Siri doesn't always get its due credit as a voice assistant; it may not have the flashy features of ChatGPT Voice or Gemini, but it does offer privacy and works well with shortcuts And, especially with the imminent introduction of iOS 18, big things are likely to happen this year

Dag Kittlause is the co-founder of an AI startup Apple acquired in 2010 that led to today's voice assistant He says big things are happening with Apple's assistant and that it is a "dark horse" in the area of large-scale language models

Unlike Google, Microsoft, Samsung, or Amazon, Apple has been tight-lipped about its AI plans We've been promised "big things," but we know few specific details

Kittlaus, who left Apple a year after the acquisition but continues to monitor progress, wrote in response to Robert Scoble's post on X: "I'm not sure how much more we can do And accelerate and become a real force in the field of AI"

He said that Apple is in a unique position to enable new, useful, and unexpected LLM use cases, and that this confirms Tim Cook's comments to investors that big things will happen in AI, driven in part by the neural engine built into the Apple silicon He stated that this confirms comments made by Tim Cook to investors that big things are coming in AI, driven in part by the neural engine built into Apple silicon

Siri already uses artificial intelligence, but it is a narrower type of AI, empowering the original Google Assistant and Amazon's Alexa While useful, it is not conversational and has limited reasoning and understanding

Future versions of Siri will likely be built on top of larger language models, such as ChatGPT, allowing for more nuanced conversations

For example, asking Siri to "plan a trip" may allow her to open a specific application or applications instead of using predefined routines The new Siri could use your browsing history, email, conversations, and online tools to plan the perfect vacation

What sets Siri 20 apart from Gemini and ChatGPT is Apple's focus on privacy

With the launch of the new M3 MacBook Air, Apple has finally gotten used to using the two most important characters in technology today, AI

The iPhone maker has been wary of hype in the past, calling AI machine learning and focusing on specific applications of AI technology such as transcription

Cook said at Apple's annual shareholder meeting last month that the company is "investing significantly" in AI This includes eliminating the Apple Car division in order to redirect resources to AI research

Cook said that generative AI technology will enable "incredible breakthrough potential" And he said it won't be long before Apple is ready to showcase its generative AI efforts

"Later this year, I look forward to sharing with you how we are breaking new ground with generative AI, another technology we believe can redefine the future," Cook said

Expectedly, the new Siri will be unveiled at Apple's WWDC 2024 event in June, where developer tools for working with AI and its own new large-scale language model will also likely be unveiled

Kittlause wrote to X: "There have been several references in the chatter that Siri will make "quantum leaps" in Apple devices, which is also my experience I expect it first and will make incredible strides in the years to follow"

Apple has already revealed impressive research on AI, including models that use memory more efficiently, podcast transcription, and a new framework called mlx that can run open-source AI models on Apple Silicon

Apple's M3 chip in the MacBook Air and rumors of its inclusion in the next-generation iPad also demonstrate Apple's commitment to on-device AI

Transcription is already being done locally, and Apple's local LLMs are likely to appear, just as Google's Gemini Nano model is running on its phones