Siri’s Original Co-Designer Says Apple’s ‘Fear of Not Being Perfect’ Hampers Siri Revamp

In 2011, Apple debuted Siri , the world’s first digital assistant embedded in a smartphone.

It was revolutionary in its functionality and technology. For the first time, users could talk to their smartphone, and Siri was built using machine learning, which was state of the art at the time, Luc Julia , a co-designer of the original Siri and now chief scientific officer of French automaker Renault , told PYMNTS in an interview.

Then, in 2014, Amazon launched its own digital assistant, Alexa . It was an improvement upon Siri because it used deep learning. Apple waited three years before matching Amazon’s use of deep learning.

That’s classic Apple, and the same dynamics are at play in the company’s adoption of generative artificial intelligence, Julia said.

“They took their time, and it is happening the same way today” with generative AI nearly 3 years old now, Julia said. OpenAI ’s ChatGPT came out in November 2022.

Apple told Reuters Friday (March 7) that some AI improvements to Siri will be delayed until 2026. Previously, it had said Siri would see enhancements this year. Apple did not give a reason for the delay.

The news came a week after Amazon announced Alexa+ , which embeds generative and agentic AI.

Read also: Apple Reportedly Battling Bugs Holding Back Long-Awaited Siri Upgrade

Siri Is Falling Behind Rivals

Apple must move faster because consumers are starting to notice that its AI is lagging behind more able competitors in the market, such as ChatGPT, the new Alexa, Google Gemini and others, Julia said.

“I would try to push [an advanced conversational AI version] as soon as possible,” especially since generative AI is developing “very fast,” he said.

While Apple has a partnership with OpenAI to use the startup’s AI models for its iOS devices, advanced functionalities are not yet being seen in Siri, Julia said.

“People are realizing more and more that they are not at the front end of the technology,” he said.

Even Apple Intelligence , which is the name for the company’s AI features embedded in high-end or new Apple products, has gotten a lukewarm reaction. There were reports of it hallucinating in news summaries.

Julia said he’s tried Apple Intelligence and “it’s not really astonishing.”

See also: Apple Intelligence to Expand to Vision Pro Headset in April

A Perfectionist Culture

One hurdle to moving faster is Apple’s culture, as a product must be “nearly perfect” before it is introduced, Julia said.

Co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs famously sent circuit boards back to engineers because the chips inside weren’t aligned even though the user wouldn’t see it, for example.

With generative AI, it is “difficult to control totally,” Julia said. AI chatbots can say toxic things and be jailbroken, meaning hacked into doing something they have been trained not to do.

“It’s always possible for humans to trick AI,” Julia said. “Apple doesn’t want that. They want to control everything. They want to be sure that it is going to be clean and creative, which is pretty much impossible with Gen AI.”

Julia said Apple wouldn’t want to repeat the experience of Apple Maps , which was widely panned when it was launched in 2012 for missteps, such as mislabeling locations and giving wrong directions. Apple CEO Tim Cook later apologized to users for the missteps.

“They are falling behind because of this fear of not being perfect,” Julia said.

Apple did not respond to PYMNTS’ request for comment.

Read also: Report: Apple Moves Project Manager Kim Vorrath to AI Division

Steve Jobs Alone Wanted Siri

Siri was created by nonprofit research and development group SRI International , where Julia was a director, and spun off as a separate company in 2007. Apple acquired Siri in April 2010 and integrated it into the iPhone 4S in 2011.

Julia, who later joined Apple as a director, said top Apple executives back then were against the idea of a voice assistant like Siri.

“Only one guy wanted it,” he said. “It was Steve Jobs.”

So, everyone fell in line.

Jobs “saw the potential of talking to a phone,” Julia said. “He was a visionary.”

Julia said he sees the same cautiousness now among Apple’s top management about revamping Siri.

“It’s the same story we are talking about today, which is, don’t go too fast,” he said. “We’ll see if we want to do it.”

Getting new technology fast is something today’s consumers like. The PYMNTS Intelligence report “ How Consumers Want to Live in the Voice Economy ” found that consumers’ interest in using voice-activated technologies as they try to multitask during their busy daily lives is growing.

Since Jobs died in 2011, innovation has been fairly light at Apple, Julia said, adding the most innovative thing Apple has done since then is the Apple Vision Pro , its automated reality headset.

Julia offered this advice to Cook: “I would tell him that he needs to do some kind of minimum viable product … in conversational AI, just to show that they are in the race.”