Today, a detailed report on Apple’s ongoing challenges with Siri has surfaced at The Information. This exposé highlights various internal conflicts and intricacies, concluding with a significant announcement: under Craig Federighi’s direction, for the first time, Apple engineers are permitted to utilize third-party LLMs to enhance Siri features.
Federighi’s engineers are now allowed to employ third-party LLMs for Siri functionalities
Wayne Ma reports for The Information:
Federighi has initiated a significant shift. Departing from past protocols, he has directed Siri’s machine-learning engineers to pursue the highest quality AI features, even if this involves integrating open-source models from external sources into Apple’s software solutions instead of relying solely on Apple’s proprietary models, according to a source close to the situation.
The report indicates that prior to the recent changes in Siri’s leadership, Apple engineers were only allowed to benchmark third-party LLMs against their own internal models during testing phases.
For further clarity, engineers did extensive trials with OpenAI’s models but were prohibited from incorporating them into their finalized features.
Ma states: “In 2023, Apple managers informed their engineers they could not integrate models from external firms into the final Apple products.”
The development of these models fell mainly under Giannandrea’s team, which led to frustrations among software group members eager to design AI-based features but found that Apple’s models “didn’t perform nearly as well as those from OpenAI.”
Now, with Federighi at the helm, it appears that all open-source LLMs are available for Apple’s engineers to utilize.
This shift seems advantageous for consumers, who prioritize having the best possible Siri features rather than the specific technology underpinning them.
Further insights can be found in the complete report from The Information, which provides a variety of additional details.
What are your thoughts on this shift in Siri’s direction for Apple? Share your opinions in the comments.
