Apple is reportedly concentrating on improving Siri’s natural-language search processing, as per recent news. The company held its yearly AI summit in February to discuss progress in machine learning and artificial intelligence.
Although the event was fairly low-profile, insiders familiar with the summit shared that Apple engineers, including those from the Siri team, are actively investigating language-generating ideas.
Currently, Siri uses a database of existing prompts to answer user questions. However, generative language would necessitate a far more intricate process. Apple would have to reconstruct the entire database, which could take around six weeks, as estimated by former Apple engineer John Burkey. Furthermore, the development of more advanced features could take up to a year.
This change in focus is likely a response to the increasing popularity of natural-language processing and chatbots, as technology giants like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon compete to incorporate these elements into their offerings. Microsoft has already implemented ChatGPT features into its Bing and Edge products, while Google has introduced AI tools for Workspace and made its AI language model, PaLM, accessible to developers and businesses.
Apple faces considerable obstacles in creating generative language technology that rivals the precision and sophistication of the latest language models. OpenAI recently launched GPT-4, which exhibits significant enhancements over prior models.
Although the Siri team is said to be exploring language-generating concepts, it remains uncertain how Apple intends to incorporate these features into its products. However, the company’s initiatives in this field imply a commitment to remaining at the cutting edge of AI and natural-language processing.
The demand for natural-language processing and generative language models has surged in recent years, led by ChatGPT. As Apple tries to catch up, its renewed emphasis on natural-language search processing demonstrates its determination to compete in this sector.
The contest to develop the finest generative language model is far from over, but the release of OpenAI’s GPT-4 highlights the intensifying competition. Time will reveal which company ultimately prevails.
