Seeing Siri lose ground to artificial intelligence (AI)-generated conversation programs like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Apple is said to be looking to improve the features of its virtual assistant.
According to BGR, John Burkey, a former Apple engineer and someone who has worked with Siri, said the virtual assistant has “a cumbersome design that makes adding new features time-consuming”. Burkey was tasked with improving Siri in 2014, but since its database contains a huge list of words in nearly two dozen languages that makes it “a big snowball”, and if anyone wants to add a word to Siri’s database will make it “a big pile”.
With that in mind, Burkey explains that even minor updates, such as adding a new phrase, will require a complete rebuild of the database, and this can take up to 6 weeks. More complex features like a new search engine can take almost a year, meaning Siri can never become an innovative assistant like ChatGPT unless it’s completely rebuilt.
Besides how complicated Siri has become, the interesting thing about this report relates to Apple’s AI summit held last month. As revealed by the New York Times, some information shows that many engineers, including members of the Siri team, have been testing the concepts of creating voice tools every week.
While it’s unclear if Siri will be improved, it’s interesting to know that Apple engineers are actively working on improving the virtual assistant to move from simple questions to understanding context and adding more. a suitable conversation.
