Report Details Turmoil Behind Apple's AI Efforts, 'Siri X,' and Headset Voice Controls

[citysnaps]

Apple is fine. This is only the beginning. There is no urgency for Apple jump head first into this. It now takes far less time and resources to train AI models and the progress is exponential.
This is one area that Apple is absolutely correct to tread lightly and carefully. As long as Apple works behind the scenes to get it right that is all that matters.
With governments across the globe panicking and threatening legislation to leash in and control AI, there is plenty of time.
Apple is not behind anything that Open AI is paving the way for. AI is going to be as ubiquitous as spell-check on every device.

Spot on. I laugh at all of the comments about how the sky-is-falling for Apple. And all of the hand-wringing about Cook, and his failure to lead. Yet Apple is one of the most successful companies in the world, with 160,000+ employees (with no mass layoffs - unlike other tech companies). And many millions of repeat customers.

People need to get a life. As an aside, I use Siri everyday. It works fine.

 

[wallaby]

I think the concept of an opt-in “Siri X” could help solve this for Apple. Those who want privacy can stay opted out, but those who don’t mind sharing more of their anonymous data to improve the product will receive an Apple-y ChatGPT experience. The data gathered could help further improve the product, with iOS updates including advancements to the on-device capabilities.

 

[Tagbert]

Do you have a HomePod? You can do many multiple timers on it. And it’s hands free. iOS is the limitation there, not the actual iPhone.

The HomePod runs iOS, too. There is no technical limitation. The iPhone could run multiple timers if Apple thought it important to do. They seem to think that only matters on the HomePod. Odd blind spot.

 

[Ralfi]

It’s good to know that there’s been a reason behind what is Apple’s greatest failure imo - they’ve been in voice assistant limbo for a surprisingly long time for the company they are.

Yet they continue to ignore it, when Google Assistant is so superior in just about every way & has made my Smart Home experience not only better but just..possible.

Wished Apple ditched their time & money on a virtual reality headset that no one needs right now, for a competitive voice assistant & oh I dunno…black AirPods…..

 

[myusernamedoesnotmatter]

tell my partner something romantic

reminds me of the episode "Deep Learning" in South Park where Stan kept texting Wendy with phony ChatGPT responses.

 

[compwiz1202]

And speaking of setting timers, why is it the $30 Alexa in my kitchen can set multiple timers and my $1000 iPhone 14 Pro can only set one?

Google Nest can do multiple also

 

[myusernamedoesnotmatter]

I think the concept of an opt-in “Siri X” could help solve this for Apple. Those who want privacy can stay opted out, but those who don’t mind sharing more of their anonymous data to improve the product will receive an Apple-y ChatGPT experience. The data gathered could help further improve the product, with iOS updates including advancements to the on-device capabilities.

optional telemetry???? what a concept. JK

 

[mxrider88]

It was pretty obvious.. same goes for macOS, it’s becoming a total piece of garbage with half baked features that don’t work and embarrassing glitches.

Mr Cook should focus more on his company instead of greenwashing and lgbtq BS.

 

[MacsRgr8]

I would even like to turn that Siri crap off, but then CarPlay stops working.
Whenever i try to use Siri while driving, it takes more attention than just quick pressing a button.
Using Siri while driving makes driving more dangerous, specially when I get upset and start yelling at her because she didn't understand what I said.

I have Siri turned off on all my devices for quite some time now...
Wireless Apple Carplay works fine, if you can make sure you start the apps and enter the destination before actually driving away.

The only item in my possession with Siri active is a rogue Homepod mini. And that's just to occasionally laugh at the incompetence of Siri.

This sums it up nowadays for me about Apple:

I love the Apple hardware: Macs, iPhones, iPads, Apple TV
I really like the software: macOS, i(Pad)OS, tvOS, FCP X, iWork, iLife
I use the eco-system and find it's "okay": iClou d, Music, Find my..
I dislike stuff like: Apple Maps, Siri,  TV+

 

[mannyvel]

What if there was a ChatGPT phone?
With AI so integrated you could talk to it like a real personal assistant....

That was the vision behind Siri back in the day. It's a classic Apple move: making the market it dominated obsolete.

Why would you need a phone if Siri could just live in your ear/on your watch? Ask it anything...like Jarvis in Iron Man (or its successors).

I suspect that at some level Siri was incapable, but at some level Apple isn't willing to destroy a market that it dominates. That's literally tons of money that would burn up.

The fixation with "on your phone" and "in the cloud" is ridiculous. Nobody really cares where the action happens. People make a lot of noise about it, but in the end they don't take action. You can secure stuff in the cloud, you can secure stuff on your phone.

Privacy? Opt-in. It's not hard. A surprisingly large number of people will opt-in. Just look at how well the Apple Research app went. People like contributing.

 

[Tagbert]

That sums it up in a nutshell.

So many people complaining about Siri will never get this. And it seems many would be OK compromising privacy for better Siri performance. And then will later complain about privacy issues.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't

From reading the story, it doesn't sound like privacy is the limiting factor here. It seems to be a leadership problem with no one with a vision of what Siri could be and no one with any authority to make it happen.

 

[compwiz1202]

But the HomePod can set multiple?
Why is it special and not the phone?
Weird arbitrary limitation.

No HP can't either. And it's extra annoying. Hey Siri, set a timer for half an hour. There's already a timer running. Would you like to replace it? Yes. For how long? I already told you!

 

[Tagbert]

I’m surprised Siri isn’t further behind the competition all this organisational chaos considered. Using HomePod on a daily basis and comparing that experience to that of my friends who use Google assistant, I can’t say that I feel like I’m lacking out much. On the contrary, I feel like Google’s assistant sounds way more robotic and also fails understanding simple commands. Overall, I’m actually rather satisfied with Siri on the HomePod and HomeKit.

The thing is that the other digital assistants aren't really that far ahead of Siri. If you read reviews like this, you'll see that none of them are really good.

It sounds like Amazon has pulled internal support for Alexa and I would not be surprised to hear that Google had also. I think they all could use a new vision and complete replacement using an LLM AI for some of the interactions.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

This is understandable. When Google attempts to answer my questions, rather than just link me to other sites, I find that its accuracy is often abysmal.
The newest and best AI chat bots can be fun, but I also find that the replies are a mixture of correct and incorrect information.

And this is exactly why Apple has to be very, very careful when messing around with this kind of stuff.
I'm sorry, but ChatGPT absolutely loves to present wildly false information as completely true, and that is the last thing a default assistant should do.

 

[Tagbert]

No HP can't either. And it's extra annoying. Hey Siri, set a timer for half an hour. There's already a timer running. Would you like to replace it? Yes. For how long? I already told you!

HomePod will allow you to set multiple timers. I've only set named timers for multiples. not sure about just a general timer like that.

"Hey, Siri set a bake timer for 2 hours"
HP:Siri "it's set"

"Hey, Siri set a pasta timer for 3 minutes"
HP:Siri "it's set"

 

[Wildkraut]

I have Siri turned off on all my devices for quite some time now...
Wireless Apple Carplay works fine, if you can make sure you start the apps and enter the destination before actually driving away.

The only item in my possession with Siri active is a rogue Homepod mini. And that's just to occasionally laugh at the incompetence of Siri.

This sums it up nowadays for me about Apple:

I love the Apple hardware: Macs, iPhones, iPads, Apple TV
I really like the software: macOS, i(Pad)OS, tvOS, FCP X, iWork, iLife
I use the eco-system and find it's "okay": iClou d, Music, Find my..
I dislike stuff like: Apple Maps, Siri,  TV+

Hmmm something might have changed then, gonna try tomorrow with my wireless CarPlay.
What about switching between different Apps like Spotify, Apple Music, SoundCloud while using Google Maps in the background or splitscreen?

 

[SFjohn]

A long article to say that Siri will remain the same. 😇

 

[MacsRgr8]

Hmmm something might have changed then, gonna try tomorrow with my wireless CarPlay.
What about switching between different Apps like Spotify, Apple Music, SoundCloud while using Google Maps in the background or splitscreen?

I use the in-car interface (not touch screen on my 2017 BMW 3 -series), but the iDrive knob

 

[JamesHolden]

Would not be surprised to learn that Apple have had a parallel project underway for some time, in silent running mode, to develop a modern AI-based replacement for Siri.

Like how Mac OS X was secretly running on alternative silicon.

Except that wasn't a secret at all. NeXTSTEP ran on x86, SPARC, PA-RISC, 68000 series, and PowerPC (which was never commercially available).

As others have noted, Apple's privacy stance is going to make AI development more difficult. This might be what dethrones them in the consumer electronics space. If someone brings an AI-powered phone to market with a conversational UI, something we can talk to, like a friend, the iPhone will be uncool overnight.

 

[citysnaps]

From reading the story, it doesn't sound like privacy is the limiting factor here. It seems to be a leadership problem with no one with a vision of what Siri could be and no one with any authority to make it happen.

"Apple's uncompromising stance on privacy has also created challenges for enhancing Siri, with the company pushing for more of the virtual assistant's functions to be performed on-device."

 

[Naraxus]

Really... What does Tim Cook do with the majority of his time, say, from 8am to 5pm, Monday through Friday?

Pick a number.

As an aside, I wouldn't be shocked if Cook routinely puts in (at least) 60 hour weeks as CEO of Apple.

Rofl. Tell us you didn't get the joke without telling us you didn't get the joke.....

 

[JamesHolden]

What if there was a ChatGPT phone?
With AI so integrated you could talk to it like a real personal assistant....

Bingo. Look at how multitouch revolutionized how we interact with our technology. Jobs loved to talk about how multitouch made the device more personal. So now we have touch. What's more personal? What's next? Talk.

I absolutely believe the phone that does to the iPhone what the iPhone did to Blackberry will be an AI-powered device with a conversational UI. If I could just talk to my phone like it's a person, I'd drop the iPhone in a hot second.

Apple letting Siri languish feels like Microsoft completely missing mobile. Once you fall so far behind, it's impossible to catch up. Has Apple fallen that far behind? Hard to say, but it doesn't look good.

 

[Tagbert]

"Apple's uncompromising stance on privacy has also created challenges for enhancing Siri, with the company pushing for more of the virtual assistant's functions to be performed on-device."

it's one factor the the organizational and product leadership limitations seem like much bigger problems. Moving functions to the device is just adding duct tape if they don't have any ideas on making the product actually work.

 

[lysingur]

The rot inside Apple runs deep. It's only just getting exposed. Apple hasn't really moved the needle in terms of groundbreaking technological advances besides Apple Silicon for a decade and all the while hemorrhaged billions making movies and TV shows that have no long-term revenue-generating potential.

Called it.

More will come.

Wait till you see an exposé on Apple TV+ or Apple Car.

 

[wanha]

Yes, that’s the reason for sure. Apple can’t afford to make their $1000 iPhone be able to have two simultaneous timers but Amazon can pay the tremendous amount of money it costs to program the device to run two timers at once because of the $.48 they get from advertisers for my data. Makes sense to me. Yes, I know they potentially get money for each user so not literally only $.48. But there’s no way I can believe that has anything to do with it. It’s a simple matter of Apple not being bothered to implement something useful that would cost essentially nothing and should have been there from the start.

that's some big time sour grapes over multiple timers