More Advanced AI Siri Functionality Not Coming to iOS 18 Until 2025

[MacRumors]

Apple is planning a major AI overhaul for Siri in iOS 18, and Bloomberg's Mark Gurman says that the update will let Siri control all individual features in apps for the first time, expanding the range of functions the personal assistant can perform.

Siri will be able to do things like open specific documents, move a note from one folder to another, delete an email, summarize an article, email a web link, and open a particular news site in Apple News. Apple plans to use AI to analyze what people are doing on their devices, automatically enabling Siri features.

To make this happen, Apple engineers had to rearchitect Siri's underlying software with large language models or LLMs, which is also the technology that's been used for chatbots like ChatGPT. Apple has been working on a deal with OpenAI to integrate OpenAI's ChatGPT technology into iOS 18, and it is also in talks with Google about incorporating Gemini, but Siri functionality likely relies on Apple's own LLM work.

At launch, the new Siri functionality will be limited to Apple apps, and Siri will only be able to respond to one command at a time. Eventually, Apple wants Siri to be able to respond to multiple commands, such as capturing a photo and then sending it to someone in a message.

While the Siri features will be introduced at WWDC 2024, Apple reportedly does not plan to launch them in September when iOS 18 sees an initial release. Instead, Siri will be overhauled in a future iOS 18 update that's set to be introduced in 2025.

Basic AI tasks in iOS 18 will be processed on device, but more advanced capabilities will rely on Apple's cloud servers. Gurman previously said that Apple would power all of the initial iOS 18 features on-device without relying on cloud technology in order to preserve privacy, but rumors have shifted in recent weeks. Part of Apple's new Siri technology will include code for determining whether a request can be processed on device or requires Apple's servers. On-device iOS 18 AI capabilities will largely require an iPhone 15 Pro or later to work, and an M1 or later for iPadOS 18 and macOS 15.

According to The Information, Apple's AI servers will be powered by M2 Ultra and M4 chips, with Apple planning to use the Secure Enclave to "to help isolate the data being processed on its servers so that it can't be seen by the wider system or Apple." Gurman says that Apple will also provide customers with an "intelligent report" that explains how information is kept safe.

We'll hear all about the AI functionality coming to Siri in just over 10 days. WWDC 2024 is set to begin on Monday, June 10.

Article Link: More Advanced AI Siri Functionality Not Coming to iOS 18 Until 2025

 

[ipedro]

The AI Agent feature I've been commenting about:

A recent machine learning model Apple published with the capability to recognize apps' UI and how to use them, gives us a good indication of how this will work. Siri (offline) will be able to act on your behalf to use apps (online).

---

User:
Siri, I'd like to have dinner with my girlfriend tonight at that place I walked by last week with the red umbrella. I took a photo of it.

Siri:

Looks at your Photos (offline), finds the red umbrella, geotagged,
locates the restaurant in Apple Maps (online),
brings up OpenTable (online) cues up a reservation after looking at your Calendar (offline).

That was Sandro's on College St. I've found you a reservation for 2 at 8pm. You get off work at 5, that should give you enough time to get home, get ready and head over to Sandro's. Ana's schedule also shows her free. Would you like me to book it?

User:
Yes... no, wait, can we do 8:30 instead? I'd like to get a bottle of wine, does Sandro's have a corking fee?

Siri:

Looks up OpenTable (online) to see if there's an 8:30pm reservation.
Looks up Sandro's website (online) and searches for a corking fee.
Looks up Apple Maps for nearby wine stores,
finds one that's on the Ritual app (online) so they can can bag your wine for pickup,
finds that you've ordered 2 different wines via Ritual.

Sandro's has a $6 corking fee. I found you an 8:30 reservation. Would you like Mateus Rose or Wolf Blass - Yellow Label Sauvignon? I can reserve it at the Wine Cellar, a short walk from Sandro's.

User:
Let's do Mateus. Go ahead and book the reservation please.

Siri:

Goes to OpenTable, places the reservation on your behalf.
Goes to Ritual, orders a bottle of Mateus Rose for pickup at 8pm.
Adds an event in your calendar with directions to the Wine Cellar
and another at 8:30pm with directions from there to Sandro's.
Creates a calendar invite for your girlfriend.

All set! Your Mateus Rose will be ready for pickup at 8pm, Sandro's at 8:30 on College St. and I've sent an invite to Ana.

---

Local Siri processing without having to access the internet will enable free flowing conversations without a delay. Having the ability to recognize how to use apps on your phone will be the online component. You already use those apps online. I suspect Google will be one of them, to allow Siri to get current information from the internet, using Gemini and returning those answers the same way it can return search results today, but with the capability to make use of them to get you an answer and read them back to you.

Apple's advantage beyond building silicon custom made for its native Siri, is that it has the largest App Store with virtually unlimited potential (there's an app for everything). Give Siri the capability to understand how to use apps (like the model Apple just published) and you can imagine how far this can go.

A scenario:

User:
Siri, I'd like to have dinner with my girlfriend tonight at that place I walked by last week with the red umbrella. I took a photo of it.

Siri:

Looks at your Photos (offline), finds the red umbrella, geotagged,
locates the restaurant in Apple Maps (online),
brings up OpenTable (online) cues up a reservation after looking at your Calendar (offline).

That was Sandro's on College St. I've found you a reservation for 2 at 8pm. You get off work at 5, that should give you enough time to get home, get ready and head over to Sandro's. Ana's schedule also shows her free. Would you like me to book it?

User:
Yes... no, wait, can we do 8:30 instead? I'd like to get a bottle of wine, does Sandro's have a corking fee?

Siri:

Looks up OpenTable (online) to see if there's an 8:30pm reservation.
Looks up Sandro's website (online) and searches for a corking fee.
Looks up Apple Maps for nearby wine stores,
finds one that's on the Ritual app (online) so they can can bag your wine for pickup,
finds that you've ordered 2 different wines via Ritual.

Sandro's has a $6 corking fee. I found you an 8:30 reservation. Would you like Mateus Rose or Wolf Blass - Yellow Label Sauvignon? I can reserve it at the Wine Cellar, a short walk from Sandro's.

User:
Let's do Mateus. Go ahead and book the reservation please.

Siri:

Goes to OpenTable, places the reservation on your behalf.
Goes to Ritual, orders a bottle of Mateus Rose for pickup at 8pm.
Adds an event in your calendar with directions to the Wine Cellar
and another at 8:30pm with directions from there to Sandro's.
Creates a calendar invite for your girlfriend.

All set! Your Mateus Rose will be ready for pickup at 8pm, Sandro's at 8:30 on College St. and I've sent an invite to Ana.

---

Apple's advantage in AI is the App Store, far larger than any other platform. If Siri can operate those apps for you (and their published papers show us that's where they're headed) then it'll be far more capable than anything openAI has done.

 

[foobarbaz]

I don't care when, at least they've finally started rebuilding Siri.

 

[antiprotest]

Weak and pathetic, but not surprising. But here comes the people who gaslight themselves and say "I'd rather Apple be late and do it right." Not when they are VERY VERY late, and still don't do it right.

Millions of people are already enjoying AI features by other companies. They are imperfect but usable, and ever improving. Meanwhile, Apple has nothing, and seemingly plans to have almost nothing.

 

[brijazz]

I don't care when, at least they've finally started rebuilding Siri.

I hope it's a rebuild, but I fear it's going to just be more sh*t piled on top of a weak foundation.

 

[brijazz]

Weak and pathetic, but not surprising.

Here comes the people who gaslight themselves and say "I'd rather Apple be late and do it right."

Not when they are VERY VERY late, and still don't do it right.

Meanwhile, millions of people are enjoying AI features by other companies, even if they are imperfect.

I understand what you're saying, but what's the value in having an A.I. search engine if it's going to give you bad information? Just to say 'hey, we're using A.I.?"

Anyhow, we don't know that Apple won't do it right. I'm skeptical myself, but let's at least wait and see.

 

[Frantisekj]

Makes sense but news about Siri are not exiting

 

[coffeemilktea]

No SiriGPT until 2025? I guess they're waiting on those 2nm chips. 😔

 

[cjsuk]

"Hey Siri, add Salt and Mushrooms to the shopping list"

Later in the supermarket...

If I subcontract everything out to interpretation, this is my life.

 

[Mrkevinfinnerty]

OpenAI and Microsoft will have enslaved humanity by then. Poor.

 

[Populus]

I don't care when, at least they've finally started rebuilding Siri.

Yeah, I would prefer them to just launch the new Siri when it’s 100% ready, even if that means putting it off until iOS 19.

However, I think I know why they prefer to announce it during WWDC now and deliver it next year; in line of what @antiprotest said, they are a bit late to the party, and if they delay it until iOS 19, all the (AI) competition will be at least a year and a half ahead of them.

So it kinda makes sense to announce and show off the new AI capabilities and Siri 2.0 at WWDC and keep working hard to deliver a great experience as soon as possible, be it with iOS 18.3 or 18.4

 

[xxFoxtail]

The AI Agent feature I've been commenting about:



A scenario:

User:
Siri, I'd like to have dinner with my girlfriend tonight at that place I walked by last week with the red umbrella. I took a photo of it.

Siri:

Looks at your Photos (offline), finds the red umbrella, geotagged,
locates the restaurant in Apple Maps (online),
brings up OpenTable (online) cues up a reservation after looking at your Calendar (offline).

That was Sandro's on College St. I've found you a reservation for 2 at 8pm. You get off work at 5, that should give you enough time to get home, get ready and head over to Sandro's. Ana's schedule also shows her free. Would you like me to book it?

User:
Yes... no, wait, can we do 8:30 instead? I'd like to get a bottle of wine, does Sandro's have a corking fee?

Siri:

Looks up OpenTable (online) to see if there's an 8:30pm reservation.
Looks up Sandro's website (online) and searches for a corking fee.
Looks up Apple Maps for nearby wine stores,
finds one that's on the Ritual app (online) so they can can bag your wine for pickup,
finds that you've ordered 2 different wines via Ritual.

Sandro's has a $6 corking fee. I found you an 8:30 reservation. Would you like Mateus Rose or Wolf Blass - Yellow Label Sauvignon? I can reserve it at the Wine Cellar, a short walk from Sandro's.

User:
Let's do Mateus. Go ahead and book the reservation please.

Siri:

Goes to OpenTable, places the reservation on your behalf.
Goes to Ritual, orders a bottle of Mateus Rose for pickup at 8pm.
Adds an event in your calendar with directions to the Wine Cellar
and another at 8:30pm with directions from there to Sandro's.
Creates a calendar invite for your girlfriend.

All set! Your Mateus Rose will be ready for pickup at 8pm, Sandro's at 8:30 on College St. and I've sent an invite to Ana.

---

Apple's advantage in AI is the App Store, far larger than any other platform. If Siri can operate those apps for you (and their published papers show us that's where they're headed) then it'll be far more capable than anything openAI has done.

This demo is slowly becoming reality.

 

[cjsuk]

OpenAI and Microsoft will have enslaved humanity by then. Poor.

Not going to happen.

OpenAI will not deliver the supposed gains that they are selling. Microsoft will have realised their CoPilot pyramid scheme isn't playing out and is actually a net financial loss that has detracted from other product value and existing customers and the board will throw Satya out and switch focus in a mass panic to security to retain government revenue in the cloud. Also NVidia's hyped valuation will crash when the market reaches saturation. About this time everyone will discover they don't actually need this current fad of "AI" and all it does is hallucinate stuff within a limited window of credibility. Also government regulation will catch up and kick the market in the balls.

(these are actual market positions that people are playing at the moment)

Edit: Apple are playing the usual conservative engineering policy game that they do which is adopting mature outcomes from the hype, you know the ones that don't make you drive off a cliff or replace the moon with a donut on thursdays on your camera.

 

[GMShadow]

Weak and pathetic, but not surprising. But here comes the people who gaslight themselves and say "I'd rather Apple be late and do it right." Not when they are VERY VERY late, and still don't do it right.

Millions of people are already enjoying AI features by other companies. They are imperfect but usable, and ever improving. Meanwhile, Apple has nothing, and seemingly plans to have almost nothing.

Google Gemini is great for sure, the way it recommends people use glue to adhere cheese to a pizza, or that depressed people should just off themselves. Personally I've found the advice to eat pebbles very helpful.

And I'm sure CoPilot will work just as well as every other Microsoft product these days...which is to say it'll have 30 pop-ups per week, change settings on you as it wants, and will generally be a poor experience overall.

"AI" is a meaningless buzzword being used by failing companies to juice their stock price. Apple has had machine learning driven features in iOS for half a decade now. But because some total losers like Pichai and Nadella used the right buzzwords they're industry leaders now, I guess.

 

[kevcube]

The AI Agent feature I've been commenting about:



A scenario:

User:
Siri, I'd like to have dinner with my girlfriend tonight at that place I walked by last week with the red umbrella. I took a photo of it.

Siri:

Looks at your Photos (offline), finds the red umbrella, geotagged,
locates the restaurant in Apple Maps (online),
brings up OpenTable (online) cues up a reservation after looking at your Calendar (offline).

That was Sandro's on College St. I've found you a reservation for 2 at 8pm. You get off work at 5, that should give you enough time to get home, get ready and head over to Sandro's. Ana's schedule also shows her free. Would you like me to book it?

User:
Yes... no, wait, can we do 8:30 instead? I'd like to get a bottle of wine, does Sandro's have a corking fee?

Siri:

Looks up OpenTable (online) to see if there's an 8:30pm reservation.
Looks up Sandro's website (online) and searches for a corking fee.
Looks up Apple Maps for nearby wine stores,
finds one that's on the Ritual app (online) so they can can bag your wine for pickup,
finds that you've ordered 2 different wines via Ritual.

Sandro's has a $6 corking fee. I found you an 8:30 reservation. Would you like Mateus Rose or Wolf Blass - Yellow Label Sauvignon? I can reserve it at the Wine Cellar, a short walk from Sandro's.

User:
Let's do Mateus. Go ahead and book the reservation please.

Siri:

Goes to OpenTable, places the reservation on your behalf.
Goes to Ritual, orders a bottle of Mateus Rose for pickup at 8pm.
Adds an event in your calendar with directions to the Wine Cellar
and another at 8:30pm with directions from there to Sandro's.
Creates a calendar invite for your girlfriend.

All set! Your Mateus Rose will be ready for pickup at 8pm, Sandro's at 8:30 on College St. and I've sent an invite to Ana.

---

Apple's advantage in AI is the App Store, far larger than any other platform. If Siri can operate those apps for you (and their published papers show us that's where they're headed) then it'll be far more capable than anything openAI has done.

maybe in 6 years

 

[kevcube]

Google Gemini is great for sure, the way it recommends people use glue to adhere cheese to a pizza, or that depressed people should just off themselves. Personally I've found the advice to eat pebbles very helpful.

And I'm sure CoPilot will work just as well as every other Microsoft product these days...which is to say it'll have 30 pop-ups per week, change settings on you as it wants, and will generally be a poor experience overall.

"AI" is a meaningless buzzword being used by failing companies to juice their stock price. Apple has had machine learning driven features in iOS for half a decade now. But because some total losers like Pichai and Nadella used the right buzzwords they're industry leaders now, I guess.

dude c'mon. ChatGPT has revolutionized the way people work and research information and you're downplaying it all as if apple's "machine learning driven features" are anything to compare it to these days.

Machine learning has a time and a place, like learning which words I want to misspell, and deciding when I want to activate Do not Disturb, but it is not in the same league as AI models that are already commercially and freely available. Apple is behind by miles and we all know they aren't catching up any time soon.

 

[now i see it]

Does anyone remember all the hype around Siri when it was first revealed with the iPhone 4S? The promotional presentations made it look like it was going to be wonderful.
And we all know how Siri actually turned out.
Call me a skeptic, but I’m not holding my breath for Siri 2.0 ai.

 

[JPack]

In other words, wait for iPhone 17.

These simple AI features will still be in beta when launched in 2025. Given they only work with Apple apps (who only uses Apple apps?), looks like it'll take Apple until 2026 before they catch up.

 

[macduke]

Eventually, Apple wants Siri to be able to respond to multiple commands, such as capturing a photo and then sending it to someone in a message.

I don't even want to do this kinda crap. I just want Siri to be able to quickly do basic math:

Or be able to answer simple questions about the most popular sports league in the US, the NFL:

It has gotten dumber over the years. Sometimes it just straight up gives me the wrong answer to a math question. Like here, it clearly received the decimal point in the query, shown at the bottom, but the result, shown above, is WAY off because it decided to remove the decimal for no good reason.



And don't even get me started on how many times it forgets what my lights are called in my house and gaslights me about how there is nothing with that name in HomeKit. Then I try again a moment later and it works fine!



Or that you can't even ask it basic questions, like what is the speed of light...because it gets confused.

Apple, just fix Siri before you go gumming it up with all of this BS!!

 

[cjsuk]

Weak and pathetic, but not surprising. But here comes the people who gaslight themselves and say "I'd rather Apple be late and do it right." Not when they are VERY VERY late, and still don't do it right.

Millions of people are already enjoying AI features by other companies. They are imperfect but usable, and ever improving. Meanwhile, Apple has nothing, and seemingly plans to have almost nothing.

Lets be honest here, and this is definitely my area to comment on.

Our current AI fad, and it makes me feel dirty calling it AI but thanks Claud for that one, is not intelligence to any degree. It has no capability to reason about what it produces. It's just a statistically feasible sounding outcome with no proof or confidence measurement of the outcome.

Thus the only cases that AI matters is where the information output doesn't have to be correct or you're too stupid to realise it isn't. The market relies on the latter and hopes that the first one isn't going to get discovered.

The people enjoying AI features are just being told blindly by vendors to amble around with their eyes shut and fingers in their ears in a field full of bear traps.

 

[klasma]

the update will let Siri control all individual features in apps

What they should do is have the UI elements of any arbitrary app be recognized by AI and controllable by commands given to AI. That way you could operate anything and everything by spoken commands, and also could script UI workflows involving arbitrary apps.

 

[GMShadow]

dude c'mon. ChatGPT has revolutionized the way people work and research information and you're downplaying it all as if apple's "machine learning driven features" are anything to compare it to these days.

Machine learning has a time and a place, like learning which words I want to misspell, and deciding when I want to activate Do not Disturb, but it is not in the same league as AI models that are already commercially and freely available. Apple is behind by miles and we all know they aren't catching up any time soon.

It hasn't done anything. Sam Altman and his ilk are some of the biggest con men in the history of the planet. They've created a very flashy box built off of stolen data, and everyone's really amazed at the smoke and light show because they want to be seen as important and trendy and on with "the next thing", and none of them want to admit the emperor not only has no clothes, but that he's coated head to toe in his own excrement.

 

[the_original_markoconnell]

Apple is planning a major AI overhaul for Siri in iOS 18, and Bloomberg's Mark Gurman says that the update will let Siri control all individual features in apps for the first time, expanding the range of functions the personal assistant can perform.

Siri will be able to do things like open specific documents, move a note from one folder to another, delete an email, summarize an article, email a web link, and open a particular news site in Apple News. Apple plans to use AI to analyze what people are doing on their devices, automatically enabling Siri features.

To make this happen, Apple engineers had to rearchitect Siri's underlying software with large language models or LLMs, which is also the technology that's been used for chatbots like ChatGPT. Apple has been working on a deal with OpenAI to integrate OpenAI's ChatGPT technology into iOS 18, and it is also in talks with Google about incorporating Gemini, but Siri functionality likely relies on Apple's own LLM work.

At launch, the new Siri functionality will be limited to Apple apps, and Siri will only be able to respond to one command at a time. Eventually, Apple wants Siri to be able to respond to multiple commands, such as capturing a photo and then sending it to someone in a message.

While the Siri features will be introduced at WWDC 2024, Apple reportedly does not plan to launch them in September when iOS 18 sees an initial release. Instead, Siri will be overhauled in a future iOS 18 update that's set to be introduced in 2025.

Basic AI tasks in iOS 18 will be processed on device, but more advanced capabilities will rely on Apple's cloud servers. Gurman previously said that Apple would power all of the initial iOS 18 features on-device without relying on cloud technology in order to preserve privacy, but rumors have shifted in recent weeks. Part of Apple's new Siri technology will include code for determining whether a request can be processed on device or requires Apple's servers. On-device iOS 18 AI capabilities will largely require an iPhone 15 Pro or later to work, and an M1 or later for iPadOS 18 and macOS 15.

According to The Information, Apple's AI servers will be powered by M2 Ultra and M4 chips, with Apple planning to use the Secure Enclave to "to help isolate the data being processed on its servers so that it can't be seen by the wider system or Apple." Gurman says that Apple will also provide customers with an "intelligent report" that explains how information is kept safe.

We'll hear all about the AI functionality coming to Siri in just over 10 days. WWDC 2024 is set to begin on Monday, June 10.

Article Link: More Advanced AI Siri Functionality Not Coming to iOS 18 Until 2025

Hopefully they'll use this to improve the navigation on maps.

 

[trusso]

Or that you can't even ask it basic questions, like what is the speed of light...because it gets confused.

View attachment 2383704

Well... she's not wrong, let's give her that.

 

[EightyEight]

Innovation at the speed of light!