in favour of Bing.
Apple has a problem. They say they’ve been investing a lot in AI, but I don’t believe for a word they’ve worked on the tech like OpenAI is delivering today; that’s just damage control by Tim Cook to keep shareholders at ease.
Siri is a green screen voice CLI today compared the LLM driven services like Bard. I would love to see a beta track with Siri where an experimental and fail fast playground is available for pushing these technologies into Siri. I get that Apple wants things to “just work” before making it mainstream to all.
Tech like AutoGPT with an increasing amount of “autonomous” automation powered by LLMs would be amazing to link to Siri.
Amazon is blinking with Alexa cuts, MS is leaving the battlefield with Cortana.. Google is still there and is a very potent force. Apple has the opportunity to make a dent in the universe now. In my view it is tied into a major backend upgrade and also a push into making more iCloud connected devices first class citizens with Siri as a first class citizen interface.
Cant judge it’s performance as never used one, but it exists already at same price of Vision Pro.
2. Windows (last legs) - Most popular desktop OS. I don't think it is in it last legs, as you said.
3. Cortana - Being replaced by CoPilot, and integrated in Windows, Office, Dynamics and Viva Sales. From what I have seen, it's far ahead of what Siri can do.
4. Bing - Far behind of Google, but still it's good to have options.
5. Surface - Doing very good, considering they enter the market very late.
Microsoft focus is different from Apple. They are stronger in software and services. Azure, MS 365, LinkedIn and Github are doing very good. They also have ERP's, management tools and server software. And Windows and MS Office are still ahead of the competition after all off these years. And now they start their push with GamePass, with +25M subscribers. I don't think MS is a one-hit wonder, as you said.
Maybe you don't know, but MS has HoloLens, which is already being used with enterprise customers and the military. So looks like they have skill to do a MR headset.
What people do not realize is that Siri is already part of a node connecting many other functions. The function of Siri is almost irrelevant as a stand-alone feature. HOWEVER, when applied to Apple “Notes” and its integration with others OS function the whole process is brilliant. Siri is the periscope of a submarine that not many people see. And as tradition shows for the last 25 years, Apple does not flash any product until is fully ready, while testing it unnoticed by all the users.
Siri is not and is not intended to be an: Alexa switch the lights, Alexa turn off the lights”, it goes beyond the marketing for idiots. And the AI of Apple es further ahead of those “we have millions and millions of phones with windows”.
As someone said Apple skates not to where the puck is, but to where it is going to be. If we already did not know that predicament.
https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/us-army-says-no-thanks-to-buying-more-hololens-devices-this-year-demands-several-hardware-improvements-first
https://www.techspot.com/news/96304-army-tester-warns-microsoft-hololens-based-ar-goggles.html