Recently, Apple confirmed the delay of a new feature, Siri powered by Apple Intelligence, which may cause a delay in its launch until next year. This could impact the introduction of new products like smart home devices. Additionally, Apple has made changes to the related executive positions.
Reports from The Information provide insights into the challenges faced during the development of Siri in recent times, and Apple’s plans to address these issues. Here are some key points:
Apple lacked a clear direction on which LLM model to use, initially creating two models – one for iPhones and a larger one for cloud storage, but later deciding to stick with just one cloud-based model, resulting in several engineers leaving the project.
In recent years, Siri has been a hot potato at Apple, with issues identified but sometimes shuffled between departments.
John Giannandrea, the head of AI at Apple responsible for Siri, deemed ChatGPT not customer-centric, leading to the decision to develop an in-house model.
After multiple tests, Apple’s self-developed AI model showed inferior capabilities compared to popular models.
Rumors within Apple suggest that the AI/ML department is jokingly referred to as AIMLess (hopeless).
Recent improvements in Siri include slightly faster response times and the removal of the word “Hey” from “Hey Siri.”
The significant event leading to the feature delay announcement was the unveiling of new Siri features at WWDC 2024, such as reading emails, checking flight information, and setting reminders. However, the marketing team’s video pitches were not approved by the Siri team, causing Apple to avoid taking such risks in the future.
Nevertheless, Mike Rockwell, previously working on Vision Pro, and Craig Federighi, head of software development, have stepped in to address Siri’s issues. Federighi’s approach is to produce the best AI features possible, even if that means using open-source models from external sources, indicating a shift towards a more effective direction for Siri development.
TLDR: Apple faces challenges with Siri development, including a lack of clear direction, internal disagreements, and efforts to improve AI capabilities. Apple is now focusing on utilizing external open-source models to enhance Siri’s features and performance.
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