Waiting for AI-Powered Siri? Apple’s Smarter Assistant Could Finally Arrive Later This Year

After a series of embarrassing events that contributed to the delay in the launch of an AI-powered Siri, Apple announced a major shake-up in internal teams last month. Those efforts are now reported to finally materialise later this year, with the rollout of a smarter Siri expected before the holiday season. An AI-infused Siri may offer personalised answers, see through the iPhone’s screen, and offer answers to nuanced questions.

According to The New York Times, citing people privy to the development, Apple has planned to upgrade Siri “in the fall.” The initial features of the better Siri version could allow users to edit and send photos to contacts — a feature that was initially expected to arrive as part of the iOS 18.4 update earlier this month. Thereafter, Siri will likely add more functionalities, which will gradually pit it against OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini.

NYT’s report follows multiple previous reports, including the one from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman who said Apple’s AI teams think a “true, modernised, conversational version of Siri” will not be ready before 2027 because of several performance and quality glitches in Apple’s voice assistant.

It was after the inevitable delay that Apple had to rejig its teams, including the transfer of John Giannandrea, who led the AI and Siri department, to a different team. Several former employees told The Information that Apple’s senior director, Robby Walker, lacked the ambition or the ability to take risks in line with the company’s expectations from a redesigned Siri.

The current state of Siri only allows it to perform basic functions. However, the integration of ChatGPT into Siri as part of Apple Intelligence makes it smart enough to answer certain questions. However, the functionality is limited to asking questions and getting answers. ChatGPT’s integration does not allow performing tasks such as holding a conversation like ChatGPT Voice Mode or Gemini Live.

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