When Apple launches its annual World Wide Developers Conference (it starts at 10 a.m. Pacific on Monday, June 10), it looks like AI will be front-and-center. A new report claims that one of the key features of the iPhone, the voice assistant Siri, will see a transformational upgrade.
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Mark Gurman at Bloomberg has reported that Siri will be overhauled and the way it will change is pretty cool. Gurman says it will come with, “more advanced artificial intelligence, a move that will let users control individual app functions with their voice, according to people with knowledge of the matter.”
This change meant a revamp of the software that powers Siri, using LLMs (large language models). It’ll be one of the highlights of the push into AI, it’s claimed.
Siri will be the main event. Well, it was ground-breaking when it first launched but has slipped behind the competition more recently. It will feature in the new release of iOS 18, though which devices, beyond the upcoming iPhone 16 series, will make the most of it is still unclear.
Here’s what’s predicted: “Siri will be a key focus of the WWDC unveiling. The new system will allow the assistant to control and navigate an iPhone or iPad with more precision. That includes being able to open individual documents, moving a note to another folder, sending or deleting an email, opening a particular publication in Apple News, emailing a web link, or even asking the device for a summary of an article.”
Of course, Siri isn’t exclusive to the iPhone, so it looks like these changes will also come to the iPad and Mac. It will be limited to Apple’s own apps at the beginning with, Gurman says, “the company planning to support hundreds of different commands.”
Note that though it is believed that the announcement will happen on June 10, it will come to the iPhone later: “it will be part of a subsequent update to iOS 18,” Gurman explains.
It’s not the only change that’s coming. Gurman has touched on the idea that voice memo transcription—a feature I have wanting for ages, and for which, frankly, I’ve been bending Apple execs’ ears over—is on its way. There’ll also be automated message replies, advanced photo editing and recaps of websites, Gurman says.
Some of the more advanced AI features will require a connection to the cloud, but more basic tasks will be handled on-device, which is obviously Apple’s preference given its obsession with privacy.
There’ll be more stuff still, Gurman says: “Apple software boss Craig Federighi has told his teams to develop as many new AI features as possible for this year’s operating system updates.”
WWDC could be pretty exciting.