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They had a lead a decade ago with Siri but have let in languish and it's about to catch up on Apple big time. Meanwhile Microsoft and Google have been quietly advancing this technology and we're on the cusp of it being baked into their respective OS's.

Apple needs to have a response and quickly otherwise it will be left in the dust. It's as simple as that.
 
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I think AI is an area that Apple doesn't seem too involved with at the moment. I think there's more upside for them investing in AI over making a self driving car which has been a rumor for the last decade.
 
[Embargoed until March 9th, 2023]

Cupertino, California - Apple Inc. announced today that it has integrated advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies into its virtual assistant, Siri, making it the most advanced and innovative AI-powered virtual assistant in the world.

With the integration of advanced AI technologies, Siri is now capable of providing users with personalized experiences, anticipating their needs and understanding their preferences better than ever before. Siri has been revamped to understand complex and multi-step queries, making it easier for users to get the information they need, hands-free.

"Apple is committed to pushing the boundaries of AI technology to enhance user experiences and make everyday tasks easier and more convenient," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO. "With the integration of advanced AI technologies into Siri, we are thrilled to offer our customers the most advanced and innovative virtual assistant on the market."

The new AI-powered Siri is designed to provide users with personalized experiences by learning from their interactions and understanding their preferences. It is capable of understanding natural language and can now respond to complex and multi-step queries with ease. Additionally, Siri can now recognize different voices and personalize its responses accordingly, making it more useful for families and households.

Apple's investment in AI technology has enabled Siri to understand context and provide more accurate responses to users' queries. The new Siri is also designed to be more proactive and anticipate users' needs, offering personalized suggestions and recommendations.

The integration of AI into Siri is part of Apple's broader efforts to make its devices smarter and more intuitive. Apple's commitment to privacy remains a top priority, and Siri's personalization features are designed with privacy in mind. Siri's learning is kept on the device and is not shared with Apple or any third-party.

The new AI-powered Siri is now available on all Apple devices, including the iPhone, iPad, and Mac, and is set to revolutionize the way users interact with their devices.

For more information, visit Apple's website.


(not really)
That was quite creative and looked real. Did GPT write it for you?
 
Good that they are at least taking action. It’s a weak point for Apple for sure and they have more than one.

However I don’t subscribe to the usual ‘Apple is doomed’ narrative because it has been proven wrong so many times before.

Apple is usually late to the party and takes its own approach. With AI this seems especially wise.
 
Just because some companies are pushing into AI shouldn’t mean all companies do it. I miss those days of heterogenous development in tech where companies tried new and different things from their competitors
 
Chalk this up for the most pathetic story of the year.
Hyperbole much? I agree it is sad that Apple doesn't appear to have a stronger presence in the field (can't fully discount whats going on behind the scenes, they do after all have a neural engine built in to their processor), but pathetic story? I found the article to be much more useful than the 1000'th article about a new color iPhone case. And I think there is plenty of time for Apple to enter this field in a meaningful way. Do recall that Apple often is not the first into the field, but when they do enter they show the rest how to really do it. I am thinking about the iPod, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and of course OSX itself. Shrugs.
 
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Anything that can improve Siri at this point would be welcome.

Apple surely could improve Siri so it properly knows about your stuff on your iPhone and in iCloud and any Apple Services for a start.

Then it could provide an AI API for companies to ensure that they are structuring their metadata in the correct way for said AI to use.

Finally, it has deep enough pockets to pay Encyclopaedia Brittanica, Oxford Reference, Merriam Webster, etc. to provide data sources for said AI (if it is worried about letting it loose on the internet and wikipedia).

In fact, I'm wondering why they haven't done this already.
 
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With Google rolling out their conversational AI soon, mark my words: within a few years, Google is going to roll out that functionality to Google Assistant. When they do, we will have a real conversational AI right in our phones. It won’t be sentient like in the movie Her, but it will such a giant step in that direction that it will have people talking. When Google starts running ads for their Pixel phones showing off that feature, it’ll even have the Apple heads talking. I really do think so.

For what it’s worth, I don’t like all this AI stuff and I’m concerned about where we’re headed with the future of it. But that’s a different discussion.
I wouldn't worry too much. It's just what's popular this year and attracts VC funding from investors who know nothing about technology.

By 2024, the industry will have moved on to hyping some other useless tech. Just like blockchain a couple years ago.
 
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My guess is that Apple couldn't reconcile privacy with using LLMs. Also guess that's why Siri development/improvement has lagged competitors.

Privacy w/ LLMs is a big problem (Source: I work for a company actively integrating with an LLM).
 
Funny joke, but you make a good point.

More than 10 years after SJ's passing, maybe we're starting to see the dearth of product leadership at Apple now, just as the milking of the iPhone is starting to get harder and harder.

It wasn't a joke. I agree. I think we're at a precarious stage for Apple. It's has so much in the bank that chances of it's demise is unlikely.

But the question is will it have another home run product or will simply exist with iterations of an iPhone.
 
Apple is so very far behind. People love the idea of having Jarvis. Apple didn't move on that. They could have done that years ago. They can still Integrate ChatGPT into Siri and have Siri be conversational and do basic tasks. Siri can't even make appointments for me. the only thing Apple uses AI for is to touch up photos in the Camera. It's a waste of AI's potential. They talk about ML and the trillions of transistors in the Neural chip but it doesn't do much. integrate AI into the keyboard for better prediction. It's so much that it can do to assist actual work.
 
Apple already has a significant upper hand in this area in terms of local processing thanks to Apple silicon's Neural Engine, but the company has yet to develop the AI software to fully take advantage of it for content generation and the deeper insights that new-wave AI tools are able to offer.
The Apple software lag.
 
Surely you aren’t telling me that Apple is just now looking at re-examining Siri? If so, I agree with @Macalway that this is the most pathetic story of the year.

At this point, I liken Siri to the Apple Maps situation. Apple will never catch up. They’re just too far behind. The only way forward, as some others have suggested, is to purchase some companies that already have established technology. It’s the only way I can see them moving up to a decent baseline.
Apple doesn't really develop much of their own technology in-house anyway, they tend to buy companies and their existing technologies and tweak or repackage them to suit their needs. macOS is a repackaged NeXTStep (and iOS/iPadOS/tvOS/watchOS are heavily repackaged macOS at their cores), iTunes/Apple Music is a repackaged SoundJam MP, Safari is repackaged KHTML, Siri was purchased and adapted for iOS. The list keeps going. Why Apple hasn't been using its massive cash reserves to snatch up smaller companies with the technology assets to improve Siri and get it to compete better with other virtual assistants is beyond me.
 
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