Wake Up, Apple
Mark Gurman
The latest from Gurman starts promising enough...
Apple Inc. is racing to develop a more conversational version of its Siri digital assistant, aiming to catch up with OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other voice services, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
"Racing"! Good! Fire lit!
The new Siri, details of which haven’t been reported, uses more advanced large language models, or LLMs, to allow for back-and-forth conversations, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the effort hasn’t been announced. The system also can handle more sophisticated requests in a quicker fashion, they said.
Yep, sounds great. The first stabs at this by OpenAI and Google are pretty interesting, but early. Seems like something Apple could nail. It's UI, after all, just a vocal kind...
The new voice assistant, which will eventually be added to Apple Intelligence, is dubbed “LLM Siri” by those working on it. LLMs — a building block of generative AI — gorge on massive amounts of data in order to identify patterns and answer questions.
Yeah, I mean that name needs work, even as a codename, but cool, it's clear what it's all about and indicates that Apple is taking moving such capabilities in-house (versus just outsourcing them to OpenAI and the like) seriously.
Apple has been testing the upgraded software on iPhones, iPads and Macs as a separate app, but the technology will ultimately replace the Siri interface that users rely on today. The company is planning to announce the overhaul as soon as 2025 as part of the upcoming iOS 19 and macOS 16 software updates, which are internally named Luck and Cheer, the people said.
Testing already?! Amazing. We're ready and waiting Apple. Good on ya. 2025 is mere weeks away...
Like Apple Intelligence this fall, the new features won’t immediately be included in next year’s crop of hardware devices. Instead, Apple is currently planning to release the new Siri to consumers as early as spring 2026, about a year and a half from now. Given that Apple is still several months away from announcing the plan, the timing and features could still shift.
<record screech>
2026? What the fuck? Why not 2040?
Apple. Dear, sweet Apple. Open your eyes. WAKE UP. By 2026, OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, Amazon, Microsoft, xAI, honestly probably even Cisco – no offense, Cisco – is going to have run laps around whatever it is that you're cooking up. Because what you're cooking up is competitive to what is state of the art right now. But this field is moving so incredibly fast that there's no chance it's state of the art in – checks calendar – two years.
I'm not saying we're going to have humanoid robots by then – Elon Musk may be saying that, but he says a lot of things – but we're obviously going to be a few steps beyond this type of conversational AI by then. Hopefully it's a part of the arsenal, but it really should be next year. Not 2026.1
Yes, yes, "not first, but best". This isn't 2004. It's not even 2022. This is a different world. The cadence done changed. You have to adapt.
Culturally, that will be hard, I get that. But it can be done. Money never sleeps, pal. Astonish me, pal. This is your wake up call, pal. Go to work.
1 Related: those smart glasses? Next year. Not 2026.