Apple Goes to Work on Siri to Catch Up With Chatbot Rivals

Apple bosses were not pleased after checking out OpenAI's new chatbot last year. ChatGPT, they realized, had lapped Siri. It employed generative artificial intelligence to write poetry and and computer code. It answered complex questions, while Siri often misunderstood direct ones. Siri couldn't compete. So Apple launched a major project to use generative AI to make a smarter Siri—the first significant improvement in the virtual assistant since its introduction in 2011. The new version is headed for release at the company's yearly developers conference on June 10, the New York Times reports.

The emphasis is on having Siri perform the tasks it already does but better, rather than learn new skills such as writing poetry. So its performance in creating calendar appointments and maintaining a grocery list would improve. Siri also will be able to summarize text messages—and chat, instead of just answering one question at a time. The Siri project is part of a larger effort to catch up with competitors on AI across all Apple products, per the Times, driven in part by fear the iPhone will fall behind its rivals. That's part of the reason Apple dropped its $10 billion project to develop a self-driving car; hundreds of engineers on that initiative were transferred to work on AI. (More Apple stories.)