If you’re hoping to see Apple show its hand with what it plans to do with AI, a new report states that you won’t have long to wait.
According to Mark Gurman’s ‘Power On’ newsletter at Bloomberg, work is being done on a language model, internally called Ajax. This is meant to be powering Apple’s generative AI and will allegedly give its Siri assistant a major boost in generating better results from user queries — and being more useful than it has been in the past as a result.
The newsletter goes on to explain that Apple’s AI is set to expand to other apps, such as playlist creation in Apple Music, and will be able to auto-complete some lines in its Pages and Keynote apps. A new version of its Xcode programming suite will also come with AI features, which will help developers complete certain lines of code that they may be struggling with.
Apple is allegedly set to unveil its AI plans at its developer conference, called WWDC, later this year, which is usually held in June. With Microsoft bringing its Copilot AI to Windows 11, as well as an app for iPhone and Android devices earlier this month, it remains to be seen if Siri will finally get the shot in the arm it has sorely needed for years.
No, Apple is not playing catch up with AI — iMore’s take
It’s been over a week since I started using Microsoft’s Copilot app on my iPhone, and I’ve enjoyed it. Asking the assistant for certain requests that I’d have used Google for brings me greater detail than using that search engine in my web browser.
Over the weekend, I discovered that I could use the app on my Mac, thanks to Apple silicon having the ability to run some iPhone apps in macOS. So now, I have Copilot running in its own window as I work away, generating random images to help give me some inspiration at certain times as I work on personal projects.
As I use Copilot more, I can’t help but wonder how Apple’s take on AI could help with Siri later this year. We’ve seen the company’s efforts in improving its assistant in the past, such as Siri Shortcuts, where third-party apps could better integrate with it — but Apple hasn’t mentioned Siri Shortcuts since it was announced in 2020, giving the impression that Apple has abandoned improving Siri further with the feature in favor of a deeper AI reworking.
Reports such as those seen in Gurman’s newsletter have previously stated how Apple ‘missed the mark’ with AI in 2023, and that it’s now playing catch-up. But to a point, I disagree. Apple’s focus has been elsewhere recently, making sure that its newest product, Vision Pro, is a success when released later this year.
To me, Apple’s plans with AI and improving Siri were simply sidelined for higher priorities, such as its headset, the newest Apple silicon chips like M3, and the iPhone 15 line. So this year, it’s all to play for with Siri and AI. I want to see it be faster and more detailed in its responses, but also in being helpful in the other apps that Gurman’s newsletter mentioned.
So with Vision Pro allegedly set to be released in a few short weeks, once that’s out of the way I’m excited to see what Apple’s take on AI will be, and the new reasons I’ll have to use Siri every day, rather than every month.
