5 Predictions for Apple’s AI Announcements at WWDC 2024

29.03.2024 - 11:31 / howtogeek.com / Ai

There have been hints about Apple’s AI ambitions coming this year but CEO Tim Cook laid it out, saying Apple had, “incredible breakthrough potential for generative AI.” Here’s what I think is coming at Apple's WWDC developer conference on June 10.

1 Siri Will Become a Proper Chatbot/LLM

Instead of having people turning to ChatGPT, I think Apple wants people to give Siri another chance to answer all their questions, without hearing, “I can show you some results if you look at your iPhone.” During the most inopportune times, it feels like a lot of times Siri instantly shoves people to a website, rather than fully handling response generation.

Microsoft, Google, and other tech companies are completely revamping their businesses around generative AI and natural language processing using LLMs. In contrast to those advancements, Siri feels rudimentary and completely outdated. It can’t really parse lots of commands in the same sentence. It can’t continue conversations from previously stated information. There are more areas where it seems stuck than it doesn’t at the moment.

I’m betting Apple completely overhauls its voice and text input assistant. You can currently type to Siri, but I imagine that aspect being given even more priority for use on phones and tablets—maybe even in macOS. Based on the WWDC announcement theme with gradient blues and purples, it sure seems to hint that Siri will be on full display.

The twist? Apple may partner with OpenAI, Google, and others to provide some of Siri's AI smarts.

2 Siri Will Remain the Brand for Apple's (New) AI Assistant

This isn’t “new Coke,” but it could be “new Siri.” Apple is infamous for its product branding, often replacing one MacBook or iPad with a new one and letting customers and media default to calling it the new whatever. I think the same thing could happen here. There's just too much inherent brand recognition for Apple to leave behind, despite some of it being frustrating.

We should get a new Siri, completely revamped and improved, but it will still be Siri in name. If that happens, so be it. The important part is the functionality. If I had my way, I wouldn’t hate some differentiation from the old to the new, however. "Siri AI" rolls off the tongue nicely.

3 Apple Watch Will Become a Better Assistant Conduit

Tech startup, Humane announced its Ai Pin, a self-contained AI-powered device, and all I could think about was how all its pieces, save for a camera, were pretty much already in the Apple Watch. Apple almost has an AI device on its hands. If Siri is going to become more assistive, it would be handy to not even need to pull your phone out of your pocket.

The Apple Watch is a screen right on your wrist that can be used to show text, images,