When Siri first emerged over a decade ago, it revolutionized the virtual assistant industry, laying the groundwork for Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. However, with the rise of AI-generated conversations like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, traditional smart assistants now seem to struggle to keep up. A New York Times report discusses the challenges Siri faces in adapting to the ChatGPT-era of AI.

Transforming Siri: Apple’s journey to integrate ChatGPT-inspired conversations

John Burkey, a former Apple engineer who worked on Siri, highlights the virtual assistant’s unwieldy design. Siri’s extensive database of words in numerous languages makes it challenging and time-consuming to add new features. Even small updates, such as new phrases, demand a complete database rebuild, which can take up to six weeks. More complex features may require almost a year. This means that to transform Siri into a ChatGPT-like creative assistant, a total overhaul is necessary.

The New York Times report also reveals details about an Apple AI summit held last month. It mentions that several engineers, including those from the Siri team, have been experimenting with ChatGPT-inspired language generation concepts on a weekly basis. This new information suggests that Apple is actively seeking ways to enhance Siri’s abilities and integrate ChatGPT features.

While it is still unclear whether Siri will experience a significant makeover, it’s intriguing to learn that Apple engineers are testing ChatGPT-like features. As AI-generated conversations like ChatGPT continue to advance, it will be interesting to see how smart assistants such as Siri adapt to the fast-paced world of artificial intelligence.