If Apple Makes Siri Like ChatGPT or Gemini, I'm Done
Operating Systems
Speaker 1: Get ready for voice assistance on your devices to sound extremely annoying. And yes, this also means Siri.
Speaker 2: Well, color me. Intrigued. Are you about to reveal something about AI
Speaker 1: On Monday? OpenAI showed off chat GPT-4 oh. It presents this new conversational generative AI technology to the world as a flirty bimbo because the men who programmed this voice wanted us to see how the ideal assistant is a giggling woman that's kind [00:00:30] of unsure but totally interested in everything you have to say. It
Speaker 2: Looks like you're feeling pretty happy and cheerful.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, the reason I'm in a really good mood is because we were doing a presentation showcasing how useful and amazing you are.
Speaker 2: Oh, stop it. You're making me blot
Speaker 1: And that's not all. This week on Tuesday, Google held a dismal two hour io keynote showing off a hodgepodge of AI gimmicks that also featured a bunch of totally [00:01:00] relatable generative voices with pauses and expressive fluff that give the AI some personality. So
Speaker 4: Let's dive into physics. What's on deck for today?
Speaker 5: Well, we're starting with the basics force and
Speaker 1: Motion. It's only a matter of time before these voices make their way into our everyday services and devices, and Siri is likely next. Bloomberg reports Apple made a deal with OpenAI to incorporate some sort of chat GPT programming smarts into the iPhone. We will find [00:01:30] out the future of Apple's assistant in less than a month at WDC. It's Apple's Developer Conference. So before we end this week full of cringey AI examples, I think it's time we had a talk about the direction of Siri and Apple could come out of WWDC looking amazing in the tech AI race as long as it doesn't do what Google is doing. I'm Bridget Carey, and this is one more thing. Bloomberg reports that Apple is right now [00:02:00] in the closing of an agreement with OpenAI to put chat GPT on the iPhone, but there's no guarantee whatever's being worked on would be unveiled right away.
Speaker 1: Bloomberg also reports that Apple is in an ongoing discussion also with Google over licensing the Google Gemini chatbot. So clearly this shows you Apple may be finding ways to put these new chatbots in the next iOS somehow rather than reveal its own chatbot, which makes sense. Apple makes the hardware everyone [00:02:30] uses to pull up a tool. It doesn't necessarily need to make its own service, but Apple does seem to want to update Siri, and this could be related. The New York Times is reporting that Apple wants to give Siri a brain transplant and it plans to show off an overhaul of the assistant at WWCs keynote on June 10th. We all could wish for a smarter Siri, but I'm a little concerned about the influence of these chatbots. Will Apple's leaders make Siri sound like another [00:03:00] Scarlet Johansson Ask assistant when it interacts with our questions. Hello, I'm here.
Speaker 6: Hi.
Speaker 7: Hi, I'm Samantha
Speaker 1: Right now. My relationship with Siri is all about getting me answers quickly. Pull up the song, turn on the lights. What's the weather? Text my friend, find my iPhone. I just want to get to the point, and yet this morning something happened at my home that really got me in a sour mood and I was doubtful that Apple may be going in the right direction when it gives Siri that brain transplant. [00:03:30] So here's what happened. Early in the morning, I'm in bed, I gently wake up my husband and he quietly says to me, Hey sweetie, how did you sleep? My home pod answered him. I
Speaker 8: Don't need much sleep, but it's nice of you to ask.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it thought sweetie was Siri, which of course is incredibly annoying, but the fact that Apple programed some nonsense to have it act like it's a human and thinking it's cute, I mean, who would ever ask it that question? Clearly someone at Apple thinks people talk like this to their devices as [00:04:00] if this week couldn't give me enough ick. It's an incredible turnoff to hear a machine spout some sort of faked personality so a human will like it. And if Siri goes down this route wasting my time with bubbly language like we saw from this week at Google and OpenAI, then I promise you I'm going to disable Siri and not look back. The improvements to Siri should not be about being cheeky to be a replacement friend. It should just actually get requests correct to do a job. It should know the song [00:04:30] I'm trying to tell you to play or understand the context of my question.
Speaker 1: Now, if Apple focuses on that for WWDC, then the company will win the AI race with consumers who want things to be easier, not flirtier. I'm not going to bore you with every detail of the Google IO keynote, but there is another aspect of this new AI movement that I want to touch on because in all my years as a tech reporter, Google had one of the most poorly constructed presentations that I've seen. There was no hardware, just a confusing jumble [00:05:00] of AI services. Google's AI is called Gemini, but there are also names of products within the Gemini system. Some things are going to be on Android phones and some things are living within Google search and Google Docs and some things generate art and some things generate lesson plans, and you can even generate a coworker and name it Chip if you don't want to hire another human to do busy work.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it even matters what all of these things are called, but Google spent two hours only talking about how AI is in all aspects of Google [00:05:30] and the messaging from the company is that you should let Google do all the thinking for you. Don't research anything, don't bother watching a video or reading an article. Just let Google tell you what you need to know, and for some reason, trust Google to get it right. Personally. I want my AI to help me feel empowered to do more, to be a superhuman. Apple leans into that when it makes you want to buy a new iPhone or Mac to have a better experience in this world. And yet says, oh, don't worry about hardware you buy. Just [00:06:00] keep coasting along. Don't think too hard. Don't write your own messages. You see, it's a tech company that doesn't want us thinking too much for ourselves.
Speaker 1: It's like saying the quiet part out loud. Apple can also win this AI battle with how it handles messaging around privacy. In Google's keynote, we saw examples of Google giving summaries of your private emails telling you what purchasing decisions to make. Don't bother to question the business benefit of Google here, an advertising company of getting their hands on that email data [00:06:30] to know what companies are charging you for their services. We also saw how Google can give you travel advice. There were recommendations for a trip to Miami with ai, and I can tell you as someone who is from Miami, what was on the screen was pretty lame advice. Not one Cuban restaurant was suggested you could just drop in and stumble down into the touristy part of town and come out with the same vacation result that Gemini offered. Now, could Google be pushing me to a restaurant that pays for ads on Google?
Speaker 1: [00:07:00] Nah. Listen, I'll give Google credit that some of the AI showed had potential. It can make search into a more visual tool that you could take a video of a broken product and Google search can find a troubleshooting answer based on the images of the product and a description of what is wrong. But overall, I'm left feeling like Google was so focused on showing that it does ai. It forgot to tell me why to trust the company to do ai. Google's main business is in search and advertising, and when Google's AI is trying [00:07:30] to get me to spend money on sneakers, I'm not convinced that they have my best interests in mind. Apple, on the other hand, is in the business of devices and having your data be private on those devices. So when Apple talks about AI and the future of its iOS and Mac OS software, all the company has to do is lean into privacy, keep things simple, and it's going to be a home run on whatever tools Apple rolls out. In fact, the way Google is going right now, I might just be convinced to switch [00:08:00] over to Apple's email service. Yeah, I might actually use Apple's calendar all to protect my data. What a wild thought. When Apple does get ready to reveal its AI plans, I'm sure it's going to be spouting the word AI quite a few times, but hopefully not as many times as Google.
Speaker 9: I have a feeling that someone out there might be counting how many times we have mentioned AI today. We went ahead and counted so that you don't have to.
Speaker 1: No, Mr. Phai, [00:08:30] we were not counting ai, we were counting something else. It turns out you said dystopia 159 times. Folks just couldn't hear you say it because you called it Gemini. Let's hope Apple cares more about using AI to make service just work smoother rather than winning some AI mention contest or making Siri into a flirt. I'm ready for your comments. I'm sure you got plenty for me. So sound off below and before WW DC, I may feature some of your comments [00:09:00] in a future episode to see what are you really hoping for with AI in the future of an iPhone. Until next time, thanks for watching.
