Siri

Not long ago, Siri couldn’t seem to catch a break. After Apple officially delayed the assistant’s big AI upgrades, several internal leaks highlighted just how bad things were behind the scenes. But now, the tides have seemingly turned, and Siri’s good news season is in full swing ahead of iOS 19’s big reveal.

It’s been about a year since Apple announced Apple Intelligence at WWDC 2024. Since then, Siri has received a visual refresh with its new rainbow animation, text-to-Siri support, visual intelligence, and image generation. Features like Genmoji are also available in iOS 18. However, the most critical aspects of Siri, like being conversational and having contextual awareness, are still missing. Meanwhile, AI assistants like ChatGPT and Perplexity are leaps and bounds ahead of Siri in many ways. So, I wanted to put all three to the test to see who deserves to be your go-to voice assistant on the iPhone today. Here is what I found.

It goes without saying, Apple’s approach to developing its AI-infused version of Siri has gone very wrong in many ways. Most of the features intended to ship alongside iOS 18 haven’t yet arrived, despite being 10 months past the initial unveiling of iOS 18. Apple has even officially confirmed the delayed launch, stating that the features would launch “in the coming year.”

However, according to numerous reports – Apple has a strategy to bounce back with iOS 19. Here’s how.

Siri is under new leadership at Apple, with Mike Rockwell taking on managerial responsibility under Craig Federighi’s oversight. Rockwell may seem like an odd choice considering his history leading Vision Pro and visionOS development, but per multiple reports his passion to fix Siri has been growing for years.

Last week, Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas floated the idea of making a better version of Siri for iPhone users.

should we make a version of siri that works reliably on basic stuff? what all would you like to see in an iOS voice assistant ? if there’s a good amount of interest, we will prioritize

Less than a week later, the Perplexity AI team has kind of delivered.

I’m often skeptical about survey results. There are small-scale ones, where the claimed trends are actually within the margin of error for the sample size, and even in larger ones there’s still ample scope for the results to be way less meaningful than they might seem.

I have to say that Morgan Stanley’s survey on consumer attitudes to Apple Intelligence triggered my doubtometer, as the rosy picture it paints doesn’t seem a very good match for the current state of play …

Apple recently gave Mike Rockwell leadership over Siri, a big shake-up that proved the status quo of Siri development had grown unacceptable to senior leaders. Now, per a new report, it seems Rockwell is wasting no time continuing to implement major changes internally with the teams responsible for Siri.

Siri has been in a state of disarray, but things are starting to improve. Apple’s assistant has new leadership implementing serious changes, and reporting indicates we will start benefiting from big Siri upgrades this fall in iOS 19. Here’s what to expect.

Seeing people who aren’t developers create apps through vibe coding lately has reminded me of something from two years ago that bodes well for the future of Siri. Vibe coding is the term assigned to the process of building apps using AI by describing the app that you want to exist.

Here’s a weird one. My son and I were discussing shapes on the drive to school earlier this week. His question for me was, “What is the name of the shape that looks like a square with uneven sides?”

I’m now in the habit of saying “ask ChatGPT” before any Siri request that isn’t taking an action like creating a reminder or sending a message. In this instance, though, I picked up my iPhone and pressed the Action button to open Advanced Voice Mode on ChatGPT. The results satisfied his curiosity.

A few days later, I decided to use his query as an example for how ChatGPT through Siri is useful. The results surprised me.

It’s been a busy couple days for in-depth journalistic explorations of Apple’s recent Siri and AI struggles. Following yesterday’s The Information report, today The New York Times has its own deep dive. One of the biggest takeaways? Apple’s planning to launch its new iOS 19 Siri upgrades sooner than we expected.

Today a revealing new look into Apple’s recent Siri struggles was published at The Information. That report contains myriad details on internal drama and conflicts, but it also ends with a big piece of news: under Craig Federighi’s leadership, for the first time Apple engineers can now use third-party LLMs to build Siri features.

Last month Apple experienced a major internal shake-up related to Siri, part of the fallout of its delayed Siri upgrades. An extensive new report at The Information provides the best look yet into the drama happening behind the scenes, and where things stand with Siri now.

Siri’s big AI upgrades may still be a long way off, but some changes to the Shortcuts app in iOS 18.4 offer the first major hints in Apple’s software of what’s to come. Shortcuts has gained new actions for Apple apps, with super fine-grained controls available for building shortcuts that change apps’ settings in various ways.

Apple is making a big change to Siri’s leadership within the company. Per Mark Gurman, former Vision Pro head Mike Rockwell will now be in charge. While this might seem like an odd fit, the best part of the move may actually have little to do with Rockwell specifically, and more what it says about Apple’s priorities.

This is Rumor Replay, a weekly column at 9to5Mac offering a quick rundown of the most recent Apple product rumors, with analysis and commentary. Today: Siri shake-ups, iOS 19 goals, C2 modem, and new Apple displays. Here are this week’s Apple rumors.

One of the biggest narratives currently going around about Apple is the company’s AI struggles. But while those struggles are very real, Apple has two big aces up its sleeve that should minimize the damage from ‘new Siri’ shipping late, and propel the company into a bright future. Those two things: innovations in Apple’s upcoming hardware and software.

The embarrassment over the state of Siri continues, with the discovery that the ‘intelligent’ assistant doesn’t even know what month it is.

My colleague Zac Hall suggested that things are now so bad the Siri brand is irredeemably tarnished, and any new version should be given a completely new name – but some think Apple should go further than this, and let us replace Siri with our own choice of AI chatbot …

I know, I know. I’m late to the Siri Sucks party. In my defense, Siri’s degree of suck has increased. Siri never used to trip when asked what month it is. Apple’s designers nailed the glow effect though.

It’s not just that Siri has steadily fallen apart over the years. The floor for what’s expected of a system like Siri is quickly rising.

Meanwhile, Siri is waiting for someone to decide if maintenance can feasibly repair the elevator while we all take the stairs to the top of the world’s tallest building.

Apple recently confirmed the delay of the new “more personalized” Siri, which was teased last year at WWDC 2024. And while we argue about whether Apple Intelligence can become as good as other AI tools, Siri still struggles to answer a simple question like “what month is it?”

The Siri crisis is showing no sign of ending, with a blistering attack by a high-profile commenter, and even senior Apple execs admitting that the delayed features are embarrassing.

At this point, there isn’t anything Apple can do to completely recover from the embarrassment, but a report on an internal Siri team meeting did seem to indicate a potential way to at least mitigate the damage …