Apple’s AI-powered assistant, Siri, has been struggling to keep up with the competition. Despite its late arrival on the scene, expectations were high, and it fell short of delivering a much-improved version of the virtual assistant. The company has yet to address concerns over Siri’s ability to understand personal context via emails, messages, notes, and calendars.
The question remains: would people use a better Siri? If not, it may be time for Apple to consider a drastic change. Google has successfully phased out its Google Assistant, which was once considered the most effective voice assistant of its time. The company’s decision to kill off Google Assistant instead of renaming it may have been strategic.
Chris Harrison, director of the Future Interfaces Group at Carnegie Mellon’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute, suggests that Apple’s issues with Siri stem from its user interface. The new AI-powered assistants like Gemini are vastly superior, allowing users to access complex information and tasks with ease. However, Apple’s attempts to improve Siri have been hindered by the same limitations.
Harrison notes that the problem is not just about branding but also about discoverability. “We’ve regressed in discoverability,” he says. “A regular person needs to think about it in a fundamentally different way.” Renaming or killing off Siri altogether may be the solution, as Apple has spent over a decade investing in it and still relies on its basic capabilities.
The decision to say goodbye to Siri would be a significant move for Apple, but it’s essential to consider whether people will use a better assistant. The company must address the broader issues affecting large language models and improve user interface design to make these assistants more accessible and appealing to users.
Source: https://www.wired.com/story/its-time-to-kill-siri