Even without the current Apple Intelligence fiasco, we already realized that Apple needs to ditch Siri or rebrand it in favor of a new personal assistant. Long before Apple Intelligence or LLMs started taking over the internet, we already felt like Siri was lost in time.
In the past few years, reports suggested the issue with Cupertino’s personal assistant is bigger than it seems. In 2023, the New York Times reported about the rise and fall of the assistants, including why Siri struggles with what sounds like regular tasks. John Burkey, a former Apple engineer who worked on the virtual assistant, said it had a “cumbersome design that made it time-consuming to add new features.”
In 2014, he was given the job of improving Siri. But since its database contains a gigantic list of words in nearly two dozen languages, its vast knowledge bade it “one big snowball,” as if someone wants to add a word to Siri’s database, “it goes in one big pile.”
With that in mind, Burkey explained that what seemed like small updates, such as new phrases, would require rebuilding the entire database, which could take up to six weeks. More complex features like new search tools could take nearly a year, meaning Siri could never become a creative assistant like ChatGPT unless it’s completely rebuilt.
When looking back at this report, it makes sense why Apple decided to indefinitely delay Siri’s on-screen awareness capabilities, as it still doesn’t know which month we are. This is why I think Apple should rebrand Siri and do something similar to what the MobileMe-iCloud transition was.
Siri feels like MobileMe, but Apple was fast enough to address it
Before iCloud was a thing, Apple had MobileMe. The service was available from July 2008 until October 2011, when iCloud was introduced. However, this subscription-based service was very unstable and had several syncing issues.
This is why when Steve Jobs introduced iCloud and said the service “just worked,” he rhetorically asked: “Why should I believe them? They’re the ones that brought me MobileMe!” Still, iCloud was better than MobileMe, and even though it had a few issues over the years, it’s Apple’s main service.
With that in mind, I think Siri needed a similar approach. At this moment, Apple is focusing on reshaping the personal assistant’s command structure. However, I don’t think promoting executives is enough. If Apple wants to be serious about AI, it must catch up with major players and offer a different experience. Should it call the new assistant Newton, Siri 2.0, or Apple Assistant? It doesn’t matter.
Siri’s revamp is urgent, and Cupertino needs to offer a faster response and service to users.
