Apple is making a fresh attempt to bring artificial intelligence into the everyday lives of its device users on a large scale with an AI-enhanced version of its Siri assistant software.
The iPhone maker had announced AI features for Siri two years ago, but - in something of an embarrassment to the company - they have still not been introduced because, Apple said, they did not work reliably enough.
Demonstrating new AI features at the annual WWDC event for developers on Monday, Apple software chief Craig Federighi stressed that, in the company's view, "truly helpful AI" must be built around the needs of users.
That meant, he said, that artificial intelligence would be integrated into the products people use every day and would know the personal context of each user.
Siri gets its own app
To expand its capabilities, Siri — which arrived on Apple devices as a voice assistant around 15 years ago — is getting a standalone app.
Apple manager Mike Rockwell showed in a recorded demonstration how the new Siri can look up the date of a nearby musician's next concert and ticket sales information, create a reminder and then, on request, play one of her new songs.
Initially, "Siri AI" will only be available in English. Further languages should follow soon, Federighi said.
Apple also stressed that data privacy is guaranteed, as requests are processed on the devices and are not visible to the company.
Federighi also took a swipe at companies that were pursuing "AI for the sake of AI" in a race that did not take users' interests into account.
For some of the new features, Apple is drawing on Google's Gemini AI models under the hood.
Arriving with a two-year delay
While Apple was struggling with Siri's problems, Google — as the developer of the competing Android mobile operating system — and major iPhone rival Samsung were outdoing each other with announcements of ever-new AI assistant features.
By that measure, Apple appeared to be falling behind — though its customers seemed unconcerned. Sales of Apple devices continued to rise and the iPhone knocked Samsung off the smartphone throne after many years, according to data from market researchers.
This is the last WWDC for Tim Cook as chief executive. In September, John Ternus — the Apple executive previously responsible for hardware engineering — is set to take over the leadership.
