I’m feeling the same way. I too thought we just needed to be patient and Apple would deliver. But, I’m increasingly skeptical that Apple can catch up on AI, assuming it should even try. I’m not sure I’m all that concerned with Apple catching up with OpenAI, Anthropic, and others. I mainly want a less dumb and more dependable Siri.
Virtual Assistants in the Server Breakroom (by Elle Cordova):
ChatGPT hangs out with Siri and Alexa in the server break room
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Siri has been bad for years and more recently it has degraded to the point it cannot reliably play, pause, and control the volume of music and podcasts for me.
In a linked article Ben asks “Should Apple let us choose our own AI chatbot to replace Siri?”
I say yes. Apple already lets us do a few similar things. I can ask Siri to play songs “using YouTube Music” and I can tell Siri to “take me to New York City using Waze”. I can launch the Google Assistant with a “Hey Siri, OK Google” shortcut and Gemini with my Action button.
I don’t know how Apple can deliver the “new Siri” by next WWDC when they can’t even keep their top AI people from quitting. If I were a betting man, I’d say the smart money votes no.
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I say judge deliveries, not promises and certainly not feelings.
Ping them on timetables and delivered products. Anything else, as we all know, is just guesswork. (Unless, perhaps, Mark Gurman reports on something not too far out.)
I downloaded Siri as soon as it became available as an app. And I recall that Siri was an interesting app for a few months before Apple bought it. Then, IMO, it was an interest feature for a few more years until Apple lost interest and let whatever lead they had in digital assistants disappear.
As far as I can tell Siri has been on life support ever since.
+1 for Elle Cordova. Super creative and talented.
More on topic, it’s hard to believe how much of a lead Apple gave up in this space. Long before AI and especially since.
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They can’t. It is why they have rushed a messy overhaul of the UI so the focus is on something else and not their inability to deliver what was promised in a faked product video two years ago.
Siri is useless, Apple Intelligence is useless, and Liquid Glass is a mess.