Siri's big AI transformation could be announced at WWDC 2024
When Siri was first introduced during the unveiling of the iPhone 4s in 2011, iPhone users were excited to have their very own virtual digital assistant and the possibilities seemed endless. But today, Siri is more frustrating than anything else, especially when compared with Google Assistant. Every year, those invested in the Apple ecosystem hope that Apple has improved Siri beyond adding a new voice or accent. 2024 might be that year.
Tech blogger yeux1122 (via tom's guide) says that during WWDC 2024, expected to take place next June, Apple will announce some new generative AI capabilities for Siri based on Apple's internal Ajax model. We should also see "more personalization and natural conversations" added to Siri. What this means exactly to the average Siri user is not clear and it doesn't seem to fix any of the major issues that Siri users complain about.
Perhaps the one thing that Siri users want the most is the ability to get a direct answer from Siri, not a response that says something like, "I've found your answer on the web. Open your phone to read it." Other issues? Sometimes Siri doesn't hear you correctly; a rumored microphone upgrade for the digital assistant is expected to help fix this problem. Other times, when Siri does have the right question, it gives you an incorrect answer.
Siri could get an AI-based makeover at WWDC in June
Here's a great example of Siri misbehaving. According to a Reddit subscriber with the user name "KaiTak98," he asked Siri to stop playing music on his HomePod. Siri's response? "Sorry, I can’t stop now."
According to yeux1122, another AI capability we could see announced for Siri would allow a user to start a conversation with Siri on his/her iPhone and continue it on an iPad or Mac. Whether all of these rumored AI additions, improvements, and upgrades can make Siri a better digital assistant remains to be seen. Personally, I'd be happy if Siri were able to answer more queries by responding with the correct answer in a single sentence. Other tasks involving alarms, timers, and other settings don't appear to be too much of an issue for Siri.
No matter whether Apple does straighten out its wayward virtual digital assistant, we look forward to WWDC 2024 to see how Apple plans on applying AI to Siri. By the way, yeux1122 isn't the first social media leaker to say that Apple will announce AI features for Siri at WWDC. In November, @Tech_Reve said the same thing but noted that the upgraded version of Siri would be available on the iPhone 16 series and future models.
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