Virtual assistants are becoming increasingly advanced, with the ability to engage in seamless and even flirtatious conversations. However, Apple’s virtual assistant, Siri, still struggles with some basic tasks. For instance, when asked about the dates of the Olympics, Siri was unable to add it to the calendar properly, showing a lack of contextual awareness. Apple is expected to make significant updates to Siri with the release of iOS 18 at the Worldwide Developers Conference on June 10.
Siri made waves when it was first introduced with the iPhone 4S in 2011, offering a more humanlike interaction compared to other voice assistants at the time. However, Siri has fallen behind competitors like Alexa and Google Assistant, which have expanded into smart homes and have better capabilities in answering questions.
The future of virtual assistants seems to be moving towards multimodal capabilities, with companies like OpenAI, Google, and xAI developing advanced chatbots that can understand and respond to various inputs beyond text. Apple is lagging behind in this area, but is reportedly working on a multimodal AI assistant called Ferret.
One of Apple’s strengths in this competitive landscape is its commitment to privacy, with plans to process Siri requests on-device for more privacy. Apple is also rumored to be finalizing a deal with OpenAI to potentially bring ChatGPT to the iPhone, focusing on improving Siri’s existing capabilities rather than directly competing with other advanced chatbots.
Apple is expected to update Siri with fresh AI features in iOS 18, playing catch-up to competitors like Alexa and Google Assistant. While Apple may not be breaking new ground with Siri, the virtual assistant is likely to remain a major focus for the company in the future.