Apple has announced a significant update to its digital assistant, Siri Artificial Intelligence, promising a better AI experience for users.
elchi reports that the iPhone manufacturer also announced a series of changes to safety and protection features, which it says will help keep children safer while using Apple products.
These announcements were made at the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). This conference marks Tim Cook’s final term as CEO before stepping down in September after 15 years.
John Ternus, who had a significant presence at WWDC but did not deliver the main keynote speech, will succeed Cook.
Siri Artificial Intelligence update
The introduction of Apple’s Siri Artificial Intelligence system comes after criticism that the company was lagging behind other tech giants.
The new version of Siri will work across other Apple products and apps and will feature a new application similar to what OpenAI and Anthropic offer for their AI assistants. The company promised that the new Siri Artificial Intelligence system will use the user’s past interactions with apps, understanding of visuals, and broad knowledge to serve as a more capable and conversational assistant than the current version.
Craig Federighi, Senior Vice President of Software Engineering, made an unusual public criticism of AI approaches that are done for the sake of AI alone, without considering the people they are meant to serve.
Federighi stated that they believe truly useful AI should be focused on the user and their needs, and that Apple’s new Siri AI experience was built with privacy in mind at every step.
Apple Intelligence already offers writing tools and visual editing, but the company has been slow to introduce a new and improved Siri.
Ben Wood, Chief Analyst at industry analytics firm FDM CCS Insight, stated that Apple needed to address its shortcomings in AI and that WWDC provided some answers. Wood added that the company must prove that its privacy-focused and integration-based approach can not only level the playing field with competitors but also translate into a meaningfully better daily experience. Wood noted that once the new capabilities are in their hands, success will be determined by user reaction.
The beta version of the Siri AI system will be available on supported devices set to English later this year, but the service will not be available in the European Union (EU).
Apple stated that over the past few months, EU regulators have not accepted any proposed solutions to bring the Siri AI system to the EU while also safely supporting other virtual assistants.
The company had partnered with Google to introduce Apple Essential Models, which will be based on Google’s Gemini models and cloud technology.
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