Despite these fundamental issues with Siri’s design, Apple engineers are reportedly working on ChatGPT-like language-generation AI tools that could one day be incorporated into the company’s voice assistant, according to a new report from The New York Times.

The recent release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT has highlighted the shortcomings of voice assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant. The New York Times says that these virtual assistants have been “hampered by clunky design and miscalculations, leaving room for chatbots to rise.” One of the reasons Siri has been slow to adapt is because of “technological hurdles” and “clunky code,” as per ex-Apple engineer John Burkey.

To fix this, Apple could be working on a ChatGPT language-generation AI tool. The engineers, including members of the Siri team, have been testing these concepts “every week” in response to the rise of chatbots like ChatGPT. 

Apple held its annual AI summit last month, which reportedly included a briefing on the company’s large language model and other AI tools. The company is now said to be testing generative AI concepts despite the significant flaws in Siri’s design.

According to the report, the cumbersome design of Siri’s database means that simple updates like adding new phrases to the data set require rebuilding the entire database. Adding more complicated features, such as a new search tool, will require a lot of more time. These issues have made it very difficult for Siri to become a “creative assistant” like ChatGPT, Burkey believes.

While Siri may have fallen behind in the AI race, Apple is not giving up on its virtual assistant just yet. It will be interesting to see how these developments play out in the coming months and years.

Source: The New York Times