Apple joins the AI ​​race with a major update for Siri’s voice assistant

This article was last updated on June 11, 2024

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Apple joins the AI ​​race with a major update for Siri’s voice assistant

Apple has started catching up in AI. The American tech giant has announced major changes to its own virtual voice assistant, Siri. This is the biggest update since the feature was first released in 2011.

The company is thus joining a battle that was sparked more than a year and a half ago by OpenAI’s ChatGPT and in which Google and Microsoft have now also become involved. So there will be a major player. Although Apple refuses to call it “AI”, the company calls it “Apple Intelligence”.

Because, CEO Tim Cook said during the presentation, “this goes beyond AI, it is personal intelligence and the next big step for Apple.” Of course, this is advertising talk, but the fact that the company goes to so much effort not to have to say AI also gives the strong impression that the company hopes to distinguish itself from the rest.

Apple’s announcement comes at a time when the competition has also announced a lot in recent months. For example, the latest phones from Google (Pixel) and Samsung (Galaxy) are packed with AI functions. The same applies to computers running a Microsoft operating system. That company also recently announced new AI features. Apple is actually the only party that was missing from the ‘AI party’.

Major update for Siri

That changes now, with the major update for Siri. Although Siri was the first on the market in 2011, virtual assistance has been lagging behind the rest for some time.

The promise is that it will soon be possible to communicate with Siri in a much more human way (which Google and OpenAI already offer) and that the AI ​​assistant can connect information from all kinds of different apps.

The presentation gave the example of someone asking what time she had to pick up her mother from the airport, where they were going to have lunch, and how far apart the two places were. The information came from an email, text message and the maps app.

In addition, Siri will soon offer summaries in e-mail, the system can provide assistance with rewriting pieces of text and AI images can be generated, such as a birthday card containing the face of a friend. Mini summaries of a web page will soon be available in Safari, Apple’s browser. The most important information is then shown.

In all of this, Apple emphasizes that privacy is of paramount importance. That has been an important selling point for the tech giant for years. For example, the company states that questions will initially be handled on devices themselves. If that fails, the server will only be switched to in a data center.

Collaboration with ChatGPT

Without saying it out loud, Apple also had to acknowledge that there are limits to what its own technology can do. It announced a partnership with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which will be built into Siri. What is interesting is that the privacy conditions there are different. In an attempt to fix that, users will need to give consent before data is sent to OpenAI.

It was striking that OpenAI boss Sam Altman was a guest at the presentation – he was in the audience – but he did not appear in the presentation:

Compared to other parties’ announcements, Apple’s Siri update may seem a bit late. At the same time, the company is known for not getting involved in new developments at the beginning, but rather later.

That often turns out well. This is also because the company has a loyal user base of hundreds of millions of people. When Apple embraces something, it by definition changes the balance in the market.

Making mistakes

It is also not inconceivable that Apple wanted to wait a while, because it saw that Google had blundered several times with new AI functions. In that respect, the question is how Apple will fare in that area. So-called generative AI, which will soon also come to Apple systems, are also known for making mistakes.

It will take some time before all these AI functions can be tested by all Apple users. The applications will only work on the iPhone 15 Pro and Apple computers that have its own computer chip. It remains to be seen how quickly all functionalities can be used by Dutch consumers; initially it only works in English.