5 Predictions for Apple’s AI Announcements at WWDC 2024

howtogeek.com:

There have been hints about Apple’s AI ambitions coming this year but CEO Tim Cook laid it out, saying Apple had, “incredible breakthrough potential for generative AI.” Here’s what I think is coming at Apple's WWDC developer conference on June 10.

1 Siri Will Become a Proper Chatbot/LLM

Instead of having people turning to ChatGPT, I think Apple wants people to give Siri another chance to answer all their questions, without hearing, “I can show you some results if you look at your iPhone.” During the most inopportune times, it feels like a lot of times Siri instantly shoves people to a website, rather than fully handling response generation.

Microsoft, Google, and other tech companies are completely revamping their businesses around generative AI and natural language processing using LLMs. In contrast to those advancements, Siri feels rudimentary and completely outdated. It can’t really parse lots of commands in the same sentence. It can’t continue conversations from previously stated information. There are more areas where it seems stuck than it doesn’t at the moment.

I’m betting Apple completely overhauls its voice and text input assistant. You can currently type to Siri, but I imagine that aspect being given even more priority for use on phones and tablets—maybe even in macOS. Based on the WWDC announcement theme with gradient blues and purples, it sure seems to hint that Siri will be on full display.

The twist? Apple may partner with OpenAI, Google, and others to provide some of Siri's AI smarts.

2 Siri Will Remain the Brand for Apple's (New) AI Assistant

This isn’t “new Coke,” but it could be “new Siri.” Apple is infamous for its product branding, often replacing one MacBook or iPad with a new one and letting customers and media default to calling it the new whatever. I think the same thing could happen here. There's just too much inherent brand recognition for Apple to leave behind, despite some of it being frustrating.

We should get a new Siri, completely