AI & Machine Learning
Business Insiderabout 21 hours ago
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Apple may have finally fixed its most embarrassing software

AI

Apple's iOS 27 beta suggests Siri may finally become useful, leveraging Gemini models and on-device indexing to answer personal queries and real-world questions.

Apple may have finally fixed its most embarrassing software

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The Big Picture
Apple's iOS 27 beta introduces a revamped Siri powered by Gemini models, marking a significant improvement over its current poor performance. The new Siri indexes personal data from texts, emails, notes, and calendars to answer vague prompts like 'when's my next personal training session?' It also demonstrates real-world knowledge, such as identifying a Knicks parade photo and providing commuting tips from local news. However, the beta still has issues with non-American accents and Health app access. While not yet excellent, the author predicts Siri will be 'at least better than bad' by the public release this fall.
Why It Matters
Apple's revamped Siri, powered by Gemini models, could finally make its voice assistant competitive in the AI era. If successful, it may shift user habits away from third-party assistants like ChatGPT and Gemini, reinforcing Apple's ecosystem lock-in. However, the reliance on Google's technology highlights Apple's AI lag and raises questions about long-term strategic independence.

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Siri
Siri

Nikolas Kokovlis/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Apple has a habit of showing up late to the tech party and still being the best-dressed. It might do it again with the new Siri in iOS 27 this fall.

Right now, Siri is bad — and that's not a harsh take. Ali has ChatGPT pinned to his iPhone's home screen. I have Gemini in a prime spot for quick access to a genuinely useful AI assistant.

These are the habits Apple is up against. But I'm using Gemini less after a few days of test-driving the first iOS 27 beta and years of dunking on Siri. It turns out Siri's new intelligence is based on Gemini models.

One nice update is that Siri AI (as Apple calls it) indexes your phone to capture details from texts, emails, notes, and calendar events. I got answers to queries like "when's my next personal training session?" and "by when do I have to cancel the hotel reservation for a refund?" Siri could fish out the answers to my somewhat vague prompts.

It's convenient to have a dedicated Siri app, too. I find its responses less flattering and more concise than those of other LLMs.

At long last, Siri impressively draws on real-world knowledge. While watching the Knicks parade, I showed Siri a photo and played dumb. It knew exactly what was happening and why. It also gave me helpful commuting tips when I asked, pulling from relevant local news sources.

Siri is not yet excellent. It still sometimes misunderstands my non-American accent (Gemini usually doesn't). And I can't get Siri to answer activity-related questions because it needs access to my Health app (it has access).

This is, of course, a first beta experience. But my hunch is that come this fall, when the masses get access, Siri will be at least better than bad.

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Big Tech AI Apple iOS Siri

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