Back in 2011, when Apple first rolled out Siri, it promised to change the way we interacted with our devices. But, if you’re like many of us, you might feel that Siri hasn’t quite lived up to the hype. Recently, Apple announced an indefinite delay for its much-anticipated Siri upgrade, which was supposed to be part of the Apple Intelligence initiative, initially set to launch in May. This delay has left many of us wondering what’s holding Apple back from perfecting Siri.
Apple Intelligence, introduced back in October 2024, was designed to boost iPhones with AI features like generating emails and summarizing content. Yet, the Siri upgrade, expected to rival ChatGPT’s capabilities, is still on hold. According to Bloomberg, the current version of Siri is more of a “barely working prototype,” continuing a trend of unmet promises from Apple.
Siri’s journey began in October 2011, as a key feature of the iPhone 4S. Despite the initial buzz, Siri’s real-world applications have lagged behind, never quite achieving the seamless interaction we were shown at the start. Originally developed by SRI International and DARPA, Siri was acquired by Apple for over $200 million, but it hasn’t reached its full potential.
Tom Gruber, one of Siri’s cofounders, once said, “This was Steve’s last deal,” highlighting Steve Jobs’ personal involvement. Yet, Richard Williamson, a former Apple executive, revealed in a 2017 interview that the early version of Siri was more “smoke and mirrors” than actual AI, lacking true natural language processing and contextual understanding.
Even today, with all the advancements in AI, Siri struggles with real-world tasks. Unlike its competitors, Apple’s strong focus on privacy presents unique challenges. As Gruber points out, “There’s one good excuse for [Apple] waiting, and that is if you really hold the privacy and data stewardship value as a sacred right.” Apple’s commitment to privacy means it can’t use extensive data in the same way its rivals do to improve AI capabilities.
The new Siri is built on two components: an on-device language model and cloud-based processing via OpenAI. This setup allows Siri to handle basic tasks on the iPhone, while more complex queries require OpenAI’s help. Compared to OpenAI’s GPT-4, Apple’s model is significantly smaller, which raises questions about its effectiveness.
Apple’s privacy-first approach might be holding Siri back, much like Samsung’s Bixby faced similar limitations. Despite promises of personal context awareness, Apple’s on-device AI is still a modest solution, leading some to fear it won’t surpass the “smoke and mirrors” stage it started from.
Apple’s real challenge is finding a balance between privacy and functionality, a conflict that continues to delay Siri’s transformation into the assistant we all hoped it would become.
