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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

#101

Post by int_19h »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #51
int_19h wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are competing against Gemini on Android, so it stands to reason that they need something on par with that. Per TFA they are still talking about running those models on Apple's own servers. The more interesting question is how they're going to handle the 180 on all the talk about privacy.

> They are competing against Gemini on Android, so it stands to reason that they need something on par with that Why? What does Gemini actually do, that users actually use, that requires deep integration into the OS?

Things like notification summaries that aren't hallucinated, for example.

Re: Apple weighs using Anthropic or OpenAI to power Siri

#102

Post by wrboyce »

atonse wrote: post #41
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…

It's not about being fancy. My examples are so utterly dull. Being able to say "turn on the lights in the living room and turn off the fans in the kids' rooms" – is not a crazy use case. Instead, I literally have to say: - Turn on Living Room light - wait - turn off bedroom fan - wait - turn off bedroom fan Yes, I could actually say "turn off all the fans" (I believe Siri understands that) but that's usually not what…

You could make this slightly easier on your sanity by adding your kids’ rooms to a zone, fyi.

Re: Apple weighs using Anthropic or OpenAI to power Siri

#104

Post by ben_w »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #36
thejazzman wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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).

I think Apple Intelligence is not available on either of my two phones or my one iPad, but still 1/3rd of the time when I say "Siri, stop", the Home Pod in a different room says "Stop the alarm on Ben's iPhone 2022?", while the actual device 2m away that I don't want to touch (because I'm cooking) carries on ringing its alarm or timer.

Or, even weirder, when the phone itself does stop and the Home Pod says that and then follows up with "Hello?" because I didn't answer because the phone alarm stopped.

Re: Apple weighs using Anthropic or OpenAI to power Siri

#105

Post by atonse »

wrboyce wrote: post #102
atonse wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not about being fancy. My examples are so utterly dull. Being able to say "turn on the lights in the living room and turn off the fans in the kids' rooms" – is not a crazy use case. Instead, I literally have to say: - Turn on Living Room light - wait - turn off bedroom fan - wait - turn off bedroom fan Yes, I could actually say "turn off all the fans" (I believe Siri understands that) but that's usually not what…

You could make this slightly easier on your sanity by adding your kids’ rooms to a zone, fyi.

I'll try that, thanks. (Probably a zone like "upstairs" to turn off stuff upstairs when we're downstairs all day)

Re: Apple weighs using Anthropic or OpenAI to power Siri

#106

Post by atonse »

matt-attack wrote: post #96
imglorp wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would. Hands free in the car or when mowing the grass, chatting with the AI would be huge. "Text my wife and say I'll be late." is still too much to ask: it responds with 20 questions about all the parameters. "turn up the volume" does actually work for the first time, lately. (Bravo, Android). "open app antenna pod and begin playing" is way out of the question. Suck.

Or how about at least having a full understanding or how iOS and it settings work things like “hey Siri turn off the phone” or “ hey Siri, why am I not hearing a ring when I get phone calls?” or “why is my phone not going into silent mode when I get into bed at night”.

Funny enough, this was in their Apple Intelligence demo. I'm not sure whether this actually shipped.

Re: Apple weighs using Anthropic or OpenAI to power Siri

#107

Post by dzhiurgis »

rkomorn wrote: post #93
dzhiurgis wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What irreplaceable apps are propping up iOS? EV charging and smart ID (aka gov id). To lesser extent - anything thats a smart hardware - home automation, cameras, vacuums, cars, drones, etc. Then there’s services - namely ride hailing, escooter hire. Plenty of mobile webapps are pretty crippled too so you download apps.

I don't understand how you consider these iOS-specific? These apps are also all available on Android phones. If people, today, don't want to have iOS devices, they can switch to Android devices and use virtually all the same apps. What would OpenAI release that would affect Apple and not every other phone vendor? Or do you also think all Android sales would tank if OpenAI released a phone?

Yes these are on android too. My point tho they are what keeps people on these platforms and prevents switching to i.e. linux phone.

Re: Apple weighs using Anthropic or OpenAI to power Siri

#108

Post by Nevermark »

UltraSane wrote: post #78

I truly do not understand how the same company that can create a truly innovative and incredible bit of hardware like the Vision Pro can also let Siri stagnate for almost its entire life.

Look at AppleTV

Big screen should mean “shared computing”

Where is the gesture interface? That responds to everyone in its field of view? For shared use of apps, maps, etc.

Why can’t I browse my home devices on it?

Why can’t I share to a buddies AppleTV 100 miles away, for shared viewing, for shared app use, with an audio connection between us.

Why not room to room video conferencing? With a bar at the bottom to send docs to, to be opened on screen or downloaded by whoever is in the conference?

On and on. The opportunities to do an “Apple Watch” rethink of AppleTV have been there … but it’s still just a streaming box + low end game box.

Re: Apple weighs using Anthropic or OpenAI to power Siri

#109

Post by oc1 »

quitit wrote: post #81
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…

There is a consequence to shifting to LLMs. Despite Siri's reputation, it is a well used product(1), and despite HN's constant noise, Siri actually works very well for the purposes of controlling other apple devices in ways that I've noticed to be far better than Alexa (the other digital assistant that I regularly use). Switching that to an LLM-based represents a massive increase in computational requirements without…

>> While fancy, users don't want to sit and have a verbose ChatGPT style conversation with Siri, they just want the command run and done.

You're absolutely right! Unfortunately Siri is too dumb for even those most basic tasks. Their ML approach failed and they can't admit it.

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