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Apple weighs using Anthropic or OpenAI to power Siri

bloomberg.com

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Re: Apple weighs using Anthropic or OpenAI to power Siri

#31

Post by fasthands9 »

jurgenaut23 wrote: post #26
atonse wrote: post #7

At this point, just about anything Apple can do will be way way way better than the absolute turd that is Siri. (It was only impressive 15 years ago). Apple's AI strategy has seriously hurt their reputation. I'd love to be a fly on the wall where they discussed a strategy that amounted to "forget using the most basic LLM to understand combinations of commands like, stop all the timers and just keep the one that has a…

It doesn’t matter. No one buys an iPhone for Siri and no one switches to Android for whatever they call this thing. I have owned an iPhone for more than 15 years, and I have used Siri a dozen times. They will implement something using GPT-4 or Claude and this whole mess will be forgotten.

I do think Apple needs a better Siri, but I think ultimately they were smart not to plow tons of money into it trying to do it themselves.

A better Siri is an expense to keep up the premium brand, not something that they will monetize. For particular uses of AI people will just want particular apps.

Re: Apple weighs using Anthropic or OpenAI to power Siri

#32

Post by sandspar »

jurgenaut23 wrote: post #26
atonse wrote: post #7

At this point, just about anything Apple can do will be way way way better than the absolute turd that is Siri. (It was only impressive 15 years ago). Apple's AI strategy has seriously hurt their reputation. I'd love to be a fly on the wall where they discussed a strategy that amounted to "forget using the most basic LLM to understand combinations of commands like, stop all the timers and just keep the one that has a…

It doesn’t matter. No one buys an iPhone for Siri and no one switches to Android for whatever they call this thing. I have owned an iPhone for more than 15 years, and I have used Siri a dozen times. They will implement something using GPT-4 or Claude and this whole mess will be forgotten.

Young people are increasingly comfortable using voice, and marketing agencies already consider Gen Alpha to be “voice native.” I once saw a small child help his grandfather with a phone issue. The grandfather fumbled with the GUI, but the child opened Siri and solved it by voice. If Apple drops the ball on voice, it may not hurt them today - but they risk losing the next decade.

Re: Apple weighs using Anthropic or OpenAI to power Siri

#33

Post by hombre_fatal »

canjobear wrote: post #20

I’m not surprised that Apple has been struggling to integrate LLMs. By their very stochastic nature they go against Apple’s philosophy of total vertical control of every aspect of their products. There’s no way to guarantee that an LLM will do anything and so they would be ceding control of the user experience to a random number generator.

Then how does Siri deliver on that philosophy? The UX of Siri is that it probably won't understand your request but it might, and only through trial and error do you realize the specific commands it might know. And even then, your queries can fail for unknown reasons.

So I don't think this a likely explanation. Maybe they just wanted to have an in-house solution but realized they have no chance at delivering that value on their own. But it can't be about UX predictability because Siri has none unless you're setting a timer.

Re: Apple weighs using Anthropic or OpenAI to power Siri

#34

Post by JumpCrisscross »

sandspar wrote: post #32
jurgenaut23 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn’t matter. No one buys an iPhone for Siri and no one switches to Android for whatever they call this thing. I have owned an iPhone for more than 15 years, and I have used Siri a dozen times. They will implement something using GPT-4 or Claude and this whole mess will be forgotten.

Young people are increasingly comfortable using voice, and marketing agencies already consider Gen Alpha to be “voice native.” I once saw a small child help his grandfather with a phone issue. The grandfather fumbled with the GUI, but the child opened Siri and solved it by voice. If Apple drops the ball on voice, it may not hurt them today - but they risk losing the next decade.

> Young people are increasingly comfortable using voice

I know plenty of folks in their 40s and 50s who have used Siri as their primary way to search the internet for years.

Re: Apple weighs using Anthropic or OpenAI to power Siri

#36

Post by JumpCrisscross »

thejazzman wrote: post #24
Rebuff5007 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know this is the leading narrative, but I actually disagree. Apple has a wonderful set of products without any form of generative AI, and those products continues to exist. Yes there is opportunity to add some fancy natural-language based search / control, but that seems like relatively low hanging fruit compared to the moat they have and defend. Will adding gen ai natively to apple products have people non-trivial…

> Siri, open the east door > Siri, open the east door They kinda really super suck. Siri used to work better than it does today. It's often a bigger chore than opening the app and tapping the button. These quirks hit me on a daily basis when all I want to do is control my lights and locks

Turn off Apple Intelligence. I got sick of Siri asking, when I asked for the garage door to be opened, if I meant my house in Wyoming or 6th-story apartment in New York (which doesn't have a garage).

Re: Apple weighs using Anthropic or OpenAI to power Siri

#38

Post by JumpCrisscross »

hylaride wrote: post #29
canjobear wrote: post #20

I’m not surprised that Apple has been struggling to integrate LLMs. By their very stochastic nature they go against Apple’s philosophy of total vertical control of every aspect of their products. There’s no way to guarantee that an LLM will do anything and so they would be ceding control of the user experience to a random number generator.

The problem with Apple is that their corporate culture doesn't vibe well with a lot of new tech. Their culture of secrecy held them back with the original "smart assistants" as all the best talent were PhDs who wanted to publish, but apple wouldn't allow that; on top of that, they didn't pay top dollar like Google or Amazon did at the time, either (whom also let their employees publish on top of that!). Apple is bein…

> problem with Apple is that their corporate culture doesn't vibe well with a lot of new tech

Apple has never been the company that does it first. They're the company that does it right. Arguably, their fuckup with LLMs was rushing a garbage product to market instead of waiting and watching and perfecting in the background.

> Apple is being far too conservative with a far too fast a developing piece of technology

Strongly disagree. OpenAI and Anthropic are blowing billions on speculative attempts at advancing the frontier. They're advancing, but at great cost and uncertainty in respect of future returns.

The smart move would be to recapitulate the deal with Google, possibly being paid by these cash-burning companies for the default AI slot on the iPhone, all the while watching what Apple's users do. Then, when the technology stabilises and the best models are known, Sherlocking the whole thing.

Re: Apple weighs using Anthropic or OpenAI to power Siri

#39

Post by [deleted] »

jurgenaut23 wrote: post #26
atonse wrote: post #7

At this point, just about anything Apple can do will be way way way better than the absolute turd that is Siri. (It was only impressive 15 years ago). Apple's AI strategy has seriously hurt their reputation. I'd love to be a fly on the wall where they discussed a strategy that amounted to "forget using the most basic LLM to understand combinations of commands like, stop all the timers and just keep the one that has a…

It doesn’t matter. No one buys an iPhone for Siri and no one switches to Android for whatever they call this thing. I have owned an iPhone for more than 15 years, and I have used Siri a dozen times. They will implement something using GPT-4 or Claude and this whole mess will be forgotten.

[deleted]
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