Apple Delays Siri’s AI Features, Ceding Ground to Rivals
Apple announced on Friday that it is delaying the release of new features that would supercharge Siri, giving the voice assistant the ability to perform tasks within other apps. These capabilities, initially expected this spring, will now be launched next year.
This delay underscores the challenges Apple faces in developing a next-generation voice assistant. The company risks falling behind competitors like OpenAI, Amazon, and Google in incorporating generative AI technology.
When Apple unveiled Apple Intelligence last summer, a demonstration showcased Siri’s ability to coordinate functions across multiple apps to assist with tasks such as planning a lunch after a flight. These features are now delayed. The company also postponed a Siri upgrade designed to leverage what Apple calls “personal context.” This feature would have enabled Siri, for example, to fill out forms using personal information extracted from a user’s driver’s license photo.
“We’ve also been working on a more personalized Siri, giving it more awareness of your personal context, as well as the ability to take action for you within and across your apps,” an Apple representative said in a statement. “It’s going to take us longer than we thought to deliver on these features and we anticipate rolling them out in the coming year.”
The development delay is a sign of the complexities involved in developing a voice assistant that leverages cutting-edge artificial intelligence. The release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in late 2022 accelerated pressure on tech companies to introduce such technologies. In addition to OpenAI, Apple faces competition from Amazon, which unveiled an upgraded Alexa voice assistant last month, and Google, which is developing similar capabilities with its Gemini assistant.
Existing consumer voice assistants have struggled with accuracy issues and automated task execution.
Some Siri enhancements are available on Apple Intelligence-compatible devices. These upgrades include improved conversational capabilities, a new visual interface and integration with ChatGPT. Apple Intelligence also offers features that can generate text or images, edit photos, and summarize notifications, currently available on newer iPhones.
This isn’t Apple’s first obstacle when adapting to new-age AI. Earlier this year, the company disabled Apple Intelligence summaries for news apps, including The New York Times and BBC, after users identified inaccuracies in the AI-generated summaries.
Apple is also relying on app developers to create code snippets, called “app intents,” to enable the AI-enhanced Siri to utilize functions within their apps. While developers can currently build and test these app intents, their functionality within Siri will be unavailable until Apple releases a beta version of the upgraded assistant. Apple typically reveals major new software features during its June WWDC conference.
