It must be very difficult to be part of the Siri team within Cupertino. The bad news has indeed been piling up in recent weeks. The functions that were supposed to give the assistant greater action capabilities ("personalized Siri") have been postponed several times, and now the manufacturer is no longer committing to a date other than "in the coming year." This is silly, knowing that a good part of the marketing around the iPhone 16 was based on this new feature...
At This is compounded by Siri's now-unfortunate incompetence, which is not going to improve. This is an impossible position to maintain in the age of increasingly intelligent and conversational AI chatbots. During a meeting reported by Bloomberg, Robby Walker, Apple's director of Siri, described the delay in the new features as "horrible and embarrassing."
And the worst part is, "these features were shown to the public before they were even ready." Usually, we wait until we have a finished product before presenting it, but this time, we wanted to go too fast." The admission in front of his troops hurts a lot, because by doing so, Apple sold hot air.
Walker also acknowledged that his teams could feel "angry, disappointed, and exhausted": "I understand that some of you feel ashamed or uncomfortable when friends or colleagues ask you what happened. That's normal. We all would have liked that it happens differently. He praised their hard work by encouraging them to feel "proud" of what they had already accomplished. He used a strange metaphor by comparing their situation to trying to swim to Hawaii:
Has the director really tested Siri in recent months? It really isn't good, even after the few adjustments related to Apple Intelligence, such as the knowledge of Apple products that works in fits and starts.
However, he assures that "personalized Siri" gives good results "about two out of three times," which he acknowledges is not enough. "We still need to improve these numbers so that users can really rely on Siri."
The executive also spoke of the pressure on his shoulders internally: "There is a lot of personal responsibility in this project, whether from my team, my boss John Giannandrea [Apple's AI manager] or Craig Federighi [head of software]. We know we have a lot of work to do." do».
For the moment, there is no question of making heads roll; however, adjustments are always possible in the group responsible for AI and software. Kim Vorrath, an experienced executive and Apple "firefighter," has been called in to help, but it probably won't be enough.
The problem is that Robby Walker isn't even sure he can meet the deadline announced by Apple. There are other projects in progress, commitments that have been taken with other teams. "We want to keep our commitments on other fronts while moving forward on Siri. Each decision will be made on a case-by-case basis," he said. The manufacturer's goal remains to offer a cutting-edge virtual assistant, "the best," but Siri's director can't guarantee delivery times.
Source: Bloomberg
0 Comments