Siri

The embarrassment over the state of Siri continues, with the discovery that the ‘intelligent’ assistant doesn’t even know what month it is.

My colleague Zac Hall suggested that things are now so bad the Siri brand is irredeemably tarnished, and any new version should be given a completely new name – but some think Apple should go further than this, and let us replace Siri with our own choice of AI chatbot …

I know, I know. I’m late to the Siri Sucks party. In my defense, Siri’s degree of suck has increased. Siri never used to trip when asked what month it is. Apple’s designers nailed the glow effect though.

It’s not just that Siri has steadily fallen apart over the years. The floor for what’s expected of a system like Siri is quickly rising.

Meanwhile, Siri is waiting for someone to decide if maintenance can feasibly repair the elevator while we all take the stairs to the top of the world’s tallest building.

Apple recently confirmed the delay of the new “more personalized” Siri, which was teased last year at WWDC 2024. And while we argue about whether Apple Intelligence can become as good as other AI tools, Siri still struggles to answer a simple question like “what month is it?”

The Siri crisis is showing no sign of ending, with a blistering attack by a high-profile commenter, and even senior Apple execs admitting that the delayed features are embarrassing.

At this point, there isn’t anything Apple can do to completely recover from the embarrassment, but a report on an internal Siri team meeting did seem to indicate a potential way to at least mitigate the damage …

Apple’s recent Siri delays have stirred up a mess of bad press, and reportedly led to an all-hands meeting where an exec called the affair “ugly and embarrassing.” But per another key quote from that meeting, there’s no doubt Apple saved itself a world of trouble with the move.

John Gruber is one of the more high-profile Apple commenters, and generally takes a pretty upbeat view of the company, so it was a big surprise to see him launch a blistering attack on the iPhone maker.

Referring to Apple advertising Siri features which don’t yet exist, he argues that the company is “in disarray if not crisis,” is making “bullshit” claims, and has “squandered” its reputation with “a fiasco” …

According to recent rumors, Apple has been exploring the idea of putting cameras in the AirPods. Although this project probably won’t see the light of day any time soon, I can’t stop imagining how AirPods with cameras would be a good match with the promised contextual Siri – which was recently delayed by Apple.

If there’s one piece of advice that bears repeating about AI chatbots it’s “Don’t use them to seek factual information – they absolutely cannot be trusted to be right.”

A new study demonstrated the extent of the problem – but did show that Apple made a good choice in partnering with OpenAI’s ChatGPT for queries Siri can’t answer …

The long wait for a smarter Siri is to get even longer, with some indications that the new features we were originally expecting in iOS 18.4 may now be pushed back to iOS 19.

Apple hasn’t provided any real explanation, but two theories have so far been put forward, and now a developer and data analyst has suggested that security concerns may be a third reason – and by far the biggest problem …

This is Rumor Replay, a weekly column at 9to5Mac offering a quick rundown of the most recent Apple product rumors, with analysis and commentary. Today: big developments with Apple’s first foldable iPhone, plus iOS 19 and Siri rumors. Here are this week’s latest Apple rumors.

Today’s iOS 18.4 beta 2 offers the first major hints in Apple’s software of the upcoming big Siri upgrades. Apple has added a bunch of new Shortcuts app actions for Apple apps, with super fine-grained controls available for building shortcuts that change apps’ settings in various ways.

Apple is currently beta testing iOS 18.4, and it’s packed with a lot of big and small new features. But per Mark Gurman, iOS 18.5 is set to solve Apple’s biggest AI problems with two new features: major Siri upgrades and AI support in China.

One of the odder aspects of Apple’s history is that the company has gone in 14 years from one of the leaders in intelligent assistants to one of the biggest laggards.

We’ve gone from the futuristic-feeling Siri way back in 2011 to a painfully inadequate-feeling Apple Intelligence in 2025 ….

According to the latest edition of the Power On newsletter, Apple is facing multiple major hiccups in its AI rollout. While that isn’t a surprise, it does mean that many of its roadmapped features are being delayed, and technical challenges are resulting in certain features, including the ‘more conversational’ Siri update – shipping later.

A new conversational Alexa is expected to be revealed at an Amazon media event on February 26, with press invitations sent out yesterday.

A report citing Amazon insiders says that the all-new Alexa will be powered by generative AI, dramatically boosting its capabilities and putting even more pressure on Apple to launch a smarter Siri …

Apple Intelligence officially launched three months ago in iOS 18.1, and new features have steadily rolled out ever since. But the next iPhone update, iOS 18.4, is going to be especially big for new Apple Intelligence capabilities. Here are seven features and changes expected to arrive soon.

Apple commentator John Gruber yesterday described Siri’s current performance as “an unfunny joke,” giving its inability to correctly name the winner of Super Bowl 13 an example, noting that this is a basic query that any US chatbot ought to be able to answer.

It turns out that wasn’t an entirely random example: it was prompted by his friend Paul Kafasis, who decided to test Siri on Super Bowl 1 to 60 inclusive – and the results were not good …

Apple’s biggest upcoming AI features will arrive in iOS 18.4, with a heavy focus on Siri upgrades. But it’s the Vision Pro that I’m most excited to use those capabilities on. Here’s why.

Last week, Apple agreed to pay $95 million to settle a lawsuit that alleged “unlawful and intentional recording” of Siri interactions.

Apple’s settlement has led to a wave of conspiracy theories claiming that Siri is listening to you for targeted advertising, but the company says those claims are completely unfounded.

We may still be mostly waiting for a smarter Siri, but OpenAI CEO Sam Altman thinks the company already knows how to create the holy grail of AI: artificial general intelligence (AGI).

AGI is the term given to an AI system which can match or exceed human cognitive capabilities across a wide range of fields – in other words, AI which is at least as smart as we are …

Update January 6, 2025: In a new statement to 9to5Mac, Apple says:

Siri has been engineered to protect user privacy from the beginning. Siri data has never been used to build marketing profiles and it has never been sold to anyone for any purpose. Apple settled this case to avoid additional litigation so we can move forward from concerns about third-party grading that we already addressed in 2019. We use Siri data to improve Siri, and we are constantly developing technologies to make Siri even more private.

Find more details in our new story on the subject.

Over five years ago, Apple was hit with a lawsuit over ‘unlawful and intentional recording’ of Siri interactions. Now finally, the case is coming to an end, with Apple agreeing to pay $95 million in a settlement.