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Apple shuffles AI executive ranks in bid to turn around Siri

finance.yahoo.com

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Re: Apple shuffles AI executive ranks in bid to turn around Siri

#111

Post by tonyedgecombe »

siva7 wrote: post #58

I'm really buffled what makes it for Apple so difficult to cut off Siri and replace it with state-of-art technology (LLMs). Siri is still akin to a "dumbphone" 4 years into the age of "smartphones" which is a good indicator for a lost case and when it's better to start a product from scratch without the tech debt.

Probably because people would get cheesed off if their current Siri requests started hallucinating.

Me: Hey Sir, set a timer for my management meeting in 10 minutes.

Siri: I've deleted your minutes from the last 10 management meetings.

Re: Apple shuffles AI executive ranks in bid to turn around Siri

#112

Post by juujian »

hi_hi wrote: post #110

Does Google have an LLM based AI experience for Android? What are they doing differently to avoid the problems plaguing Apple. The core technology in both can't be that different. Or is it an expectation thing? I feel like they may be experiencing that issue where the product is quite good within some core set of features, but the edge cases are where all the paper cuts happen. And when its a singular product on a si…

Android has it, but it has much fewer features then the previous assistant. So what's the point? Yes, they were first, tothey beat apple. Except it doesn't work.

Re: Apple shuffles AI executive ranks in bid to turn around Siri

#113

Post by joshvm »

amelius wrote: post #94
jonplackett wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They need to stop shooting for the moon and just release some incremental improvements. Like you say, Siri is borderline completely useless. Just timers for me. Even just the most basic LLM integration, without even giving that LLM any personal data would be a massive improvement. They even have this ChatGPT integration that Siri seems totally incapable of using in any meaningful way.

> Even just the most basic LLM integration, without even giving that LLM any personal data would be a massive improvement. I don't think Apple will ever use LLMs, given the offensive output they can generate sometimes. There is just no way to make them safe for all audiences.

There is already a ChatGPT extension for Siri https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/iphone/iph00fd3c8c2/io...

Re: Apple shuffles AI executive ranks in bid to turn around Siri

#114

Post by Zufriedenheit »

I think the main issue is that you can't fully control what an llm will output. If Apple products output wrong/silly/dangerous content it is in the news and big reputation hit for them, whereas for a small ai startup people don't really care. Apple likes to have full control over the user experience.

Re: Apple shuffles AI executive ranks in bid to turn around Siri

#116

Post by troupo »

netcan wrote: post #79

Kind of tangent, but it is often surprising what order the future arrives in. From the perspective of 1960, early "robots" were expected to be physically capable and mentally feeble. Good at logic. Capable of making a sandwich. Weak at empathy and whatnot. Even from the perspective of 2025... most people don't understand how slowly robotics has advanced. Human-level performance at laundry folding remains a distant dr…

The thing is though, nothing progressed in Siri since the original demo in 2011. Despite boasting desktop-level CPUs and never-before-seen dedicated "neural engine" co-processors.

It has only become worse in the past couple of years.

The inability to know that bedroom means bedroom [1], or the impossible task of adding several items to a list [2], or failing to answer what the current month is [3] have nothing to do with slow progress or UI.

[1] https://x.com/dmitriid/status/1781030511336456612

[2] https://mastodon.nu/@dmitriid/114172857097176113 and https://mastodon.nu/@dmitriid/114180042031267746

[3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43432945

Re: Apple shuffles AI executive ranks in bid to turn around Siri

#117

Post by teruakohatu »

apetresc wrote: post #89
vessenes wrote: post #64

We're at an inflection point in the last few months that means Apple might finally be able to do something good with Siri. Fundamentally, Siri's great promise (well in the last few years) has been that it could hook into all of the scripting facility made available by iOS apps. There are tons and tons of AppleScript hooks on many, many apps -- if only Siri could, you know, access them. This is traditionally not Apple…

Wait, what? There’s AppleScript on iOS? Since when?

Siri is also on MacOS which is what I think the OP was referring to.

Re: Apple shuffles AI executive ranks in bid to turn around Siri

#118

Post by siva7 »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #111
siva7 wrote: post #58

I'm really buffled what makes it for Apple so difficult to cut off Siri and replace it with state-of-art technology (LLMs). Siri is still akin to a "dumbphone" 4 years into the age of "smartphones" which is a good indicator for a lost case and when it's better to start a product from scratch without the tech debt.

Probably because people would get cheesed off if their current Siri requests started hallucinating. Me: Hey Sir, set a timer for my management meeting in 10 minutes. Siri: I've deleted your minutes from the last 10 management meetings.

That's something i would absolutely trust the current Siri to do, but less so the LLM.

Re: Apple shuffles AI executive ranks in bid to turn around Siri

#119

Post by netcan »

bombcar wrote: post #93
smcleod wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Siri's voice recognition has gone down a lot over the last 5 years actually, it used to be far more accurate, its speech has certainly improved to be more natural sounding. Its capabilities though... yikes

Siri wasn’t great but it was way, way more usable before the “machine learning” update whenever that was. Before it was a verbal command line, but at least you could learn some commands. Now it’s a crapshoot.

I think the problem is adding on to a clunky paradigm.

It wasn't a good verbal command line. It was usable because even an imperfect command line UI is inherently usable if use cases are limited. Building on to that though... you always overreach.

Personally, I always thought voice+screen interface was an under-explored. That (for example) would let you go from command line to command line navigator... a natural progression.

Voice UI kind of needs to be "one shot" to be pleasant: Play "Fortunate Son." Once you have to go back and forth, listen to list of options... it's no fun anymore. The Windows/Mac/Xerox GUI paradigm required a mouse, keyboard & screen. Voice only is limiting... perhaps.

Re: Apple shuffles AI executive ranks in bid to turn around Siri

#120

Post by rchaud »

windward wrote: post #100
whywhywhywhy wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact Apple Music has notifications advertising it on my lock screen, or splash screens advertising it once a month when I open Music.app would have been unthinkable pre-Tim Cook.

As a user it feels disrespectful to be so overtly treated as an untapped revenue stream for a premium-price product. It's Samsung-esque.

None of my Samsung phones have ever advertised anything to me. Unlike iOS,there are any number of music player apps on Android that stay out of the way and don't try to be a "platform".
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