Apple's AI-Equipped Siri May Render Other AI Devices Even More Useless
Up until now, AI devices including the Rabbit R1 and the Humane Ai pin have mostly been hype with no substance. These gadgets failed to deliver on their promise of being true AI companions, even if they didn't have consistent glitches from a hasty market release. The fundamental problem is: Why would I need a separate device for AI when I can do everything advertised with a smartphone?
It's a hard sell, and it's left me feeling quite skeptical about AI hardware having any significant impact. If you're interested in AI, you're probably more likely to download the ChatGPT app and ask it about the world around you rather than spend hundreds of dollars on a standalone device. However, if you have an iPhone, you may soon forget about AI apps altogether.
Could Siri be the AI assistant we've always wanted?
Although Apple has been extremely late to the AI game, they might just succeed where Rabbit and Humane failed: According to a recent report from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple is planning a significant upgrade to Siri for a future version of iOS 18. While previous rumors suggested Apple was working on making interactions with Siri more natural, the latest whispers suggest that the company is empowering Siri to control "hundreds" of features within Apple apps. If true, this would be a major step up from using Siri to set alarms and check the weather.
Gurman claims that Apple had to fundamentally rewire Siri for this feature, integrating the assistant with LLMs to handle all its AI processing. He says Apple is planning to make Siri a prominent feature at this year's WWDC, showing off how the upgraded AI assistant can open documents, move notes to specific folders, manage your email, and generate a summary for an article you're reading. Initially, AI Siri can handle one command at a time, but Apple wants to release an update allowing you to stack commands as well. In theory, you could ask Siri to perform multiple functions across apps. Apple is likely to start with its own apps, so Siri wouldn't be able to interact that way within Instagram or YouTube - at least not yet.
There are no details yet on when AI Siri will be available, as iOS 18 is expected to launch in the fall but Gurman believes the AI upgrade won't arrive until next year. However, the idea of being able to ask Siri to do anything on your smartphone is intriguing: You could say "Hey Siri, react with a heart on David's last message" in Messages or "Hey Siri, invite Sarah and Michael to collaborate on this note" in Notes. If Apple has found a way to make virtually every feature in iOS Siri-friendly, that could be a game changer.
In fact, it could potentially make Siri (and, to a greater extent, your iPhone) into the AI assistant companies are finding it hard to sell people on. Imagine a future where you can point your iPhone at a subject and ask Siri to tell you more about it. Then, you might ask Siri to take a photo of the subject, crop it, and email it to a friend, complete with the summary you just learned about. You could even be scrolling through a complex article, asking Siri to summarize it for you. In this ideal version of AI Siri, there's no need for a Rabbit R1 or a Humane Ai Pin - you just need Apple's latest and greatest iPhone.
There is a catch, though: These features are power-intensive, so Apple is said to be working out which ones can be run on-device and which require cloud processing. The more features pushed to the cloud, the greater the security risk. However, the rumor mill suggests that Apple is also working on making cloud-based AI features just as secure. But it's unclear whether Apple will keep AI-powered Siri features running on-device or in the cloud, meaning you might need at least an iPhone 15 Pro to run the updated version.
We won't know the specifics of what AI features Apple is developing until they're revealed at their June event. But based on Gurman's sources, Apple's strategy of taking its time might just pay off. 💼
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Siri's upcoming AI update, as reported by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, could make the standalone AI devices like Rabbit R1 and Humane Ai Pin less appealing. Apple is planning to empower Siri to control numerous features within Apple apps, potentially making it a more comprehensive AI assistant on your iPhone.
If Apple successfully executes this AI upgrade for Siri, it could potentially render separate AI devices like Rabbit R1 and Humane Ai Pin obsolete, as your smartphone could serve as your primary AI assistant. This advancement in AI technology could change the tech landscape, making Siri a game-changer in the AI market.
