No one wants half-baked AI on iPhones (except investors)

tech.hindustantimes.com:

Lately, I've been seeing headlines like this one from the long-running tech news site CNET: “Will Siri Become More Like ChatGPT?”

If you're an iPhone user, I'll bet your instinctive answer to that question is: “I sure hope not.” Or maybe: “I don't care — I don't use Siri anyway.” Both are reasonable reactions. The iPhone is too important to our day-to-day lives to be bogged down with experimental AI that is just as likely to hallucinate as it is to help. 

Regardless, the question is being asked because next week is Apple's yearly Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), the forum in which Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook is widely expected to detail his company's most significant moves in artificial intelligence to date.

This wouldn't be saying much. The company is seen as being drastically behind its peers, so much so that, if reports are correct, getting Apple up to speed will require some kind of partnership with OpenAI, or perhaps Google, to get cutting-edge functionality on to the iPhone in some shape or form.

The desire to do all this comes less from users and more from Wall Street. With Apple's share price flagging so far this year compared with those of its tech rivals, investors hope Apple might flip the narrative by offering a grand vision of AI it has kept hidden (or didn't have) until now. There's an “AI driven iPhone 16 supercycle now on the horizon,” according to analysts at Wedbush Securities, calling WWDC the most important Apple event in a decade. 

Now, Wedbush is one of the more excitable tech watchers on Wall Street. Still, the level of broad expectation is palpable. Investors hope AI might give consumers a reason to upgrade their smartphones sooner than they might have otherwise — an antidote to faltering iPhone sales. 

Front of mind, as that CNET headline suggested, is the hapless Siri. The voice assistant, which has long been a great idea in need of better execution, is set for an “overhaul,” according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, “a move that will let