Tim Hardwick
Few features promise to revolutionize the way we interact with our Apple devices as much as Siri, the company's ubiquitous virtual assistant. Launched in 2011, Siri was introduced as ushering in a new era of human-computer interaction, offering an intuitive, voice-controlled interface for accessing information, scheduling meetings, sending messages and more. The idea was big: a personal assistant in your pocket, capable of understanding and executing a wide range of voice commands with ease and accuracy. So what happened?
Enthusiasm for Siri has undoubtedly waned over the years. Despite regular updates and improvements from Apple, Siri struggles to keep up with its evolving competitors, and in an era of generative AI chatbots and large language models, Siri's shortcomings are only getting worse. Issues ranging from misinterpretation of commands to limited understanding of context not only make Siri difficult to use, but also lead to an almost universal perception of the virtual assistant as a source of user frustration rather than help. This constant lag begs the question: Is it time for Apple to kill Siri and start over?
The Birth of Siri
The conceptual roots of Siri at Apple can be traced back to the company's early exploration of human-computer interaction. Thirty years ago, Apple commissioned a group of employees to create a video showing how in the future people might interact with computers using spoken language. The video, known as Knowledge Navigator, features a professor interacting with a virtual assistant to complete daily tasks and academic research. In one of the assignments, the professor asks his assistant to find a publication five years ago. The assistant opens an article from 2006, which suggests that the video should take place in September 2011.
At the time, the video was criticized for being an unrealistic portrayal of the virtual assistant's capabilities in the foreseeable future. However, the demonstration inspired developers Adam Cheyer, Doug Kittlaus and Tom Gruber, who began research into artificial intelligence for virtual assistants at SRI International, a DARPA-funded research laboratory in Menlo Park, California. The result of their work will be a subsidiary called Siri, named by Kittlaus after a colleague from Norway. (Siri is short for Sigrid, which comes from the Old Norse words meaning “victory” and “beautiful.”)
In February 2010, Kittlaus launched Siri as an app in the Apple App Store. Steve Jobs soon began experimenting with the app and was impressed by how it allowed the user to search the Internet by voice. A few weeks later, Apple acquired the startup. The AI backend for Siri was already in place, and the voice recognition technology would be provided by Nuance Communications. Apple subsequently released its virtual assistant Siri (in beta) for the iPhone 4S in October 2011, just a month later than the fictional future in which Knowledge Navigator was originally envisioned.
Fiction vs. Reality
Apple positioned Siri as more than just a tool—it was your smart assistant, ready to help with a variety of tasks. Whether setting reminders, sending text messages, making phone calls, or finding information online, Siri aimed to make it all easier with a simple voice command. There was nothing like it at the time, and the initial results were impressive, but the core promise was that Siri would not only understand you, but learn from you, becoming more effective and personalized over time.
Regular iOS updates over the years have helped make Siri more effective and deliver on its original promise. Whenever a new iOS feature comes out, Apple usually ensures it works with Siri, and these days it can be used to identify songs, get directions, send money via Apple Pay, and control HomeKit products, to name just a few of its features . skills. In 2021, Apple announced that Siri will work offline by default—when possible, it will process user requests on the device with the same speech recognition quality on the server.
However, even now, the assistant, which was supposed to understand context and grow with the user, still faces serious problems with context, understanding and integration, regardless of whether it is pinging Apple servers or processes. requests locally. Many Apple device owners often say that they have problems even with basic commands. Indeed, many users feel that, in at least some areas, Siri's capabilities have deteriorated over time, especially since the release of iOS 17.
It's amazing how bad it is. Even things that used to work fine, like asking Siri to send a text message, now don't seem to work reliably anymore. Sometimes she asks me if I want to use a phone number or email address, and sometimes she just tries to call the person. Sigh. — Joseph Bella (@jbella) March 20, 2024
Michael Tsai's blog nicely captured users' recent frustrations with using Siri. Here are just a few of the recurring issues that some users have recently reported:
- Setting timers instead of alarms.
- Faulty music requests (even for purchases that Siri has local access to) ). ).
- Delayed responses on fast data connections.
- Meaningless responses to conversion requests.
- Creating notes instead of reminders.
- Confirmation. requests without fulfilling them.
- Excessive punctuation when dictating.
- Inability to consistently control smart devices.
The list goes on. But has Siri really gotten dumber? In the brave new world of chatbots based on extremely resource-intensive large language models, can most problems be attributed to minor use cases or high expectations? Look what Walt Mossberg said in a 2016 article for The Verge:
Before Apple bought it, Siri was on track to become a reliable digital assistant that could do a lot of things and integrate with a lot of services, even though it was built by a startup with limited funds and people. After Apple bought Siri, the giant company seemed to treat it like a backwater, limiting it to only a few while gradually increasing the number of tasks such as reporting the weather, sports scores, movie and restaurant listings, and managing device functions .
…In too many cases, Siri is either wrong, doesn't know the answer, or can't verbalize it. Instead, it shows web search results even if you can't read them.
Many users will agree that not much has changed in the last eight years.
AI hopes on the horizon
Apple's next major software update, iOS 18, is rumored to include new generative AI features for Siri that will help users in their daily lives. The key term here is “generative AI.” The concept grew in popularity in late 2022 when OpenAI released its ChatGPT chatbot, which can respond to questions and prompts with alarmingly detailed human responses. The company has since expanded into generative AI tools for images and videos.
One source suggested that Apple plans to use larger language models to completely revamp Siri and turn it into “the perfect virtual assistant.” Rumors suggest improvements could include improved natural communication capabilities (possibly thanks to an improved iPhone microphone) and improved user personalization. The new functionality is expected to be available across all devices, so Siri will be able to save information about conversations from one device to another. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, one of the features Apple is developing is improved interaction between Siri and the Messages app, which will allow Siri to more effectively auto-complete sentences and answer complex questions.
However, more recent reports have claimed that Apple has no plans to release its own generative AI chatbot. Apple has reportedly held talks with companies like Google, OpenAI and Baidu about potential partnerships on generative AI, but according to Gurman, Apple's first set of new AI features in iOS 18 won't rely on cloud servers at all.
Move over Siri?
Whether or not a groundbreaking incarnation of Apple's virtual assistant is expected, given the ongoing issues that have tarnished Siri's reputation, could a new name and branding help Apple distance yourself from past failures?
The idea of rebranding Siri into something completely new has been floated by some observers in the tech world. Josh Johnson's scathing assessment echoes the general sentiment: “I honestly think Apple should kill the Siri brand. I'm not sure she can recover from everyone's understanding that this is just not good.” He proposes introducing an LLM assistant under a new name, suggesting a fresh start to overcome the negative associations that currently plague Siri.
Ty Belisle supports the radical change, noting: “I thought they should do a very “Bold statement about releasing Siri 2.0, but it's true that the Siri name is so bad that they should abandon it.” He also points out the practical benefits of the new name, such as reducing accidental activations – a problem that shorter names such as “Siri” often face.
John Gruber's point emphasizes the importance of first impressions . and the long-term consequences of poor Siri performance: “First impressions do matter, but in Siri's case, that's more than a decade of life experience.” If Apple has significantly improved its voice technology, he argues, it should be rebranded to mark a clean break with the past.
These voices make a compelling case for a rebrand, but Apple faces significant challenges. risks if it introduces a new virtual assistant. Siri is deeply integrated into the Apple ecosystem and is recognized throughout the world. Dropping a brand can confuse and alienate existing users who have become accustomed to the name and functionality despite its shortcomings. At the same time, unlike Amazon's Alexa and Google's assistant, Siri has become the butt of many jokes. The assistant's new name and image could potentially revitalize its image, but Apple will have to ensure that any new product lives up to its promises, otherwise another mistake could be potentially disastrous.
What do you think about this? and experience with Siri? Has its performance improved over time as Apple's software has become more complex, or is it in a death spiral? Let us know in the comments.
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