You asked 2 questions in a system made for 1 question at a time. Split these up and Siri answers them fine. You’re holding it wrong.
While Siri only does one thing at a time, I trust the answer more, because it’s doing the actual math and not just guessing what the most likely answer is, like an LLM. We need to pick the right tool for the right job. Frankly, I don’t think an LLM is the right tool for conversations like this, and jumbling multiple questions into a single question is something people do with LLMs to get more use out of them during the day, this is an adaptation to a limitation of the free tier (and sometimes speed) of the LLM.
Amazon already reworked Alexa to be backed by a LLM months ago, and they were delayed doing it.
You’re telling me that Apple isn’t capable of the same to Siri?
Amazon just needs a generic LLM. Apple, from the sound of it, is trying to create deep integration with the OS and on-device data. That’s a different problem to solve. They also seem to be trying to do it while respecting user privacy, which is someone most other companies ignore.
I don’t see what the big deal is. I’d rather wait for something good than have them rush out a half-ass “me too” chatbot, that is indistinguishable from the dozens of other chatbots I can simply download as an app for that.
If we believe what Craig Federighi said, they had something, it just wasn’t up to their standards when talking about rolling it out to a billion devices. Which is fair, I run into bad data from ChatGPT and other LLMs all the time. Letting it mature a little more is not a bad thing.
ChatGPT spent a couple months getting my dad pumped up for an elective open heart surgery; he was almost arrogant going into it about how the recovery would go, thinking ChatGPT gave him all the info he could possibly need and a balanced view of reality. Reality hit him pretty hard in the ICU. He sent me some of the chats he had, it was a lot of mutual ego stroking. He was using ChatGPT to downplay the negatives from the doctors and boosting the positives. While it’s good to feel confident, I think it went too far. I spent the whole week in the hospital trying to pull him out of his depression and recalibrating the unrealistic expectations that ChatGPT reinforced. I hope Apple finds a way to be more responsible. If that takes time, great.
Are all Android users using Gemini exclusively? Are all Windows users only using Copilot? Where is the native Linux desktop LLM?
I really don’t understand this criticism. Would it be nice if Siri could do more, sure. Do I have tolerance for Siri to start hallucinating on simple problems it used to use real math for, no. Do I have other options to use in the meantime to get the best of both worlds, absolutely. Where is the hardship?
Much like with the internet, Apple didn't need to re-invent every website to own it all. From Apple platforms a user can access Amazon, Google, or whatever else. Apple didn't create the internet, they sold a gateway to it. AI could be done largely the same way. This way it doesn't matter who wins, Apple can support it. At the end of the day, an LLM doesn't exist on its own, it needs to be accessed through hardware/software people enjoy using, and not be yet another device to charge and carry. Apple has a very popular phone and the most popular wearable. This positions them very well. They are often late to the party, but tend to be best dressed. The first iPhone didn't even have video, and people clowned them for it, and now iPhone video is largely considered one of the best in the smartphone world.
(Well, with multiple direct objects, anyway.)
I’m not even sure why those two things would be asked as a single question. It seems like a very unnatural way to pose those two questions. Most humans would trip on that, especially if it was asked verbally.
I'd assume GP only gave an example. As a pretty frequent user, I can unfortunately only confirm that Siri trips over almost every multi-part question.
This would be forgivable if there weren't multiple voice-based AI consumer products available that can handle these kinds of requests perfectly.
If they wanted an LLM answer they could have got one. They went out of their way just to take shots at Apple.
Besides that, many people don’t install any apps, and Apple not pre-installing a reasonable LLM to cater to that market just seems incredibly out of character.
And there’s enough credible reporting and personnel reshuffling happening to suggest that it’s not available yet because they failed to make it work, not because they didn’t try.