NEW YORK TIMES: Siri is finally getting AI power as CEO Tim Cook makes final reveal ahead of stepping down

After sitting on the sidelines of the artificial intelligence race for much of the past four years, Apple on Monday revealed its plan to catch up, reintroducing an improved version of its digital assistant, Siri, and adding features to its AI system, Apple Intelligence.

During a 75-minute presentation at its headquarters in Cupertino, California, Apple said Siri would no longer be just a voice assistant with limited abilities to converse and recognise requests. Later this year, the company said, it will introduce Siri AI, a more capable and conversational digital assistant that resembles chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT. In a recorded demonstration, Apple’s executives showed how the new assistant can handle tasks like researching concert tickets and brainstorming recipes for a party.

Apple’s announcements followed delays and quality problems that plagued its first attempt to weave AI through its devices and upgrade Siri. The company ultimately postponed releasing the new technology until it could be improved.

Apple on Monday said people would be able to use the new digital assistant across their phones, laptops and other devices; in the search bars of their devices, and in a new app for Siri. The company argued that its methodical approach to AI was different from that of other technology companies.

“Some appear to be racing forward, seemingly pursuing AI for the sake of AI, without clear regard for the people — all of us — that it’s ultimately meant to serve,” Craig Federighi, Apple’s head of software engineering, said during the presentation at the company’s annual conference for software developers.

This year’s event was the last with Tim Cook as Apple’s CEO. He plans to step down as CEO this year and be replaced by John Ternus, the company’s head of hardware engineering.

“I am deeply grateful to have been on this journey with you,” Cook said.

Unlike the rest of the technology industry, Apple has not overhauled itself around AI. Its Big Tech peers are spending hundreds of billions of dollars on developing their own version of the technology and building data centers. But Apple is using AI models and cloud computing services from Google to power Siri and Apple Intelligence.

Apple emphasised on Monday that it had developed its AI with privacy in mind. The company said much of the computer processing required to answer questions would happen on iPhones and other devices themselves, not in data centres, where personal information had more risk of being compromised. More complex requests will be handled in a cloud computing network that the company said was more private because the data on it is protected from outsiders — even Apple.

The company said it would integrate Siri and Apple Intelligence across its apps. For example, in the Camera app, users will be able to ask Siri questions about what they’re photographing. The company also demonstrated AI features such as monitoring webpages for updates in Safari, altering a photo by removing distractions from the background and splitting a restaurant tab in the Wallet app.

Apple will impose daily limits on how often people can use a feature that generates images using AI, because it requires so much computing power. People can use the feature more by paying for a subscription to Apple’s cloud computing system, iCloud.

Apple also plans to update the operating systems for its devices this fall. People will be able to open apps faster, for example, and more comprehensively search through content on their devices. The company also refined the software design that it introduced last year, which had a transparent aesthetic called “liquid glass” and was unpopular among some users.

Apple also said it would add a series of child safety features to its devices this fall. Parents will be able to control their children’s access to apps and websites, whom they can communicate with and when they can use certain apps. The company will also start warning children if they receive or try to send content with gore or violence, which it already does for content with nudity.

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