Apple Hiring for 'Answers' Team Working on 'ChatGPT-Like Search'

[Ghengis LeMond]

Early Conversational Siri prototype is about to go Beta!
-
Hi Conversational Siri.
Conversational Siri: Hi! What would you like to converse on today?
Baseball.
Conversational Siri: Baseball is one of my favorite things!
Me too. How long did it take for Hank to write his name into the record books and hit all those homers?
Conversational Siri: Well, that's unknown. It may have been by multiple people. It was quite a hit, but it was certainly years, maybe centuries.
Who?
Conversational Siri: Who is on first, but I though you were talking about The Odyssey.
What are you talking about?
Conversational Siri: What is on second. I'm talking about Homer, of course. You seem very confused today. Is everything alright?
Of course, but I’m not so sure about you. What about Hank? And who is Homer?
Conversational Siri: Who is on first, What is on second. Hank wrote a Football song for Monday Nights, and, while he was a fan, had nothing notable to do with baseball. I hope that clarifies things. By the way, Of Course is on third and Homer wrote The Odyssey. If Aaron hits one here it’ll be his career 17th grand slam!

 

[chickenpiccata]

A traditional search engine that actively excluded generative slop pages would be far more useful at this point.

Take a look at Kagi.

 

[thiscatisfat]

Didnt they say they don’t want to make a chatbot? That they want AI to be invisible in iOS? Now they DO want to make a chatbot? What???

 

[richpjr]

Didnt they say they don’t want to make a chatbot? That they want AI to be invisible in iOS? Now they DO want to make a chatbot? What???

They are rudderless.

 

[TheColtr]

I’m actually optimistic about Apple’s machine learning efforts. They are not the best, but these open ended chatbots are dangerous for society. LLMs are tools that should be used in contexts, Writing Tools is a good example.

Using an LLM for therapy or trying to date/sext them is unhealthy for society and, I’d argue, destructive for user.

Can Apple do better? Yes. Can they do more? Yes. Should it be in context where it make sense? Yes.

Apple making a search bot is very good. I think LLMs are great for search, and being able to dialogue with them to find the right website is good too.

 

[TheColtr]

Didnt they say they don’t want to make a chatbot? That they want AI to be invisible in iOS? Now they DO want to make a chatbot? What???

There is a difference between having a “conversation” with an LLM that is searching the web like a more advanced google search, vs. using Apple’s LLM as your therapist or trying to seduce it.

 

[vantelimus]

Early Conversational Siri prototype is about to go Beta!

Pretty funny. Unfortunately, it could be accurate given Siri's trajectory. At this point, Siri is Apple's Clippy.

 

[Oestreich Dieter]

It’s glaringly obvious that they’re still fumbling in the dark with no idea what they’re doing. iOS 27? Seriously? Why even bother splurging on a new iPhone this September? This is an absolute train wreck of embarrassment.

AI is clearly not driving iPhone purchasing decisions. Look at their earnings report from Thursday. They sold more iPhone 16 than iPhone 15. The vast majority of consumers aren’t looking at AI features when buying a new phone. It’s only us nerds on the forums who look at this stuff.

 

[wigby]

the computer industry is scrambling. Scrambling for ai. its an existential threat. Fail, & you're gone.

That's the perception of some investors but not really true. Apple has failed multiple times over the years with AI and they are doing fine. It's really more about AI failing or over promising the tech industry. We are going to see so much upheaval and violence resulting from AI in the next few years that many companies will admire Apple's distancing themselves (whether intentional or not) from AI.

 

[gomichaelgo]

Okay, but can Apple just hire someone to fix the issues where you click on an instagram link and it takes you to the App Store to download IG, but you already have it and you click the "open" button and it just opens IG, and doesn't go to the person's page?

Or when someone sends you a Google Maps thing why can't Apple intuitively provide the directions to said location within Apple Maps or your default map app?

And same with Spotify. If I use Apple Music and someone sends me a song link in Spotify, why can't it just read the data and give me the AM song to stream? Come on guys. Isn't the meta data or whatever the f it's called there? Just read said song or playlist and give it to me in AM.

 

[MacAttack2024]

More weird that the CEO who has literally no vision for the company is telling everyone to buy their next thing.

Jobs was excited by products that made customers life better AND/OR products they created that were once deemed impossible.

Cook be excited they just managed to squeeze out some more sku’s and profit.

 

[mansplains]

Apple delays Apple Intelligence. MR folks: Apple is doomed.
Apple loses AI people. MR folks: Apple is doomed.
Apple hires folks for AI. MR folks: Apple is doomed.

Meanwhile, record quarter.

Gotta love it here.

While I agree there’s constant pessimism here, “line go up” isn’t the whole story. Many comments are regarding Apple losing its magic, or similar. Releasing effectively the same device annually prints money but Apple’s just as soulless as IBM back in the day. This is how I interpret many of the comments.

 

[Donkey Man]

“Answers” team for a completely rudderless ship. Oh, the irony.

 

[johannnn]

Good that they finally start.

But they're HIRING now? Then it's gonna be like 2-3 years til release

 

[mdriftmeyer]

Apple is developing a search engine beyond just scraping the Net. Losing Google's investment will now legally justify them into developing their own search services.

Using LLM/LLA and building out data centers there will be integration to later be available on all its platforms for verified, factually peer reviewed content, collated, categorized, meta data rich content pools across all subjects, current events, politics, etc.

I wouldn't be surprised if they meld it into Apple News+ for licensed peer review studies, latest journal research partnerships with revenue sharing and promotion.

Think about where this country is at with propaganda, disinformation and outright lies at the top constantly eroding public discourse.

When billionaires are buying out the 4th estate people need a means to know fact from propaganda. We're not talking about just linking to magazine articles, but engines to delineate fact from fiction.

And make no mistake about it, Apple does not like what is happening in the political spectrum.

Tim is not Steve. Steve would have long earlier made his views known about what a crap show VC tech bros were intending to do in running the country.

He had a very low opinion of folks like Zuckerberg, Musk, Andreesson, etc., and would have parted ways with Ellison and his son's MAGA views. He despised Got Milk but admired the marketing genius.

If Steve were alive, Wozniak would do what he always does, leave such measured speech to Steve who was a master at sizing people up and cutting them down.

As far as Bezos goes, he's always been seen as a joke to the old SV guard. His latest Wash Post crap would come as no surprise.

Andreesson going from Netscape to mega billionaire is a neat trick: incapable of running any business successfully later reinvents himself a steward for Amerika's future--a typically delude VC.

A company that deserves much of the blame is Microsoft for investing in these start ups allowing them all to become obscenely wealthy and their founders to play pretend treat our collective futures as their right to exploit.

Bill Gates has been awfully quiet after Melinda publicly vilified him for his frequent visits to Epstein Island.

 

[ghanwani]

The worst thing with Siri is when I ask it to look up a business and it instead starts calling one of my contacts. I've had to apologize to people so many times due to this.

The 2nd worst is "Something went wrong. Please try again."

 

[nt5672]

It’s glaringly obvious that they’re still fumbling in the dark with no idea what they’re doing. iOS 27? Seriously? Why even bother splurging on a new iPhone this September? This is an absolute train wreck of embarrassment.

What do you expect? Cook has no idea who to listen to. Like all big corporations the people that Cook listens to have their head way up is &ss and he has no clue.

What was that old saying "People rise to their maximum level of incompetence."

 

[WarmWinterHat]

Take your time, Apple. I'll disable it now or disable it in the future. 🤷🏻‍♂️

 

[vegetassj4]

Apple Announces New “Answers” Team to Build ‘ChatGPT-Like Search’—Because Siri Definitely Doesn’t Cut It

In a bold move that we’re absolutely sure has nothing to do with the ongoing failures of Siri, Apple has launched a new team—called Answers—to work on a “ChatGPT-like search” feature. The tech giant says it’s hoping to revolutionize how we find things online, because, well, it’s 2025 and their current voice assistant can still barely tell the difference between "play music" and "turn on Bluetooth."

The new initiative, led by yet another team of Apple engineers who definitely don’t have Siri nightmares, aims to build a search tool that actually understands context. The project has reportedly been in the works for months, which begs the question—what has Siri been doing in that time? Clearly, not “understanding context.” But hey, maybe it’s been “learning” how to show the right weather forecast… in the wrong city.

Apple promises that this ChatGPT-like search will allow for more conversational queries. So, instead of getting the usual one-sentence answers to your burning questions, you’ll now get... well, still short answers, but ones that sound like they’re smarter. Progress?

The new tool will reportedly integrate seamlessly with Apple’s existing services like Safari, iMessages, and maybe even Apple Maps—just don’t expect it to know how to direct you to an actual location. That’s still Siri’s department.

In typical Apple fashion, the company is maintaining an air of mystery about the whole thing, which we all know is just their way of saying, “We’ll release this when it’s perfect. And by perfect, we mean, it’s still got bugs. And Siri may or may not be involved.”

Stay tuned as Apple inevitably unveils this feature in a “special event” next year, where we’ll all pretend to be shocked that it’s actually just a “revolutionary update” to something that’s already been available for years on other platforms.

 

[citysnaps]

So many AI experts here...

Yet none of them have any first-hand inside information about what Apple is doing in AI. Especially with respect to their $500 Billion investment in AI servers that are under development at Apple, which will soon be manufactured in Apple's Houston facility for subsequent distribution around the US (and likely beyond) for customer use.

What's really funny... is most everyone has said, multiple times and vociferously, they will turn off AI on their devices as soon as Apple downloads it. Seems odd getting so upset about something they say they'll never use.

 

[Premium1]

It have a suggestion that is completely impractical and only semi-facetious that could solve two problems for Apple.

Apple should buy OpenAI

This would
1. Give them world-leading teams to solve their AI issues
2. Get Jony Ive back so Apple can return to design-centric products.

Now, I'm sure there would be some fallout and executive rank shake ups. It might require getting rid of the current Apple executive team and replacing them with people who are driven to change the world, not just the size of their portfolios.

Ah yes just what we need. More thin products that are form over function and don't work properly....

 

[DelayedGratificationGene]

Please source this. I think it’s conjecture based on their funding, operational loss right now is expected. Do you have evidence to the contrary? I’d be curious to read it if it is objective and not put together by someone with bias against the tools in general.

There are valid criticisms but xAI, OpenAI, Meta, and Google will all be able to pursue the bitter lesson trajectory for quite a while. Most of them will eventually pivot and add another revenue stream from advertisements and it if that follows the path of the general internet most people will gladly take that trade if they can continue paying current prices.

Those of us who care or who have more advanced use cases will be forced to pay a significantly higher price, $200/mo won’t be unusual going forward. Companies like Google are definitely doing those long-term projections and the calculus behind what it will take to stay profitable once things settle a bit (and before world models which, who knows what happens then).

OpenAI has enough mind share to remain extremely valuable for at least a year or two, and if they can’t turn it around they will probably sell and their investors will probably still come out ahead.

Antrhopic is who I’m most worried about, and subjectively in m opinion they have the best product.

Source? Ask ChatGPT if ChatGPT is profitable lol

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

I think so. But if Tim Cook was smart he would have done everything in his power to motivate them to stay because Apple is serious about AI. Now that top talent is leaving Apple, Tim Cook takes everything seriously and urgent, but it might be too late, way too late.

wasn’t it just a month ago that this place was buzzing about how Apple needs to fire their entire AI team and start from scratch?
so which is it, should they be letting their employees go because Siri is bad, or should they be holding every employee as tightly as possible?
or maybe, is this nothing out of the ordinary and tech talent moves around the entire industry every day? Could it be that?
remember, the guy who’s been running Siri for the last seven years up until last March came from Google.
employees leave Google to work at Apple, Apple employees leave to work at Meta, Meta employees leave to work at open AI, open AI employees leave to work at Apple, Apple employees leave to work at Google, Google employees leave to work at Meta, Meta employees leave to work at open AI, Google employees leave to work at Meta, and the cycle circles on and on.

 

[novagamer]

Apple is developing a search engine beyond just scraping the Net. Losing Google's investment will now legally justify them into developing their own search services.

Using LLM/LLA and building out data centers there will be integration to later be available on all its platforms for verified, factually peer reviewed content, collated, categorized, meta data rich content pools across all subjects, current events, politics, etc.

I wouldn't be surprised if they meld it into Apple News+ for licensed peer review studies, latest journal research partnerships with revenue sharing and promotion.

Think about where this country is at with propaganda, disinformation and outright lies at the top constantly eroding public discourse.

When billionaires are buying out the 4th estate people need a means to know fact from propaganda. We're not talking about just linking to magazine articles, but engines to delineate fact from fiction.

And make no mistake about it, Apple does not like what is happening in the political spectrum.

Tim is not Steve. Steve would have long earlier made his views known about what a crap show VC tech bros were intending to do in running the country.

He had a very low opinion of folks like Zuckerberg, Musk, Andreesson, etc., and would have parted ways with Ellison and his son's MAGA views. He despised Got Milk but admired the marketing genius.

If Steve were alive, Wozniak would do what he always does, leave such measured speech to Steve who was a master at sizing people up and cutting them down.

As far as Bezos goes, he's always been seen as a joke to the old SV guard. His latest Wash Post crap would come as no surprise.

Andreesson going from Netscape to mega billionaire is a neat trick: incapable of running any business successfully later reinvents himself a steward for Amerika's future--a typically delude VC.

A company that deserves much of the blame is Microsoft for investing in these start ups allowing them all to become obscenely wealthy and their founders to play pretend treat our collective futures as their right to exploit.

Bill Gates has been awfully quiet after Melinda publicly vilified him for his frequent visits to Epstein Island.

This post is a lot, pretty off topic about politics, and whie I agree there are a lot of issues I’m not sure that you can really nail it down to one or two factors other than the original research that enabled the technology. Once that came out, it was kind of inevitable. No country on earth has a government that is tech savvy and fast enough to regulate this, particularly in a globalized society. I don’t like that that’s the case, but it is.

That said t I’m curious how you think Apple licensing peer reviewed studies would really be a large benefit because the replication crisis was never really solved, and every other model provider already has access to them (legally or not). An enormous corpus of data tends to lead to better outcomes for generalized tools, although for specifically focused and tuned models you can get by with millions of parameters rather than billions.

In the uS at least there is probably no going back as far as content crawling legality. Perhaps given cloudflare’s recent gatekeeping / blocking AI traffic upon request, which has its own issues, Apple could pay them off and possibly to bypass the firewall and create some service that crawls N times a day rather than ad-hoc hammering but that technology is not exactly impossible to implement and I’d expect others would quickly follow suit and it would reduce the server loads dramatically by caching. Apple does have a leg up here because they operate a huge CDN but so does Google, to probably an even greater degree.

There are a lot of factors pushing us toward a future where the internet is bifurcated into realID and non, but beyond that I think it’s a bit of a leap to think that advances and investment in this technology are funneling everyone toward one specific master plan of oligarchs. Like anything, they will exploit the system and technology to enable it, but I think it’s a little bit narrow-minded to assume that the research and technology itself as a whole is part of some larger thing.

There is a good research paper about LLMs being great capture devices for the surveillance state and that is undeniably true, but just as the vast, vast majority of people don’t care about the privacy cost vs. actually. paying for services that protect it, I think the same applies here.

 

[novagamer]

Source? Ask ChatGPT if ChatGPT is profitable lol

Did you read my post and comprehend what I’m saying? I didn’t claim it was profitable now anywhere in there. You can make a glib joke but I think my reasoning is sound, and I don’t think yours is or that you made a good faith effort to refute it. That’s fine of course, but I don’t see the point in drive-by comments in a discussion forum.

Seems like a waste of effort when there is an opportunity for critical thinking and knowledge transfer. As a people we’re stronger together vs. apart, even if there is a difference of opinion.