Apple is expected to release an improved version of its virtual assistant Siri powered by generative artificial intelligence — part of the company’s efforts to keep up with other chatbots among AI boom.
The Modern York Times, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter, reports that the fresh Siri will be “more conversational and versatile” and equipped with a generative system based on artificial intelligence so he can talk and not just answer questions one at a time. Siri and other Apple AI products are expected to appear on June 10 at Apple’s annual developer conference.
Early last year, top Apple executives decided Siri needed an update after toying with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, leaving Siri far behind, The Times reported. That realization sparked Apple’s most significant reorganization in more than a decade as the company tried to catch up in the artificial intelligence race.
However, instead of releasing a direct competitor to ChatGPT, Apple decided to improve Siri’s ability to perform tasks it can already perform as a virtual assistant, The Times reported. Apple will tout the fresh Siri as more private than other AI tools because requests will be processed on iPhones rather than in data centers. But the bet may have its downsides, as this is more likely to happen with smaller AI systems hallucinations compared to larger ones.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.
Apple also plans to boost memory in its fresh iPhones to support Siri’s AI-powered capabilities, and is in talks to license complementary AI models to top competitor chatbots including Google and OpenAI, The Times reports. The company’s leaders are also reportedly concerned about threats from artificial intelligence to its dominance in the smartphone market, as competing products could replace Apple’s iOS software and be used to create other AI-based apps that facilitate the App Store, which generates billions of dollars each year revolutions, would be less useful.
“The vision for Siri has always been to have a conversational interface that understands language and context, but that’s a complex problem,” Tom Gruber, Siri’s co-founder who worked at Apple until 2018, told The Times. “Now that technology has changed, it should be possible to do this much better. As long as it’s not a one-size-fits-all attempt to answer any questions, they should be able to stay out of trouble.
According to Apple reports, this was the case extorting AI workers from Googleand built a “Vision Laboratory” in Switzerland to house some of its artificial intelligence work. The company has also reportedly partnered with major chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company develop our own AI chips.
