- Apple to reveal AI-powered Siri update at its WWDC show in June
- Company Will Boost Privacy as Its AI Differentiator, New Report Claims
- But the new features could be called ‘betas’, despite arriving two years late.
As Apple struggles to catch up in the AI race, the company may have finally found a way to make Siri stand out from rivals like ChatGPT and Gemini, making it more private, not more powerful.
As Apple prepares for its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 8, the tech world is wondering how the Cupertino giant plans to close the gap between itself and its artificial intelligence (AI) rivals. One way, according to a new report, is to stick with something that has always helped Apple stand out from the crowd, but the plans have one notable drawback.
In his latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman believes Apple will push privacy as the biggest differentiator between itself and companies like OpenAI and Google that also maintain AI products. And that could allow Apple to argue that its long-adopted pro-privacy approach is a “fundamentally different” path to AI.
Gurman believes one way Apple could do this is by incorporating disappearing messages into its revamped Siri virtual assistant. The iOS 27 update debuting at WWDC will put Siri in a standalone app for the first time, and this app could automatically delete any messages you send to Siri. The options will be to keep the messages for 30 days, a year or forever; If you select one of the first two options, Siri will delete your conversations without you having to lift a finger. That could protect you from data breaches and your private information being used to train an AI model.
Apple will also “put stricter limits on how [Siri’s] “Memory works,” Gurman says, “including constraints on what information can persist and how long it can be retained.” Apple’s stance is that settings like this should be “built into the system itself,” according to Gurman, rather than being an optional extra as is the case with rival AI systems like Meta and OpenAI.
The new Siri may emerge with ‘unfinished’ functions
Automatic message deletion isn’t the only new AI feature coming to WWDC. A complete Siri revamp is in the works that should see the features announced in 2024 finally reach users’ iPhones. However, even that two-year delay may not be enough, Gurman warns.
Writing in Power On, Gurman explains that Apple could introduce the updated Siri as a beta when WWDC rolls around. The journalist adds that “there is a strong possibility that this approach will be used in the developer beta versions and even when iOS 27 is released this fall.” This is because Gurman has been informed by his sources that the iOS 27 test versions contain the beta tags for Siri. Since we’re less than a month away from WWDC, those flags could remain when the OS is unveiled in June.
Proclaiming that the updated Siri is in its beta phase would signal to users that the new features are still “unfinished,” Gurman says, and it’s hard to argue with that assessment. With Apple’s competitors moving further and further into the world of AI, this year’s WWDC will be crucial for Apple to prove that it has what it takes to hold its own. If the new AI Siri spends too much time in beta, it will become increasingly difficult for the company to do so.
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