WWDC 2024: Apple said to provide new generative AI upgrade to Siri. Here’s what might change

Apple could provide a much needed generative AI backed upgrade to Siri which could allow the voice assistant more conversational and versatile

to chat rather than just repond to one question at a time, the New York Times reported. The new Siri upgrade could be released along with other AI offerings by Apple at the company’s Worldwide Developers conference on June 10.

Apple reportedly isn’t looking to directly compete with ChatGPT with the new Siri upgrade. Instead, the company is focusing on making Siri better at taking care of tasks it already does like setting reminders, creating calendar appointments, adding items to grocery lists and more. Furthermore, Siri could also get the ability to summarize text messages.

Moreover, Apple also plans to market the new AI backed version of Siri as more private than its rivals since it will be able to process requests directly on the iPhones rather than handling them via cloud servers. Apple’s latest approach could have some obvious advantages like improved privacy, reduced response time and the ability to run offline or in places with low internet connectivity.

On the other hand, On-device large language models (LLMs) may not be as powerful or kowledgeable compared to the commercial chatbots like ChatGPT or Gemini which are backed by huge servers with billions of parameters.

Why is Apple providing a generative AI revamp to Siri?

The decision to provide a ‘brain transplant’ to Siri was reportedly taken last year after Apple’s top executives like Craig Federighi and John Giannandrea spent weeks testing ChatGPT.

Siri was first introduced as a voice assistant in iPhones in 2011 and has been staple in all new launches since then. However, the virtual assitant is well known to have problems in handling conversations and can instead answer one off questions.