The rumors and reports of Apple bringing some key AI upgrades to the iPhone via iOS 18 later this year have been rumbling on for months, and as WWDC's June 10 kick-off edges ever nearer, we're starting to learn more about what's to be expected. We're also learning how Apple got to this point, a month away from what could be the biggest change to iOS in years.
We've been hearing of late that Apple is close to striking a deal with OpenAI that will see ChatGPT form the basis for some of the upgrades that are coming to the iPhone, and a new report suggests that it's the chatbot itself that convinced Apple that it was time to make changes. Siri was getting long in the tooth, and it needed a revamp. Apple AI may even offer that when it eventually releases.
According to the report Apple executives Craig Federighi and John Giannandrea spent weeks testing ChatGPT to see what it could do before ultimately deciding that Siri had been leapfrogged and that changes were needed.
A new tent pole project
The New York Times report claims that the revelation saw Apple make generative AI a "tent pole project," the term that the company uses when choosing what direction the company should head in, ultimately organizing employees around such initiatives.
There would be a symmetry to the story if this report is accurate, of course. ChatGPT could ultimately be responsible for fixing the Siri issue that it highlighted, presumably earning OpenAI a hefty chunk of change in the process.
Apple's WWDC debut of iOS 18 will give us a hint at what's to come, but we'll have to wait until September to try it out for ourselves. For now, all eyes are on June 10 to see what Apple's Siri upgrade will have to offer.
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