An article in The New York Times today described Apple’s shift to developing its own artificial intelligence technology to keep up with competitors.
According to the report, Apple’s most senior executives decided to revamp Siri early last year, citing sources familiar with Apple’s work. Senior vice presidents Craig Federighi and John Giannandrea spent several weeks testing OpenAI’s ChatGPT to determine how the competitor made Siri look outdated. Apple has reportedly struggled to recruit and retain AI researchers, and the Siri team has not received the same amount of attention and resources as other groups inside the company.
Apple executives are concerned that AI could undermine the App Store’s market share because it has the potential to become a more compelling operating system with AI apps. In comparison with other technologies, Apple fears the iPhone will become a “Unintelligent brick.”
As a result of this conclusion, Apple undertook a significant reorganization to keep up with the AI race. Its decision to cancel its electric vehicle project was attributed to the reallocation of employees and resources to AI. The upcoming iPhone 16 models should feature more memory to support AI functions.
On June 10, Apple is expected to reveal an improved version of Siri that is more conversational and capable, with the ability to “chat” rather than just respond to individual requests. Apple is working on improving Siri’s ability to set timers, create calendar appointments, add items to Reminders, and summarize text. Siri will be marketed by Apple as a more private alternative to rival AI services since most requests will be handled on-device instead of remotely.
