According to a New York Times report, the first round of Siri improvements could arrive at struggling digital assistants this fall, which should be key to Apple's intelligence.
In an article about Apple’s challenge, from U.S. tariffs on China to conflicts between executives and teams responsible for advancing Siri, writer Tripp Mickle includes the little flower: “The company plans to release a virtual assistant in the fall, able to release a virtual assistant in the fall, such as people who apply for knowledge such as editing and sending photos to friends, say.”
The description is still far from the crying of the interconnected smart assistant WWDC 24 During release iPhone 16 Series, Siri can get context from text and email to involve family members reaching incoming flights. In fact, it doesn't seem to be resolved that Siri's current state seems to be deteriorating.
In a rare move by the Secret Company, Apple acknowledged in a statement to spokeswoman Jacqueline Roy to bold Fireball in March that its efforts to usher in a smarter Siri digital assistant as part of Apple's intelligence “will take us longer than we thought, and that the company “expects” to roll. [these features] Now the Times reports that we can see improvements as early as the fall.
Basic query shouldn't be difficult
Siri and Apple Intelligence have had several knocks recently. Behind the scenes, Apple swayed its executive rankings and removed John Giannandrea from the role in charge of Siri, a transition detailed in the Times article, and a more detailed behind-the-scenes look (and very well summed up on Macrumors).
But Siri also seems to lack the background for basic querying. Apple did solve an earlier question, if you asked Siri, “How many months are this?” The answer is a Jane, “I’m sorry, I don’t understand.” However, when I ask the same question now, I don’t get this month. I get the current full appointment date. When I call this question “What is this month?” I'm told: “That's Tuesday, April 1, 2025.” (If I don't know Siri's question, I might wonder if the digital assistant is trying to play an April Fool's Day joke on me.)
Siri can't fully parse basic queries, but at least it no longer answers with “I don't understand”.
Analyzing such basic issues does not seem to be a heavy requirement. Maybe it never happened because it was a problem, only someone woke up from a coma or rescued from a desert island.
All of this frustrates shareholders, journalists (though we crave to get used to) and customers, especially when they expect Apple’s level of assistant competence. Confidentially invited the same few months of drumbeat that “Apple lags behind AI” which led to the reveal of Apple's intelligence.
By taking unusual (for Apple) steps to cope with investor and media pressures – and announcing that there aren’t features ready yet – the company may make the situation worse by confirming that analysts, journalists and fans are right.
Smart games will be Apple following its secret way, rather than previewing its features and features until they get closer to getting ready for shipping. The leak this week suggests the company may receive information.
Apple's expectations swell
Apple's approach to product development has been to work on projects secretly if needed until they are ready to see the lights. They are not usually 100% baked at release, but the core functionality is there when they are ready to introduce it to the public.
I can give many examples. It's a valid argument that Vision Pro is not a successful product – it's expensive, it's not widely adopted by customers or developers, it's uncomfortable, but so on – but basic elements like processing power, micro-ol-Oled screens, and Visionos are all reliable foundations.
When the presence of a product leaks in large quantities ahead of schedule, Apple usually launches a finished version – even if its features are still limited. Often, Apple will lead to the MacWorld Expo announcing a phone in 2007, especially after the awkwardness of the Motorola Rokr E1 phone. However, no one expected it to break out of large screens from other smartphones at the time, lacking a physical keyboard and a full web browser.
When Steve Jobs revealed the original iPhone, not including the physical keyboard was an aggressive idea.
The difference this time is that Apple's commitment to senior Siri anchoring Apple intelligence appears to be a reaction to investors, media and early administrators, not only to the existence of AI, but also to the immediacy of AI. Apple needs to be seen as an active player in the AI space with competitive features, and those features are just around the corner.
Is there any corner? Annual iPhone refresh. Like other phone manufacturers, Apple sees AI as a vital driver of new phone sales, as only its iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 series models have the processing power to run Apple Intelligence. That's how we get a WWDC keynote in 2024, focusing on Apple Intelligence, and promised that Siri will soon become a smart agent that can pull data from every corner of the iPhone in response to queries like “When is my mom's flight time?”
LLM does not follow the traditional issuance model
Large language models (LLMs) such as Chatgpt are moving forward at record rates. They now have a more natural conversation and can sum up a lot of information well. For example, real-time audio transcription is a game-changer, and people like me who have been working on handwriting notes.
At the same time, these AI technologies have not brought the benefits expected by technology giants like Google and Openai. Apple isn't the only company that hangs its AI future on smart agents that know everything about us.
Perhaps like Google, Apple has seen the brain bend speed of LLMS functionality and has found that it can now solve the bumps and stumbling blocks it faces with some quick bug fixes and AI model recompilation. With those flush, it will take several months to connect the fragments and show them as the next generation of Siri.
But that's not how it plays. AI hallucinations and bad data are still a problem – are you getting recommended Rock Diet Needs?
I suspect that Apple is not only going to delay its Siri plan, but also having to do so publicly. But even if Siri doesn't show up in the near future, there are plenty of opportunities to continue to improve Apple Intelligence features. There is no doubt about the preparations for iOS 19 and iPhone 17 models and WWDC 2025. Now, there are fewer expectations for a firm assistant, and maybe Siri's year will improve from here.
