It seems like everyone but Apple is jumping on the AI bandwagon, but according to a report, that might not be the case for very long. As discovered by 9to5Mac in the tvOS 16.4 beta, Apple is testing new language-generating AI capabilities for Siri. The technology, codenamed “Bobcat”, has a very limited scope at present, but could eventually expand to larger capacities and devices.
A recent New York Times report explained how the original trio of AI assistants – Siri, Google Assistant and Alexa – are very limited in their capabilities and have been largely overtaken by generative AI based on large language models like ChatGPT. . ChatGPT’s capabilities captured the imagination of the tech community and, along with generative AI like Midjourney, Dall-E, and Stable Diffusion, inspired something of a gold rush for generative artificial intelligence. The New York Times mentioned that, according to its sources, “numerous engineers, including members of the Siri team, are testing language-generating concepts every week.”
Now it looks like 9to5Mac has discovered that Apple has enabled a new framework for “Siri Natural Language Generation” in the latest tvOS 16.4 beta.
Don’t expect this new “Bobcat” language generation AI to necessarily be anything like ChatGPT, but will more likely be a way to improve Siri’s capabilities. Currently, the technology would only be enabled when you ask Siri to tell jokes on Apple TV with the latest tvOS 16.4 beta, but the report claims that “the company is also experimenting with how language generation could be used for timers. “.
Is SiriGPT on the way?
It makes sense that Apple is testing on tvOS – it’s a small controlled platform compared to iOS or macOS, and the HomePod (which relies almost exclusively on Siri interaction) runs a sort of modified version of tvOS. 9to5Mac says it has seen evidence that this code has been rolled out to iPhone, iPad, Mac, HomePod, and Apple TV, but is only enabled on Apple TV and in a very limited way.
But don’t expect a chatbot like Apple’s ChatGPT anytime soon. At least for now, Apple seems to be interested in using generative language AI technology to make Siri more natural and conversational, and perhaps allow it to gracefully deliver answers or perform tasks that do not match the tightly prescribed conditions for which it has currently been programmed.
It’s reasonable to expect that, perhaps with the release of iOS 17 this fall or one of its spot updates, Apple will tout a more natural and conversational Siri when performing specific tasks. (we don’t think Apple is going to stop at the joke-story). These capabilities will likely expand as Apple works to ensure its chat model is safe and suitable for people of all ages and backgrounds, which has been a challenge for models like ChatGPT so far.
