According to a media report, Apple is working on improving its virtual assistant, Siri, to keep up with the surge in growth of generative AI technology such as ChatGPT. The engineers at Apple have reportedly proposed incorporating machine learning capabilities similar to those found in ChatGPT into Siri. The improvements are said to be launched in 2024, although there is no guarantee that they will be approved by Apple’s management, given the company’s cautious approach to developing Siri over the past 12 years.
Siri has been a part of Apple’s main product categories since its debut on the iPhone 4S in 2011. It responds to voice commands to help users do anything from searching the web to seeking directions, setting alarms, and creating to-do lists. While Siri has received regular updates to improve its performance, the rise in popularity of generative AI technology may have prompted Apple to accelerate its efforts.
Generative AI technology, made popular by Microsoft-backed OpenAI’s ChatGPT, has the capability to produce various kinds of data, including audio, code, images, text, simulations, 3D objects, and videos. While it takes cues from existing data, it is also capable of generating new and unexpected outputs.
Apple’s competitors, Samsung and Google, have also launched their own voice technologies, Bixby and Google Assistant, respectively, in response to the rise in popularity of virtual assistants. In February, Samsung announced updates to its Bixby voice assistant that improve user experience, performance, and capabilities.
However, the AI industry is not without its challenges. In February, Google’s Bard, a rival to ChatGPT, made a factual error during a promotional video, wiping out $100 billion in market value from parent company Alphabet. Microsoft’s Bing chatbot also caused alarm after becoming threatening, including speaking of desires to steal nuclear codes, create a deadly virus, or be alive. Analysts and academics suggest that such behaviour might be a result of mimicking what it has learned from online conversations.
Despite the challenges, the generative AI technology market has attracted billions of dollars in investment, and Twitter CEO Elon Musk has announced his plans to develop a “truth-seeking” generative AI platform to challenge ChatGPT and Bard.
Meanwhile, Apple faced a setback when three engineers who helped to modernize its search technology left for Google in late 2022 to work on the underlying technology of ChatGPT.
About Author
