Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

wigby

macrumors 68030
Jun 7, 2007
2,780
2,763
Will this be limited to iPhone 16 pro? I’m about to jump on a 15 for free through my carrier but as soon as I do, I’ll find out this is limited to a phone I don’t have when I could have just kept my 14 for another year.
Doubtful unless they're doing it all on device.
 

ApplesAreSweet&Sour

macrumors 68000
Sep 18, 2018
1,962
3,583
Only Apple would make this a premium offering. You must buy their $1000+ phone AND have a recurring subscription to get a voice assistant that can do the basics.
AI on iPhones will most certainly "require" a new co-processor chip, named something like "Intelligence Engine", and thus force you get an iPhone 16 or newer (or 17, or any other model beyond 15, if that's the one that gets it).

It's going to be "on-device", so that they don't rely on a server. And, more importantly, on-device so it can roll out several many generations of it over the coming years, having the AI improve on subsequent iPhone models.

It'll be a lot like "resetting" all the progress Apple has made to the iPhone CPU over the years, with big leaps between each iteration of the "Intelligence Engine" co-processor chip.
 
  • Like
Reactions: HobeSoundDarryl

wyrdness

macrumors regular
Dec 2, 2008
241
260
I miss the value of owning a function in perpetuity. Yesterday the DICTIONARY didn’t have a word I needed to look up, but offered the souped up dictionary with that definition and more for a small yearly subscription fee.

Endless subscription services are a capitalistic evil we must escape. How can we kill this cancer?

We kill them by refusing to sign up for them. The problem is that there are too many people who will.
 

ApplesAreSweet&Sour

macrumors 68000
Sep 18, 2018
1,962
3,583
Apple will make it extremely limited because it's all going to be "on-device".

But more importantly, it's going to very limited so that Apple can gradually test it and upgrade it over several many generations of up-coming iPhones, forcing consumers to upgrade to get the latest "Intelligence Engine" co-processor chip that we'll see from iPhones 16 or 17 and beyond.

The main iPhone CPU is stagnating in upgrades. So shifting focus to AI and this new co-processor is a great way to revitalize sales and convince even those with iPhones 13, 14 or 15 to upgrade despite very minimal upgrades to the main iPhone CPU.
 
  • Like
Reactions: MacMan988

wigby

macrumors 68030
Jun 7, 2007
2,780
2,763
And not doubt iOS18 will limit generative Siri to Apple apps and that "magically" open it up to developers in iOS19...
As opposed to rushing out an API with bugs and security holes? No thanks. Generative AI is just too important and data is too sensitive to risk. Apple's steady iterations have made them the multi-trillion dollar company they are today and trusted worldwide.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Tagbert

wyrdness

macrumors regular
Dec 2, 2008
241
260
99% of the people concerned about the differences between synthetic and real voices are the ones in the voice talent industry. Yes, it’s a real concern, but most people just don’t care that much.

When desktop publishing allowed anyone to create without hiring an artist, I’m sure artists were upset. Democratizing access to previously inaccessible services is one of the main benefits of technology in general.

in the early 1980's, the Musicians Union here in the UK, tried to ban synthesisers and drum machines, as they were starting to sound too much like real musicians playing real instruments. It sounds ridiculous now, and look how that turned out for them. A lot of the concerns about AI now are very similar to concerns that people had about technology 40 years ago.
 

wigby

macrumors 68030
Jun 7, 2007
2,780
2,763
I miss the value of owning a function in perpetuity. Yesterday the DICTIONARY didn’t have a word I needed to look up, but offered the souped up dictionary with that definition and more for a small yearly subscription fee.

Endless subscription services are a capitalistic evil we must escape. How can we kill this cancer?
Depends on the function? Do I want to own an appliance in perpetuity? Probably. But not technology. Hardware and software changes too quickly. As soon as you buy most cutting edge hardware, it's almost obsolete or at least too obsolete to run the any near future software. I prefer subscriptions for most content and sometimes even hardware too. But I also earn a living using technology so I am heavily incentivized to upgrade with more frequency.
 

frou

macrumors 65816
Mar 14, 2009
1,311
1,815
The Siri brand has good name recognition but is it a brand that people actually like? If Apple actually come up with their uber nextgen AI then maybe it could do with being called something else.
 

MacMan988

macrumors 6502a
Jul 7, 2012
840
122
Apple will make it extremely limited because it's all going to be "on-device".

But more importantly, it's going to very limited so that Apple can gradually test it and upgrade it over several many generations of up-coming iPhones, forcing consumers to upgrade to get the latest "Intelligence Engine" co-processor chip that we'll see from iPhones 16 or 17 and beyond.

The main iPhone CPU is stagnating in upgrades. So shifting focus to AI and this new co-processor is a great way to revitalize sales and convince even those with iPhones 13, 14 or 15 to upgrade despite very minimal upgrades to the main iPhone CPU.

This is what I was thinking too. They will save money by not having to run LLMs on GPU powered clouds. And they will market it as a privacy focused SLM (small language model) that runs on your own device.
 

swiftapplefan

macrumors regular
Aug 25, 2023
220
924
If Siri 2.0 gets announced at WWDC, I don’t think that they’ll showcase a technology that relies on hardware not yet announced. Basically, I don’t think that they’ll show off new 16 lineup-exclusive features when the 16 won’t yet be introduced. If anything, they’ll have to introduce the iPhone 16s at WWDC or, more likely than that, introduce the A18 chip family.

Edit for clearness: I doubt they’ll unveil Siri 2.0 with it being exclusive to the iPhone 16 at WWDC, considering the phones haven’t been introduced yet at that point. It seems unlikely to showcase features for a product that’s not officially launched, almost like revealing a preview of the iPhone 16 five months in advance.
Will this be limited to iPhone 16 pro? I’m about to jump on a 15 for free through my carrier but as soon as I do, I’ll find out this is limited to a phone I don’t have when I could have just kept my 14 for another year.
 

yabeweb

macrumors 6502a
Jun 25, 2021
708
1,589
“AI features may differ based on subscription service status”.

Well of course! Timmy needs a new insert expensive toy here.
 
  • Like
Reactions: arkitect

antiprotest

macrumors 601
Apr 19, 2010
4,081
14,423
With our newest A series bionic chip with breakthrough machine learning and LLM, Siri can now generate 3 trillion ways to say "Here is what I found on the web" in 1/10000 of a second, all done on-device.

And that's Siri. Back to you Tim.
 
Last edited:

applepotato666

macrumors 6502
Jun 25, 2016
361
672
Will this be limited to iPhone 16 pro? I’m about to jump on a 15 for free through my carrier but as soon as I do, I’ll find out this is limited to a phone I don’t have when I could have just kept my 14 for another year.
I doubt this would happen. What could the iPhone 16 Pro have that the iPhone 15 doesn't which lets it run an LLM locally? I think this LLM stuff is going to happen on Apple's servers and you'll get basic Siri that can barely text someone when you're offline. There's no way an iPhone can run an LLM and not run super hot and drain the battery.
 

heretiq

Contributor
Jan 31, 2014
831
1,309
Denver, CO
Makes sense, but language models could be slowly introduced in just certain types of queries. I imagine we will get the ability to ask about current events with Apple News+.
True, but I’m personally hoping for something broader. I think Siri is good most of the time with specific inquiries; but fails often on follow-up/contextual inquiries. I’m hoping that llm capability will improve Siri contextual inference and finally allow users to have non-trivial conversations about a particular topic.

Unfortunately I don’t think this will stop Siri from playing hip hop music 50% of the time when I ask it to “play podcast NBC Meet The Press.” 😏
 

thebeans

macrumors 6502a
Feb 9, 2009
588
757
Come on Apple!
Get it right this time.
Please.

Example:

A day or so before christmas I had to go to collect our Christmas bird at the butchers.
I asked Siri, what time I had to go and collect.

View attachment 2332686

Oh honestly!
The clue, dear Siri Apple is in the address.

View attachment 2332687

Siri fails completely at these contextual clues that I have to admit Alexa does exceptionally well.

I truly hope Apple get this sorted.

Right now I only use Siri to set timers.
What a waste.
And the sad part is, unless something has changed in a recent update, your expensive iPhone (and mine) can only have one timer running. Whereas my $30 Alexa in the kitchen can have multiple.
 
  • Like
Reactions: arkitect

Exile714

macrumors 6502a
Jan 14, 2015
717
1,174
Will this be limited to iPhone 16 pro? I’m about to jump on a 15 for free through my carrier but as soon as I do, I’ll find out this is limited to a phone I don’t have when I could have just kept my 14 for another year.
Probably NOT limited to iPhone 16

Lets assume this rumor is correct and they are going to announce at WWDC. That means a Beta in July-September where this will be tested. Best phone Apple will have by that point is iPhone 15. They're not going to finish testing the iOS 18 Beta on iPhone 15s, release the iPhone 16, then retroactively disable it from iPhone 15.
 

Fraserpatty

macrumors 6502
Mar 5, 2015
375
328
Probably NOT limited to iPhone 16

Lets assume this rumor is correct and they are going to announce at WWDC. That means a Beta in July-September where this will be tested. Best phone Apple will have by that point is iPhone 15. They're not going to finish testing the iOS 18 Beta on iPhone 15s, release the iPhone 16, then retroactively disable it from iPhone 15.
I am hoping that any phone or device with the neural engine will be able to run the Siri updates. But your logic makes perfect sense.
 

Realityck

macrumors G4
Nov 9, 2015
10,409
15,678
Silicon Valley, CA
Apple is purportedly working on linkages for the new version of Siri to connect to various external services, likely via an API. Finally, the report suggests that some of Apple's new AI features may differ based on subscription service status, but it is unclear what shape this could take.
I wonder how the lack of a web browser will impact a more capable version of Siri for tvOS? The device could stand increased fact finding related to content.
 

SIGSEGV1

macrumors member
Aug 11, 2020
31
32
IMG_2094.jpeg
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.