logo
It's Time to Kill Siri

It's Time to Kill Siri

WIRED10 hours ago

After almost 10 years, Google Assistant was recently axed in favor of Gemini. Siri gets a bad rap—now is the time for Apple to make a change too.
If you've had a passing interest in Apple over the past year, you've likely heard of the company's struggles in the AI race. Apple Intelligence, which arrived slightly late after the launch of the iPhone 16, fell short of expectations, and Apple has yet to deliver the much-improved Siri it promised at WWDC 2024. Siri got a new look and an integration with ChatGPT, but its ability to understand your personal context via emails, messages, notes, and calendar was 'indefinitely' delayed earlier this year as Apple is reportedly facing several challenges.
Even if Apple delivered a better Siri, would people use it? Despite arriving first, Siri has long been derided by iPhone owners, often the butt of a joke, as Google Assistant and Alexa rose to the top. But if Apple wants its customers to take the supposed improvements coming to the voice assistant seriously, it should consider taking a page from Google and killing it off for something new.
Google has no problem with pulling the plug when things aren't working, or priorities change. In fact, the search giant has a history of killing so many of its services that there's a website dedicated to tracking all the gravestones. One of its most recent terminations? Google Assistant. Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
Nearly 10 years since its debut, Google Assistant is in the process of being phased out from every ecosystem it was a part of. Wear OS smartwatches? It's being replaced soon. Android Auto? In the coming months. It's already no longer the default assistant on Android phones. By 2026, it's unlikely we'll see the branding anywhere anymore. So ends the reign of arguably the most effective voice assistant of its time, gone without a care in the world.
But Google's decision to kill it, instead of keeping the Google Assistant name, may have been smart. 'It's primarily branding,' says Chris Harrison, who directs the Future Interfaces Group at Carnegie Mellon's Human-Computer Interaction Institute. 'But it underlines a technology reason, which is that the previous generation of these assistants really weren't very much like assistants. Asking for the weather and setting a timer—not very sophisticated. You wouldn't really ask a personal assistant for those mundane tasks.'
Gemini is completely different. It can rummage through your emails to find the location of your kid's soccer match, parse through large documents, and when paired with a camera-enabled device, can understand what you're seeing and offer help. Its capabilities are vastly superior to what Google Assistant could do. Apple's goal is to achieve similar results in a more privacy-friendly way—so that when you have Siri connect to ChatGPT, your data is not passed off to OpenAI.
'Apple thought Siri's capabilities would grow, but that didn't really materialize; Siri kind of atrophied out of the gate," Harrison says. 'Now, we're in this new generation of things that are really much more like assistants—they can do reasoning, personalization.' But while Google Assistant and Gemini both have voice interfaces, and at a first glance, they may share a similar look, they're two different applications. 'Simply renaming it Google Assistant 2.0 would not spur people to use it in a fundamentally different way.' It seems that switch to Gemini has been key to moving customer understanding along.
However, it's fair to say that Apple and even Amazon's Alexa have had a cultural cachet that Google Assistant never enjoyed. It wasn't unusual to hear Siri or Alexa's name in a movie or TV show; they were much more recognizable than Google's generic-named voice assistant. This may be why Amazon decided to keep the Alexa branding and simply add a '+' icon to denote the new souped-up version of Alexa powered by the latest large language models—and perhaps why Apple is still hanging onto Siri. Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
This might have all been OK if Apple actually delivered on its promise and released a functioning, much-improved Siri when it originally said it would. With a massive marketing push to put Apple Intelligence in everyone's mind (maybe a regretful move), it would have been a great opportunity to wow users with a much-improved Siri. Months later, customers are left wondering why Siri—new look and all—still lags behind.
But the broader problem affecting all large language models isn't just the branding, but the user interface. Harrison compares it to the days of command-line computing and the shift to the graphical user interface (GUI) in the '80s and '90s. It wasn't the graphics that made the latter more popular, but the discoverability and explorable interface. In the command-line era, you had to remember how to do anything. With GUI, you could put anyone in front of a computer, and they'd be able to figure out how to navigate the operating system.
If you put someone in front of ChatGPT or Gemini, say it's an incredible tool, and tell them to ask it anything, they'll just stare blankly at the blinking prompt. 'It's like we've gone back 30 years in interface design. They have no idea what to do or say." Harrison says he did this exact experiment with his parents: They asked what the weather was tomorrow, and the AI responded that it didn't have that information.
'We've regressed in discoverability," he says. 'A regular person, not the tech people, if all they've been doing is setting timers with Siri for the past 10 years, and now they have to think about it in a fundamentally different way—that's an extremely hard problem. Some sort of renaming of the application is going to be important."
Saying goodbye to Siri would be a big move for Apple—after all, it has spent more that a decade investing in it. But most people today still use it for playing music, checking weather, and setting timers, and aren't even pushing the boundaries of its current, relatively limited, capabilities. It's hard to see that changing anytime soon, even if Siri's feature-packed next generation arrives as promised.
'For 99 percent of the planet, this kind of AI revolution has totally gone over their head," Harrison says. Like the 10-year transition from command line to graphical user interfaces, rethinking the way we use these personal voice assistants will take time and education, but maybe a new name will help Apple with the transition.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Amazon wants to become a global marketplace for AI
Amazon wants to become a global marketplace for AI

Yahoo

time12 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

Amazon wants to become a global marketplace for AI

Amazon Web Services isn't betting on one large language model (LLM) winning the artificial intelligence race. Instead, it's offering customers a buffet of models to choose from. AWS, the cloud computing arm of Amazon (AMZN), aims to become the go-to infrastructure layer for the AI economy, regardless of which model wins out. By making customer choice a defining principle, AWS hopes to win out against rivals that have aligned closely with specific LLM providers — notably Microsoft (MSFT), which partnered with ChatGPT creator OpenAI ( 'We don't think that there's going to be one model to rule them all,' Dave Brown, vice president of compute and networking at AWS, told Yahoo Finance. The model-neutral approach is embedded into Amazon Bedrock, a service that allows AWS customers to build their own applications using a wide range of models, with more than 100 to choose from. Brown added that after Chinese startup DeepSeek surprised the world, AWS had a fully managed version of the disruptive model available on Bedrock within a week. Two years after its launch, Bedrock is now the fastest-growing service offered by AWS, which accounted for over 18% of Amazon's total revenue in the first quarter. It's why Amazon CEO Andy Jassy sees Bedrock as a core part of the company's AI growth strategy. But to understand the competitive advantage AWS hopes to offer with Bedrock, you have to go back to its origin story. Bedrock dates back to a six-page internal memo that Atul Deo, AWS's director of product management, wrote in 2020. Before OpenAI's ChatGPT launched in 2022 and made 'generative AI' a household term, Deo pitched a service that could generate code from plain English prompts using large language models. But Jassy, the head of AWS at the time, didn't buy it. 'His initial reaction was, 'This seems almost like a pipe dream,'' Deo said. He added that while a tool that makes coding easy sounds obvious now, the technology was 'still not quite there.' When that project, initially known as Code Whisperer, launched in 2023, the team realized they could offer the service for a broader set of use cases, giving customers a choice of different models with 'generic capabilities' that 'could be used as a foundation to build a lot of interesting applications,' according to Deo. Deo noted that the team steered away from doubling down on its own model after it recognized a pattern of customers wanting choice in other AWS services. This led to AWS becoming the first provider to offer a range of different models to customers. With this foundational approach in mind, Amazon renamed the project Bedrock. To be sure, the model-agnostic approach has risks, and many analysts don't consider Amazon to be leading the AI race, even though it has ramped up its AI spending. If there is ultimately one model to rule them all, similar to how Google came to dominate search, Amazon could risk further falling behind. At the beginning of the year, Amazon and its peers Meta (META), Microsoft, and Google parent Alphabet (GOOG) expected to spend $325 billion combined, mostly on AI infrastructure. To keep pace, Amazon has hedged its bets with its own technology and one LLM provider in particular: Anthropic. In November 2024, AWS doubled its investment in Anthropic to $8 billion in a deal that requires Anthropic to train its large language model, Claude, using only AWS's chips. (For comparison, Microsoft has invested over $13 billion into OpenAI.) The $8 billion deal allows Amazon to prove out its AI training infrastructure and deepen ties with one LLM provider while continuing to offer customers a wide selection of models on Bedrock. 'I mean, this is cloud selling 101, right?' said Dan Rosenthal, head of go-to-market partnerships at Anthropic. 'There are some cases where it's been very clear that a customer wants to use a different model on Bedrock for something that we just frankly don't focus on, and that's great. We want to win where we have a right to win.' Amazon also launched its own family of foundational models, called Nova, at the end of 2024, two years after the launch of ChatGPT. But competition and expectations remain high: Revenue at AWS increased 16.9% to $29.27 billion in Q1, marking the third time in a row it missed analyst estimates despite double-digit growth. The Anthropic partnership also underscores a bigger competition AWS may be fighting with chipmakers, including Nvidia (NVDA), which recently staged a $1 trillion rally in just two months after an earnings print that eased investor concerns about chip export controls. While Amazon is an Nvidia customer, it also produces highly effective and more affordable AI chips based on power consumed (known as 'price performance'). On Bedrock, AWS lets clients choose whether to use its own CPUs and GPUs or chips from competitors like Intel (INTC), AMD (AMD), and Nvidia. 'We're able to work with the model providers to really optimize the model for the hardware that it runs,' Brown said. 'There's no change the customer has to make.' Customers not only have a choice of model but also a choice of which infrastructure the model should run and train on. This helps AWS compete on price — a key battleground with Nvidia, which offers the most expensive chips on the market. This 'coopetition' dynamic could position Amazon to take market share from Nvidia if it can prove its own chips can do the job for a lower sticker price. It's a bet that Amazon is willing to spend on, with capital expenditures expected to hit $100 billion in 2025, up from $83 billion last year. While AWS doesn't break out its costs for AI, CEO Andy Jassy said on an earnings call in February that the 'vast majority of that capex spend is on AI for AWS.' In an April letter to shareholders, Jassy noted that 'AI revenue is growing at triple-digit YoY percentages and represents a multibillion-dollar annual revenue run rate.' Sign in to access your portfolio

Microsoft Finally Gets Into the Handheld Game With ROG Xbox Ally
Microsoft Finally Gets Into the Handheld Game With ROG Xbox Ally

WIRED

time14 minutes ago

  • WIRED

Microsoft Finally Gets Into the Handheld Game With ROG Xbox Ally

Jun 9, 2025 4:47 PM Xbox players will soon get the freedom to play anywhere with two handheld consoles that Microsoft plans to release this holiday season. The ROG Xbox Ally X. Courtesy of XBOX Microsoft is finally shooting its shot for handheld gaming. During Summer Game Fest on June 8, the company debuted the console with a flashy trailer: a floating block of ice forming into the handheld before the Xbox logo cracks through and the system comes to life. Not just one, but two—the ROG Xbox Ally and its more powerful variation, the ROG Xbox Ally X—essentially a set of halved controllers comically strapped to a wide screen. Both are expected to arrive this holiday season, though details like pricing, accessories, and pre-orders still haven't been announced. It's been a long wait for a true Xbox handheld. While competitors like Nintendo, Sony, and Valve have already established handheld or hybrid consoles in some form, Microsoft has been slower to commit to gaming on the go—a move that has cost it a competitive edge against the Switch or Steam Deck. For a company that's put heavy emphasis on 'Xbox anywhere,' its lack of a console you could actually play anywhere has been a major oversight. The Ally consoles, which are being made with electronic manufacturer ASUS, will finally let people play games through remote play, cloud gaming, or the handheld itself. Both will run Windows 11, where your mileage may vary depending on your feelings about the divisive OS, which critics have described as 'so got dang annoying' for things like pop-up ads and a bad start menu. It will give players access to PC games, mod use, and apps such as Discord and Twitch, and include accessibility features found on Xbox. Fans will also be able to play games from Xbox, PC storefronts, Game Pass, and which will all sync between consoles, PC, and cloud gaming. In an interview with The Verge last year, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer said the company has been 'learning from what Nintendo has done over the years with Switch.' He's also expressed admiration for the Steam Deck, ROG handheld, and Lenovo handheld Legion Go. Prior to that, a leak from Microsoft itself in September 2023 included information on a 'hybrid game platform,' then expected in 2028. Back when X allowed users to see other likes on posts, Xbox fans took note of Spencer liked tweets that declared an Xbox handheld 'inevitable.' The race to make consoles more powerful than they've ever been—or to compete with PCs—hasn't been as exciting, as the tech has steadily improved in the last decade. Instead, it's the console you can play on a plane or from bed—anywhere without a tv setup, really—that feels truly appealing. My Xbox Series X has spent most of its life languishing on my shelf and collecting dust while my Switch is a must-have for every trip I take. Breakout titles like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 pulled me back to my Xbox briefly, but I, like many other gamers, want that option on the go. Impressions of the handheld so far have been largely positive. 'It ran nicely, felt good in my hands…the controls felt like Xbox controller grips,' wrote GameFile. 'The gameplay was crisp and clear.' IGN praised its gameplay experience, but also noted that the user interface could be more intuitive. A writer from The Guardian said they 'can easily see it becoming a serious competitor for both the Switch 2 and Valve's Steam Deck.' Microsoft is entering the market at a time when you can play most major video games on one handheld or another. With the Switch 2 out now, Nintendo already has a jump on the holiday season—and any potential tariffs or production problems that may occur. But Microsoft has no shortage of games. During Xbox's Summer Gamefest showcase, the company also showed off its upcoming release schedule, including Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 , The Outerworlds 2 , a Persona 4 remake, and Hollow Knight sequel Silksong . The Ally will launch with the massively popular Roblox, the first time the game has ever been available on a handheld. That strong library of games could give Xbox the leg up it needs—or, at least a fighting chance.

iOS 26 is here — how to download the developer beta
iOS 26 is here — how to download the developer beta

Tom's Guide

time14 minutes ago

  • Tom's Guide

iOS 26 is here — how to download the developer beta

Apple's not wasting any time getting the newly unveiled iOS 26 on to people's phones. Immediately after previewing the upcoming software update today (June 9) at WWDC 2025, Apple released an iOS 26 developer beta. And you don't even have to be a developer to download it. iOS 26 introduces a new Liquid Glass design to the iPhone, the same interface overhaul coming to Apple's other software platforms this year. But there are other changes to familiar apps, including the Phone, Messages, Camera and Maps app, among others. In addition, iOS 26 will see the launch of an Apple Games app for managing your mobile gaming in one location. If you can't wait to see iOS 26 in action for yourself, we'll walk you through the steps of downloading the developer beta. That said, as we'll discuss below, you may want to wait for the iOS 26 public beta, which is set to arrive in July. The full iOS 26 release will come to iPhones in the fall, likely around the same time that the upcoming iPhone 17 lineup debuts. Here's what you need to know about the iOS 26 developer beta. While Apple intends its developer betas to be used by developers for updating their own software to run on the new operating system, a change in policy a few years ago means that anyone with an Apple ID can download developer betas like the one for iOS 26. You'll also have to enroll in Apple's developer program, which has a free tier. To enroll, go to the enrollment page on Apple's developer website and select "Start Your Enrollment." You'll be prompted to sign in with an Apple ID — use the same Apple ID associated with the iPhone where you plan to install the beta. You'll also have to be enrolled in Apple's beta program. Go to the Apple beta program website on your iPhone and select Sign Up. On the next page select Enroll Your iOS device then tap Open Beta Updates. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. You'll jump to a screen in the Settings app where you'll be prompted to turn on beta updates. This makes it possible for Apple's software betas to be available for download on your phone. Before you install the iOS 26 developer beta, make sure you have a phone that supports the new software. The same iPhones that use the current iOS 18 also support iOS 26 — with three notable exceptions. The iPhone XR, iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max may run iOS 18 just fine, but they won't be able to run iOS 26. That's understandable as the phones did first ship in 2018, and that's at the outer edge of Apple's support window. Even though the iOS 26 developer beta will run on the iPhone 11 or later, you'll still need a phone with at least an A17 Bionic chipset to take advantage of any Apple Intelligence features in the new software. That means you need an iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max or any iPhone 16 including the iPhone 16e. Once you've enrolled in the developer program and backed up your iPhone, it's time to get that developer beta on your device. In the Settings app on the phone you wish to update, select General and then on the ensuing screen, tap Software Update. On the Software Update screen, select Beta Updates. From the list on the next screen, select iOS 26 Developer Beta; then, hit the Back button. The iOS 26 Beta will now appear as a downloadable option. Tap Update Now and follow the onscreen instructions. To paraphrase Jeff Goldblum from the first "Jurassic Park" movie, don't be so preoccupied that you can download the iOS 26 developer beta to not consider whether you should download it. Beta software is exactly that — it's unfinished and unproven. There could be bugs in it, and some of the apps you rely on regularly may not function properly, especially in early betas. For that reason, I always advise people to not install beta software on any device they depend on for their daily use. Instead, use a backup iPhone if you have one lying around. And if you don't, maybe consider waiting a month until the public beta arrives, as that version of iOS 26 figures to be more stable.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store