Apple's new Siri AI is a significant improvement over its previous iterations, offering a more capable and personal assistant experience. The company has rebuilt Siri from the ground up with a powerful new architecture, drawing on its proprietary technology and cloud-based resources. This latest version of Siri can understand context, engage in conversations, and perform tasks like adding events to your calendar, recommending a garden center, and creating reminder lists. It's a small step towards earning back trust after Apple's previous AI Siri promises fell short.
What makes this particularly fascinating is the way Siri handles personal context. Unlike Gemini, which requires you to opt-in to sharing your Gmail or calendar, Siri draws on an on-device pool of data gleaned from email and messages. This information is indexed so Siri can tap into the relevant bits when needed. Prompts that can't be handled fully on device are sent to Apple's Private Cloud Compute with only the relevant pieces of personal data attached. This approach ensures that Siri can provide personalized and helpful responses while maintaining user privacy.
One thing that immediately stands out is the way Siri engages in conversations. It's more dispassionate than Gemini, providing direct and helpful answers to questions. For example, when asked about wilting flowers, Siri diagnosed the situation without the emotional language used by Gemini. This more clinical approach makes Siri feel like a reliable and trustworthy assistant.
In my opinion, the new Siri is a significant improvement over its predecessors. It's a small step towards earning back trust, but it's a step in the right direction. The fact that it works at all is a big deal, and the fact that it's actually shipping to customers is even more impressive. Apple needs this version of Siri to earn back trust, and based on what I've seen so far, this looks like a small step towards getting that trust back.
However, it's important to note that Siri's capabilities are still quite basic compared to what Gemini has been doing on Android for the past couple of years. Gemini has been able to add multiple calendar events from a screenshot, diagnose plant problems, and schedule maintenance reminders for months now. Despite this, Siri's ability to understand context and engage in conversations is a significant improvement and a step forward that's been years in the making.
In conclusion, Apple's new Siri AI is a welcome improvement over its previous iterations. It's a more capable and personal assistant experience that understands context, engages in conversations, and performs tasks like adding events to your calendar. While it's still a work in progress and has some way to go before catching up with Gemini, it's a small step towards earning back trust and a step in the right direction for Apple.
