Siri

Since iPhone 6s, users can talk to Siri hands-free just by saying the command “Hey Siri.” This command was later added to pretty much every Apple device, and became crucial for HomePod – Apple’s smart speaker. But now with iOS 17, macOS 14, and other updates, users no longer need to say “Hey Siri” to talk to the viral assistant.

Earlier this year, Apple added dozens of new jobs focused on engineers and scientists working with artificial intelligence. To spice things up further, the company recently added a new job opening to its website – this time specifically looking for software engineers with knowledge of generative AI and mixed reality environments.

Back in 2020, Apple launched its handy intercom feature for HomePod and HomePod mini. Fast forward to 2023 and that feature isn’t yet native on Sonos speakers. Now Soro For Sonos has received an update that brings intercom capability and more.

There’s been much speculation about Apple AI plans, as the Cupertino company has so far kept a low profile while both Google and Microsoft dive into generative artificial intelligence in a big way. CEO Tim Cook didn’t shed much light when asked about it last week, saying only that AI is “certainly interesting” but there are “a number of issues with the tech.”

The seriousness of those issues is very much in debate. Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak last month joined leading AI academics in calling for a pause in advanced AI development – but two AI pioneers have markedly different views about the risks …

Apple has been facing a lot of criticism from users and even some of its employees for lagging behind when it comes to Siri. As the company announced its Q2 2023 results on Thursday, Apple CEO Tim Cook praised the potential of AI but, at the same time, said that there are “issues that need to be sorted.”

A new report from The Information today goes in-depth on the apparent chaos inside teams at Apple working on Siri and artificial intelligence. According to the story, “organizational dysfunction and a lack of ambition” have plagued Apple’s efforts to improve Siri and the backend technology that powers it.

This dysfunction has led to Apple falling further and further behind competitors like OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google, leading some Apple employees to question the future.

Two organizations key to Apple’s history are to be merged into one, as Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) has been donated to SRI International. This will see PARC and SRI research teams working together on future projects.

PARC was where Steve Jobs famously saw the graphical user interface and mouse that were used in the LISA and then Macintosh, while SRI was where Siri was developed …

The ability to screen record on iPhone natively dates back to 2017 with iOS 11. Up until now, the feature has only been available via Control Center. But with the iOS 16.5 beta, Apple has delivered the capability to instantly screen record on iPhone with a Siri voice command. Here’s how it works.

iOS 16.5 developer beta 1 doesn’t appear to contain many new features and changes, but there is at least one new feature that will surely make some users happy – the ability to ask Siri to start a screen recording.

Artificial intelligence has been with us for years, even in the little things like identifying the faces in a picture to the recommendations we see in our favorite apps. But more recently, we’ve seen new types of AI capable of doing things unimaginable years ago. This new type of AI is changing how people interact with technology. But at the same time, Apple is clearly falling behind its competitors.

One of the handy capabilities of Siri on HomePod that’s been available since 2018 is Personal Requests. It allows users to make voice commands that deal with what can be more private information from their specific iPhone and iPad. However, as it turns out, Personal Requests are still broken with Siri on HomePod often replying “I’m not sure who is speaking.”

Apple is testing new natural language generation features for Siri, 9to5Mac has learned. Codenamed “Bobcat,” this new technology is being tested starting with the latest tvOS 16.4 beta and will eventually make its way to the rest of Apple’s operating systems. Still, Apple is currently focused on using this technology to improve Siri.

A significant number of users are experiencing multiple HomePods responding to Siri commands simultaneously. This is something that is normally prevented by Apple devices communicating with each other.

Many of us have multiple Apple devices within earshot, any of which could potentially respond to a “Hey Siri” command. In my home office, for example, I have my Watch, my iPhone, the stereo-pair HomePods on my desk, and another HomePod in a nearby bathroom …

If I’d asked the Bing chatbot to support our argument that Apple won’t be adopting ChatGPT type AI tech anytime soon, it really couldn’t have done a better job than some of its recent conversations.

Bing’s AI has threatened some users, insulted others, and told one that his wife didn’t really love him the way Bing does …

A new Apple patent application describes a way to transform an iMessage to a voice note. In this way, the recipient can choose to have your message read to them not in Siri’s voice, but in yours.

To do this, you would each need to share a voice file containing the data the iPhone would need to mimic your voice when reading the message aloud …

Chat AI tech is without a doubt the most exciting thing to have happened in the world of technology for quite some time – providing answers to questions, writing essays, generating working code, or even passing an MBA exam through a conversational UI.

Microsoft announced that a version of ChatGPT will power a conversational search feature within its Bing search engine. Google has been quick to announce that it, too, will use its own AI chatbot, Bard, for searches. Does all this mean that Apple too will climb aboard this next-generation chat AI tech to finally make Siri smarter … ?

A web developer has created a Siri GPT-3 mashup that is intended to demonstrate the potential for a truly smart voice assistant.

The AI system was able to make sense of conversational speech – including some in which the required action was implied rather than directly stated …

So what happened was… kind of unbelievable. Siri on an Apple Watch called emergency services from a gym in Australia, prompting 15 armed police officers to show up expecting an active shooter.

What has to be the most unlikely set of circumstances for a false alarm happened in Australia on Tuesday.

Apple is working on a big change to how its Siri voice assistant works. While you currently have to say “Hey Siri” to activate the assistant hands-free, that may not be the case for much longer. Bloomberg reports today that Apple engineers are working to drop the “Hey” part of the phrase, so you’d only have to say “Siri” followed by a command to activate the assistant…

Apple this week released the first beta of iOS 16.2 for developers, which comes with overall improvements and some new features. The company also released tvOS 16.2 beta, and the update brings an important feature to Apple TV — multi-user voice recognition when using Siri.

Following the announcement of new iPad models this week, Apple also introduced a new generation of Apple TV 4K with the A15 Bionic chip and HDR10+ support. In addition, the company also revealed a new Siri interface coming with tvOS 16.1 for all supported Apple TV models. Read on as we show you what the new interface looks like.