Apple is currently behind on the generative AI game, but that could all change soon if recent reports are to be believed. According to insider sources who spoke with The New York Times, Apple is working hard to add generative AI to Siri, which it could debut as soon as its WWDC developer conference in June.
Originally introduced way back in 2011, Siri really hasn’t seen many changes over the years. The digital assistant still struggles in a lot of areas, often misunderstanding questions entirely, and AI presents a way to move forward.
But Apple has a lot of catching up to do to match the likes of ChatGPT and Google Gemini. The company appears to be working overtime, with sources saying the competition’s quick progress in overtaking Siri has led to one of the largest reorganizations Apple has seen in over a decade. Now, Apple is supposedly deep in its own AI plans and developments.
Of course, all these insider sources remain anonymous. But if they are to be trusted, Apple will add its own generative AI to Siri soon. Apple has reportedly also even been in talks to license some competing AI models, including Google’s and OpenAI’s.
More “proof” that Apple is going all-in on AI also comes with the fairly recent news that it had canceled work on the Apple Car, freeing up the company to pursue other projects. These sources also told The New York Times that Apple plans to push the improved Siri as a more private way to use generative AI, as it will process everything directly on the iPhone instead of sending it off to massive data centers for processing.
This, of course, would also save money in the long run, as cloud computing costs for ChatGPT and other models can ramp up significantly depending on the amount of content generated. There is a trade-off here, though, as smaller systems have reportedly been shown to be more likely to hallucinate and return false information—a longstanding problem with generative AI. Whether or not Siri will face that problem is completely up to how Apple approaches development.
Either way, it’s an interesting time for Apple fans. ChatGPT is already gearing up to possibly take on Google by rolling out its own search engine, but we shouldn’t expect Apple to come right out the gate with something so big. Apple doesn’t even have to have the best generative AI yet. It just has to finally get its foot in the door, so it can expand on it as time goes on.
