Apple voice assistant Siri: Will everything finally be okay after 13 years?
Apple's voice assistant is notorious for its comprehension difficulties. With iOS 18, everything should be better. A look back at 13 years of Siri.
Do you finally understand me? Siri operation on the iPhone.
(Image: dpa, Alexander Heinl)
Long-time Apple users will probably remember the day Siri was introduced: On October 4, 2011, just a few days before the death of Steve Jobs, the then iOS boss Scott Forstall demonstrated the voice assistant system together with the iPhone 4S. Since then, the development of the software can be described as "ups and downs ", with a tendency towards "downs". Apple has repeatedly tried to improve Siri, introducing APIs for third-party developers, giving the voice assistant better access to the operating system or trying to optimize it in other ways.
In 2019, there was a major data protection scandal when it became known that human data typists were listening to recordings in order to improve voice input. In 2022, there were still repercussions here because Apple itself transmitted information due to a bug when users had refused to do so. All in all, the previous Siri can be summed up with a humorous video: "Curb Your Enthusiasm" star Larry David yelling at the voice assistant in his car.
Will everything be better now?
iOS 18 is set to make everything better. Thanks to deeply integrated Apple Intelligence, Siri is supposed to understand contexts, no longer lose threads of conversation and respond correctly even if you haven't memorized commands. (The author of these lines is regularly annoyed, for example, that "Play NPR Radio" plays the news podcast of the popular US broadcaster, but "Play NPR News and Culture" plays the stream). The first examples of the improvements could be seen during yesterday's keynote at the WWDC developer conference. It is commendable that Apple wants to handle most functions locally using the on-device voice model and protect cloud data with strict encryption. However, it remains to be seen whether this is a true Siri 2.0.
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Since the release of ChatGPT in November 2022 - that's how long ago it was - users have been asking when Apple will finally improve Siri. Some built their own Siri 2.0 by combining ChatGPT with Siri - just a few weeks after the launch of ChatGPT. Most recently, OpenAI has also upgraded its official ChatGPT app for iOS, which can be controlled using shortcuts and even switched to a background "listening mode". ChatGPT is also set to become part of the new Siri. Apple is making this optional, but if the OpenAI product is activated, Siri will be able to recognize for itself whether ChatGPT is not the more suitable answering partner.
Only a few iPhones supported
What Apple is now planning in iOS 18 sounds like a dream come true for those who are fed up with Siri. "Siri will be able to provide intelligence that is tailored to the user and their device information. For example, a user can say, 'Play the podcast Jamie recommended' and Siri will find the episode and play it without the user having to remember if it was mentioned in a text or email." The voice assistant will be able to perform hundreds of new actions, including for third-party apps. However, all of this will only be available as a beta from the fall and only in the US English language version - German and other languages will probably not be available until next year.
The central problem with the "new" Siri is that Apple is only launching the "new era" of the voice assistant on very specific devices. "Apple Intelligence will be available on iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, iPad and Mac with M1 and higher," says the manufacturer succinctly. This means that only two smartphones from 2023 will be allowed to participate on the iPhone - plus (hopefully) all new iPhone 16 devices expected in September 2024. At least more years are covered for the iPad and Mac: the first Mac with M1 arrived in November 2020 and the first iPad Pro with M1 was released in 2021. Apple is likely to use the AI functionality to sell more iPhones.
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