Apple reportedly intends to fulfill the hopes of so many iPhone users by giving the Siri voice assistant an upgrade with artificial intelligence. A broad outline of the plan leaked out Friday.
Siri supposedly won’t become a general-purpose chatbot. It’ll be focused on better handling the sort of tasks iPhone users need. Recent reports suggest that Siri on iPhone 15 could see improvements, though the full AI-driven upgrade might take longer to arrive.
Apple’s new Ferret-UI multimodal large language model could help artificial intelligence systems better understand mobile screens like the one on your iPhone, according to a research paper released Tuesday.
Among those potentially benefitting from this? Perhaps the much-maligned Siri voice assistant will do more for you on mobile devices. And maybe visually impaired users and developers who need to do user interface testing will benefit, too.
Apple is shutting down its Data Operations Annotations office in San Diego and merging employees who are willing to relocate with their teammates in Texas.
The move reportedly comes as a big surprise to the California workers. Until very recently, Apple told them they would simply be moving to another location in San Diego.
This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: Will Apple Vision Pro win the world over to “spatial computing” when it launches on February 2? With the $3,499 mixed-reality headset coming so close to reality, it’s time for a serious talk.
We’re all super-curious about Vision Pro. But the hefty price tag and lack of a clear purpose leave us wondering if it’s a solution in need of a problem. (If nothing else, we like the new Vision Pro ad.)
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As artificial intelligence and machine learning become mainstream in business, large tech firms like Amazon and Facebook look to introduce AI features that transform the way we engage online through predictive purchase models and other algorithmic means. But how does Apple use AI?
But it definitely is. Apple’s business teams are cooking up many AI and ML opportunities. Still, Apple takes on AI challenges from a different angle with a more intuitive approach. Let’s look behind the scenes at the world’s largest tech company to see how tomorrow’s ideas are shaping today’s products.
It couldn’t be easier to set up HomePod or HomePod mini. Learn how to get started, use Siri, and exclude your kids’ music from your listening history.
Apple reportedly plans to use upgraded microphones on the iPhone 16 series for a better Siri experience. The new mics might feature a better signal-to-noise ratio and improved water resistance.
The improved hardware likely would boost manufacturing costs for Apple. But a better Siri — fortified with artificial intelligence — could gives Apple’s reputation a boost when it comes to AI.
This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: Tests performed on the M3 MacBook Pros reveal the performance-crushing effects of thermal throttling and skimpy RAM. Erfon is not impressed!
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Listen to this week’s episode of The CultCast in the Podcasts app or your favorite podcast app. (Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you like it!) Or watch the video live stream, embedded below.
A week after seeding the second iOS 17.2 beta, Apple has released the third beta of the OS. The first two beta builds were loaded with new features, and iOS 17.2 beta 3 is no different.
Below are all the changes and enhancements we have found in iOS 17.2 beta 3 so far.
AI is all the hype currently. And while Google, Amazon and Microsoft have gone all-in on generative AI, Apple has not made any notable announcements.
This could change next year, as the Cupertino giant is working on adding several AI features to iOS 18.
Siri Price can no longer use that name. The Edinburgh-based fitness instructor had to pick a new name because of a change in iOS 17, which was released for iPhones in September.
She’s not happy about it.
Apple TV 4K became a more versatile living room device with Monday’s launch of FaceTime on tvOS 17, Apple said, referring to it as “a powerful integration of hardware and software.”
“Users can make calls directly from Apple TV 4K, or start calls on iPhone or iPad, and hand them off to Apple TV 4K,” Apple noted. “FaceTime on Apple TV 4K takes advantage of Continuity Camera support to wirelessly connect to iPhone or iPad, and leverages the devices’ cameras and microphones to bring participants together on the TV.”
Don’t accuse Apple of just waking up to benefits of conversational AI. It reportedly started developers working on voice-driven artificial intelligence systems four years ago.
And the company is now pouring money into the project.
Apple reportedly developed its own generative AI chatbot that’s very similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. While this might never be released, the underlying tech is already going into the company’s applications and services.
If true, the chatbot’s technology could be a significant upgrade to the Siri digital assistant that’s built into so many Apple products — and that currently draws so much criticism.
Apple finally plans to make playing music from third-party sources easier on HomePods. Starting with iOS 17, you can ask Siri to play music on your HomePod from music apps installed on your iPhone.
Despite Apple providing the necessary apps, only a handful of music streaming services natively support HomePod. This change from Apple in iOS 17 is an excellent workaround to this problem.
Maybe all this talk of superior AI chatbots is getting to Apple’s voice assistant. Siri interrupted a radio broadcast Saturday during a double-header matchup between the Boston Red Sox and the Tampa Bay Rays.
The voice assistant had a pretty good reason. The announcer said Siri’s name. But he was talking about Rays outfielder Jose Siri coming up to bat.
And Siri’s response was apparently unintelligible. Typical swing and a miss.
The “Hey Siri” trigger phrase for Apple’s virtual assistant could go away soon, replaced with a shorter version. And the change might be announced at WWDC23 next week.
Being able to activate Siri by simply saying “Siri” near an iPhone, HomePod, etc., could make activating Apple’s virtual assistant easier.
Want to make Siri smart again and help boost Apple’s artificial-intelligence chops across the board? A recent Apple job posting shows it seeks “machine-learning engineers with a background and/or interest in conversational and generative AI.”
“This role will play a critical part in helping Apple change the way humans learn about learning,” the listing noted.
Hard to say if the new engineers will inject more gray matter into Siri, but one source suggests they might work on device-based apps for Apple’s AR/VR headset, expected to show on Monday at WWDC23 Monday.
Apple is apparently responding to criticism that it doesn’t offer real competition for OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard, two AI-powered chatbots that have made so many headlines in recent months. Job postings show the Mac-maker is on a hiring spree for people skilled in generative AI.
Perhaps Apple’s voice-activated system Siri is in for a significant jump in capabilities.
Following a beta period spanning over a month, Apple has released the stable build of iOS 16.5, iPadOS 16.5, and macOS Ventura 13.4 to the public. Your Apple Watch and Apple TV are also getting a new update.
Unlike iOS 16.4, the latest iOS release is not packing a ton of new features. There are a few improvements and enhancements, but otherwise, this is mostly a bug-fixing release.
This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: What will WWDC23 bring us? In addition to a sweeping look at the future of all Apple’s platforms, it sounds like we’ll get some major new hardware. Yes, there’s that $3,000 AR/VR headset, but there’s also something we really want: a 15-inch MacBook Air.
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When you start to worry the air in your home could make you sick, an air purifier can help. And they’re getting smarter (but hopefully not “rise of the machines” smart a la Terminator).
The nara Pro, which the company bills as “the versatile air purifier robot,” runs a two-stage system via artificial intelligence that works with Siri and HomeKit, as well as other smart-home systems.
And you can get a good deal on it on the Indiegogo crowdfunding platform.
Siri simply can’t compete with ChatGPT and other chatbots because it was built with the wrong system, according to someone who was once charged with improving Apple’s voice assistant.
But there’s hope for future improvement, as Apple is reportedly working on a replacement that is being built to be more like ChatGPT.
Imagine getting a text from a friend and your iPhone reads it to you in your friend’s voice. Rather than a recording, their speech would be simulated from a voice model.
That’s the goal of a patent Apple submitted recently.
Users have complained about the limitations of the Siri “intelligent” assistant for years, but now that OpenAI’s ChatGPT is showing the world that artificial intelligence can do amazing things, it’s never been more obvious that Apple’s version is as dumb as a bag of hammers.
Not only does this make Apple look bad, it makes HomePod less useful. Really, it makes all the company’s products less useful than they could be.
Apple needs to step up its AI game or it risks being left out of an important new wave of computing.