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Hindustan Times
20-05-2025
- Hindustan Times
Apple's new Siri version may soon catch up with ChatGPT's performance: Report
Apple has been planning a Siri revamp with conversational capabilities for quite some time. Last year, we expected Siri to get AI-powered features with smarter capabilities to manage user commands. However, the awaited features for Siri were delayed, leaving iPhone users waiting for another year. Now, an insider rumour has highlighted that a new version of Siri has drastically progressed in the last months and is offering similar capabilities as OpenAI's ChatGPT. This means Siri could be functioning similarly to an AI-powered chatbot, instead of simply being a voice assistant. With the progress, Apple is reportedly planning to further enhance Siri's capabilities, making it more capable of managing users' tasks. Know what the insider leak says about Siri's new version and progress so far. Also read: iPadOS 19 update: Apple to unveil redesigned Siri, menu bar and more at WWDC 2025 After years of revamping and building iPhone's voice assistant, Siri, Apple may have finally reached its desired goal. According to a Bloomberg report by Mark Gurman and Drake Bennett, Siri is expected to become a true ChatGPT competitor in the coming years. The report highlighted that Apple executives have claimed that a next-generation of Siri has been made with AI Chatbot-like functionalities. Over the past six months, Siri's new version has made drastic progress, which is 'on par' with ChatGPT's recent AI models. Also read: iOS 18.4 delay likely due to engineering issues with Siri 2.0: Here's when to expect now The report also highlighted that Apple now has new artificial intelligence offices in Zurich. Within the offices, teams are actively working on a new software architecture for Siri. This suggests that Apple is building Siri from scratch with a new monolithic model. What does this model exactly mean? Well, Apple is building a Large Language Model engine, giving Siri a single brain, or we can say one unified system to carry out tasks smartly. This new version will give the voice assistant natural conversation abilities with a better understanding of prompts. Also read: 'Without Siri, I wouldn't be here': How iPhone saved Florida man's life after stroke Now, with iOS 19, Siri will likely be powered by Gemini AI as an alternative to ChatGPT. Apple is also in talks with Perplexity for future collaboration. As of now, Apple will be relying on other AI models to carry out AI-powered tasks till Apple Intelligence is ready to take over. This year, Apple may not talk much about AI at the WWDC 2025, considering it was not able to deliver promised features. Therefore, we will have to wait and see what Apple has planned for iOS 19 and what new AI-powered features we can see this year. Mobile Finder: iPhone 16e LATEST specs, features, and price
Tom's Guide
19-05-2025
- Business
- Tom's Guide
Apple's AI rollout has not gone very smoothly — and this report details what's happened
The subject of Siri, and the upgrades Apple promised back at WWDC 2024, has been pretty hot the past few months. Ever since Apple had to delay the rollout of Siri's AI-infused upgrades, on account of it taking "longer than [Apple] thought." Well, it sounds like this might be a learning experience for Apple. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman and Drake Bennett have a mammoth report on Apple's Siri fiasco, and the rollout of what is apparently internally known as "LLM Siri." In fact, due to all the high-profile delays, both reporters say that Apple isn't going to be announcing new features so far in advance from now on. It sounds like this is the same lesson Apple should have learned with the AirPower charger, which was announced back in 2017 and then never got released. All because Apple announced the charger too early, before it realized it wasn't actually able to make it. The report goes into a lot of detail, but I will try to explain the situation behind Apple's AI blunders as simply as possible. One key problem is that Apple started off late and, as previous leaks have claimed, the sudden popularity of services like ChatGPT caught the company by surprise. In fact, despite having an AI department for many years previously, Apple hadn't even considered the concept of Apple Intelligence before the release of ChatGPT in 2022. Following that, it seemed Apple had to scramble to catch up — all while the rest of the tech industry was doing the same. Before the launch of ChatGPT, Apple's software head Craig Federighi was reluctant to invest in what was needed to improve Apple's AI capabilities — especially since there was no end goal. According to sources, it wasn't until after ChatGPT was released and Federighi used generative AI in one of his projects that the benefits became clear to him. That led to a sudden pivot towards generative-AI features for the then-upcoming iOS 18. Despite the pivot to LLMs, it became clear that Apple wasn't going to be able to catch up — and Apple's chatbot was lagging behind the likes of ChatGPT and Gemini. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. One way Apple attempted to catch up was to bolt the new LLM Siri onto the Old Siri, which is the biggest problem with rolling out the new feature to iOS. It was described by sources as "whack-a-mole", with three bugs popping up every time an old problem was fixed. Apparently, individual features look good, but integrating them as a whole "Siri" assistant causes everything to fall apart. So it's no surprise that the new LLM Siri has been delayed as much as it has. Apple's AI chief, John Giannandrea, has taken much of the blame for Apple's AI faults since he isn't a "forceful" personality like other executives. Not only does this mean he's alleged to have not fought hard enough for funding for the AI department, but employees also claim that he isn't actually pushing the team hard enough. This is partly because he doesn't see rival chatbot makers as serious threats to Apple, but also potentially because he doesn't believe chatbots are the kind of features consumers actually want. However, Giannandrea has claimed that Siri's failure is not on him — and should be placed on Apple's marketing teams for overhyping and focusing on features that weren't finished. Apparently, this is something product managers are responsible for finalizing, which in this case would be Federighi. And the final insult is that Apple was a little too conservative in buying the GPUs necessary for AI processing. Apparently, this led to Apple's rivals buying up all the supply, and the lack of GPUs meant Apple's models were trained a lot more slowly as a result. The one thing the report makes clear is that Apple is "unlikely" to spend much time talking about Siri at WWDC 2025. Even the features that have already been announced, but have yet to materialize, are still "months away" from shipping. If there's anything Apple's good at, it's brushing its defeats under the rug and ploughing forward. So expect WWDC to focus on iOS 19, which is expected to get a major redesign, and other features ready to go when the update arrives this fall. We may even hear more about changes coming to Apple Intelligence, but if this report is accurate, we shouldn't expect a repeat of last year. Which we can all agree is a good thing. The promise of Apple Intelligence is all well and good, but people don't really like buying promises, especially when those promises can be broken. You can check out our WWDC 2025 hub for all the latest news and predictions about the upcoming show.
Forbes
19-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
iOS 19: Next iPhone Software To Let Users Ditch Siri In Surprise Change, Report Claims
A new report claims that Apple will open up the iPhone to allow users to choose a different default voice assistant instead of Siri. This is big news, and it's quite unexpected. If the report is right, this capability will come to users in the EU — though other countries such as the U.S. and the U.K. will be studying how it goes to see if they should enforce such changes as well. Additionally, when Apple opened up its NFC hardware to allow companies like PayPal make payments without using Apple Pay, Apple revealed that this capability would come to countries like the U.S. and U.K., for example, as well. The latest news comes from an in-depth analysis of Siri and Apple Intelligence at Bloomberg by Mark Gurman and Drake Bennett. It's a long read and discusses how Apple has introduced AI to its systems, culminating in big announcements at last year's WWDC in June, but then seeing one element stripped away. This was the transformation of Siri with Apple Intelligence. One of the nuggets tucked away towards the end of the article concerns what comes next for Siri. 'As Apple tries once again to rescue its AI operations, it's facing some unique external challenges. To meet expected European Union regulations, the company is now working on changing its operating systems so that, for the first time, users can switch from Siri as their default voice assistant to third-party options, according to a person with knowledge of the matter,' the report says. So, what would this mean, exactly? 'Barring a major leap with Apple's products, many users may make that switch. In addition to products from OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta and Alphabet, others from innovative startups like DeepSeek continue to crop up,' Bloomberg goes on. Siri is integrated deeply into the iOS ecosystem, and it's not clear if other assistants would have the same level of access, though it seems possible. Apple has always resisted these things on security grounds, so it may be there are restrictions here. We'll see, but for now, if this proves true, it's remarkable news.
Bloomberg
24-03-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
US Tech Manufacturing Efforts Run Smack Into Wright's Law
Welcome to Tech In Depth, our revamped daily newsletter with reporting and analysis about the business of tech from Bloomberg's journalists around the world. Today, Drake Bennett looks at some practical disadvantages in the quest to bring electronics manufacturing back to the US. Another AI rival: Chinese meal delivery leader Meituan unveiled plans for the first time to develop its own AI model, becoming the latest big Chinese tech player to join an accelerating global wave of AI development.
Bloomberg
17-02-2025
- Bloomberg
Posting Through It: Climate Change Is Fueling Social Media Use
Welcome to Tech In Depth, our revamped daily newsletter with reporting and analysis about the business of tech from Bloomberg's journalists around the world. Today, Drake Bennett writes about an unusual way climate change affects our behavior. Apple's Siri issues: The iPhone maker's long-promised overhaul of the Siri digital assistant is facing engineering problems and software bugs, threatening to postpone or limit its release.
