Apple's New Siri Will Be Powered By Google Gemini

[cjsuk]

Tim Cook played around with virtual reality glasses that nobody uses, wasting time and money while the competition was working on AI. He should be fired yesterday!!!!

I will distinguish the difference between applications of AI here and note LLMs only.

I've seen stats for LLM stuff in a large org. No one uses it apart from a very vocal minority. In fact, uptake is so bad that it gets turned off in most orgs because there is no ROI. That's why MS forced CoPilot on everyone in O365 - to inflate the figures because the uptake was low. Where it is used, there is either actual tangible damage being done which breaks ROI or no quantifiable ROI in the first place. On top of that, people are starting to come round to the fact that whilst technology is always functionally inert, the people using it are not and this is being noted even through non-technology focused people. All the slop being pumped into their existing social media accounts is diluting interest in that as well.

Anything left is running on faith and the idea is on fire. It's a hammer without nails to hit.

Apple's conservative stance of getting someone else in and giving them the option of pulling the plug is the most sensible thing I've seen from a tech company. When the inevitable ponzi / cash circulation scheme bubble does pop, Apple will see the least damage because it actually has real products to sell.

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I will note one case I have seen personally recently. The principal interest of using LLMs is staff replacement and cost cutting. Naive management think they can replace skilled workers with unskilled workers who can use LLMs to bridge the gap. This is announced as a "me too" gesture, skilled staff are laid off and replaced with lowest paid outsourced staff they can get. They are thrown in the deep end with the LLM as a crutch. They do tangible damage to the business. The management team get 1-2 years of product failures but good EBITDA under the belt, write it off as an amazing thing that they've adopted AI like everyone else, somehow boost stock prices on the me-too, then leave and go and damage the next organisation. Then they have to rehire and clean the mess up.

This industry damages society and people are aware of it.

 

[bluecoast]

Apple IS building its own big data centers, containing its own Apple-manufactured servers, on which it will run Google's AI LLM. Its Apple's "Private Cloud Compute" initiative. Those data centers may not need to be as massive as some others, since Apple isn't planning on including a general, universal chatbot capability for Siri/Apple Intelligence, though I wouldn't be surprised if they change their mind about that at some point.

Also when Apple talks about ‘Apple servers’ they really mean enclaves on Google cloud and AWS.

 

[Velli]

Just like Microsoft and Nvidia is doing very well financially without being in smartphones, Apple will do just fine being an AI customer rather than supplier. This whole “Apple is doomed if they don’t get on the AI train” is ridiculous.

To paraphrase Jason Snell, Apple is better poised to withstand the inevitable AI bubble-burst than anyone in the industry. Apple always, always, always plays the long game.

 

[artifex]

Anything has to be better than what Siri is now. The only command it can properly execute for me is "Hey Siri, call my wife."

Ironically, that's the only thing I really need to use Gemini for on my Android phone, trying to call family while in the car to tell them I'm late or whatever. And Gemini asks me if this is who I'm calling, repeating the contact name, but makes me look at the screen and tap the person's name to confirm instead of accepting me saying yes. The old Google Assistant just did it. If I have to look and touch to confirm a command then it's pointless and unsafe for use while driving.

 

[frou]

Surely Apple's head of AI should be shown the door for failing on home-grown Siri

 

[artifex]

In about 5 years, we will all subscribe to a personal AI that will slip in and out of all devices with APIs from the host company. We will get embedded with the personal AI so switching will be difficult.

Apple really screwed things up here in terms of development. All the key players went to Google and then they did this.

I sure hope we eventually have the ability to run a local model at home (think a limited version of SARAH from the show Eureka, though maybe without Fargo's voice). And it could interface with our mobile devices over a VPN. Imagine pairing that with augmented glasses. We'd still have to use commercial APIs for a lot of stuff, of course, but we wouldn't have to worry about porting our data over if we switched providers.

 

[Evagoras2001]

Perplexity uses models from various companies.

Yes. I wanted to keep it short

 

[timeislove]

Interesting twist. Initially Apple seemed to have been going in the OpenAI direction. Seems like the existing multi-billion dollar relationship they have with Google prevailed over starting something new with another company? Obviously Google had to demonstrate that their AI is as competent as whatever OpenAI was bringing to the table.

Guess just another failed decision after adopting Google Map as the default Map app in the early era of iOS.

 

[zoozx]

It seems like all Apple is capable of doing any longer is to just keep Stepping in it !

 

[fahlman]

yea goodbye siri. I'll build my own local setup with home assistant and start migrating off the apple ecosystem. If they are giving up, so am I.

What does any of that have to do with this topic?

 

[dannys1]

I think there is also the stability factor. If this AI bonanza starts to go sideways, OpenAI is fully exposed, whereas Google has something else to fall back on to keep things going.

Why would it matter though - once they buy access to the LLM and run it on their own servers, they wouldn't be relying on OpenAI, Anthropic or Google.

 

[dannys1]

This is a joke. I try to use as little services from Google as possible.

I would not trust anything that's being transmitted from Apple products to Siri from now on.

So do I, but this wouldn't be a Google service. Just because Apple will have paid to put their LLM model on their own server. There's nothing Google left in it - they've just saved millions reinventing the wheel (which they appear to be doing anyway for whatever reason - licensing payment terms I guess).

 

[clg82]

If this is Apple simply licensing a Google model and running it privately on their own servers (without transmitting data to Google), this should only be seen as a win. It's clear that Apple cannot make their own foundational model, so licensing arguably the strongest existing model from a third party is the next best move.

How can you say it's a "win" for Apple and then say in the same breath "it's clear that Apple isn't capable of doing this themselves" lollllllllllllll

 

[Boatboy24]

Will the 1 trillion parameter model finally give Siri enough horsepower to figure out how to level the volume with other apps? If I'm let's say streaming YouTube on a browsers and ask Siri something, it pretty much yells at me. Might want to fix that first.

Same in CarPlay. I can be listening to a playlist at the perfect volume, then Siri screams at me when reading a text message.

 

[rjw1678]

I have had Apple devices(Mac, iPad, and iPhone) since 2013 and I have never used Siri. I will never knowingly use AI.

 

[.Joel]

I have had Apple devices(Mac, iPad, and iPhone) since 2013 and I have never used Siri. I will never knowingly use AI.

I have had Apple devices(Mac, iPad, and iPhone) since 2003 and I have never been able to use Siri. I will knowingly use AI if it makes it useful.

 

[cardfan]

Beginning of end. Apple stumbling.

 

[.Joel]

Beginning of end. Apple stumbling.

LOL. Been listening to this same broken record about Apple for decades and they're still here.
If Siri was the beginning of the end, then it was the song that never ended.

 

[cardfan]

They should just buy Perplexity and catch up to the Assistant/AI features Android and others have had for a while now.

Edit: Didn't realize Perplexity was just a wrapper, although it looks like they are also working on their own LLM. Anthropic would be an option and I'd argue a "buy once cry once" mentality, especially given how much cash Apple has on hand. They are falling behind fast and it's unfortunate how much turnover they have had, mostly thanks to all the poaching. I know Apple is never first to the party but at this point their AI footprint is almost non-existent and I'd like to hope they catch up.

You’re not buying a third party or outsourcing AI without having huge compromises. It’s hilarious to see anyone cheering this on as something good. It’s a band aid at best. And inferior to googles android. For a company like Apple that has a history of having such foundations in place and known for software/hardware integration, this is really disappointing news.