Every June, Apple unveils the latest software features for the iPhone at its futuristic Silicon Valley campus. But at its annual developer conference on Monday, the company will shine a spotlight on a feature that isn’t new: Siri, its talking assistant that’s been around for more than a decade.
What will be different this time is the technology that powers Siri: genetic artificial intelligence.
In recent months, Adrian Perica, Apple’s vice president of corporate development, has helped spearhead an effort to bring genetic AI to the masses, said two people with knowledge of the project, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the effort’s sensitivity.
Mr. Perica and his colleagues have been in talks with leading AI companies, including Google and OpenAI, looking for a partner to help Apple deliver productive AI across its operations. Apple recently struck a deal with OpenAI, which makes the ChatGPT chatbot, to fold its technology into the iPhone, two people familiar with the deal said. It was still in talks with Google as of last week, two people familiar with the talks said.
That helped lead to a more talkative and flexible version of Siri, which will debut on Monday, three people familiar with the company said. Siri will be powered by an artificial intelligence system developed by Apple, which will allow the talking assistant to have a conversation instead of just answering one question at a time. Apple will market its new AI capabilities as Apple Intelligence, a person familiar with the marketing plan said.
Apple, OpenAI and Google declined to comment. Apple’s deal with OpenAI was previously reported by The Information and Bloomberg, which also reported the name for Apple’s AI system.
Apple’s move to genetic AI will test whether the company can re-enter a new market and redefine it. While Apple didn’t make the first digital music player, smartphone, or smartwatch, it changed those categories with the iPod, iPhone, and Apple Watch. Now, after two years of watching Microsoft, Meta, Google and Samsung incorporate genetic AI into products, Apple is turning from observer to potential challenger.
The coupling of genetic AI to iPhones will also be a key moment for the technology, which can answer questions, create images and write software code. Apple will expand the reach of genetic artificial intelligence to more than a billion users and determine how useful it is to everyday iPhone customers.
To date, the technology’s promise has been undermined by its flaws. Google introduced and curtailed productive AI search capabilities that recommended people eat rocks, while Microsoft has been criticized for security vulnerabilities in a personal computer that uses AI to record every second of activity.
“We’re still figuring out AI because it’s so complex,” said Carolina Milanesi, president of Creative Strategies, a technology research firm. “Apple is pretty conservative about everything, so I don’t know that it’s going to ‘wow’ people. But they have to do that because that’s how we’re going to interact with technology in the future.”
Wall Street investors, not Main Street consumers, are a big reason Apple is jumping into AI The technology has lifted the values of Microsoft, a big player in genetic artificial intelligence, and Nvidia, which sells artificial intelligence chips. In January, Microsoft dethroned Apple as the world’s most valuable public technology company.
The market reshaping happened as Apple remained silent on AI. The company has a policy of not sharing future product plans, but as the stock fell, Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, broke with protocol and told Wall Street analysts on a call in May that he would soon introduce production offerings artificial intelligence.
Apple’s share price has rebounded since Mr. Cook made that commitment. As of Friday, Apple’s stock had risen 6 percent this year, less than Microsoft’s 14 percent gain and Nvidia’s 151 percent jump.
(The New York Times has sued OpenAI and Microsoft for using copyrighted articles related to artificial intelligence systems.)
Apple has long been under pressure to revamp Siri, which wowed the world when it launched in 2011 but then hasn’t changed much over time. The shortcomings of the talking assistant were finally brought up by comedian Larry David during the final season of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” in a scene where he yelled at Siri as she repeatedly gave wrong directions.
Enter OpenAI, which has positioned itself at the forefront of the productive AI movement with ChatGPT. Apple plans to supplement what OpenAI offers with technology it developed internally to do select iPhone tasks. Its system will help Siri set timers, create calendar appointments and summarize text messages.
The company also plans to promote its revamped Siri as more private than rival AI services because it will process many requests on iPhones rather than remotely in data centers. Apple’s focus on privacy proved to be a sticking point during negotiations with OpenAI and Google because it wanted to limit what iPhone data partners received, a person familiar with the negotiations said.
It’s possible that Apple will try to offer the improved Siri as a service, analysts said. By charging $5 a month for people to use the talking assistant, the company could generate $4 billion to $8 billion in annual sales, according to Morgan Stanley.
Although artificial intelligence was a latecomer, Apple has been pursuing the idea of a digital personal assistant for about 40 years.
In 1987, a concept video was released showing a professor talking to an assistant called the Knowledge Navigator, which could manage his calendar and take his lecture notes. The video helped inspire a group of artificial intelligence researchers at SRI International, an independent research lab, to create a virtual assistant called Siri in 2008.
In 2010, Apple bought the technology for $200 million. The company launched Siri a year later on the iPhone, demonstrating its ability to provide the time in Paris or create a list of 14 Greek restaurants.
“We’ve set in motion a user interface paradigm that no one has really improved,” said Tom Gruber, a Siri co-founder who worked at Apple until 2018. “But we don’t yet have a personal AI — an assistant that knows my life. With genetic artificial intelligence, it’s possible now.”
Cade Metz and Brian X. Chen contributed to the report.
