If you're tired of Siri not giving you a clear answer to a query and instead telling you that it found three websites and one of them might contain the answer to your question, wait. Better days are coming for Siri. If you have the iOS 18.1 Developer Beta installed on your iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 15 Pro Max and are running the Apple Intelligence Beta, you might be wondering what's so special about the AI-powered Siri. After all, the only changes to the virtual assistant in the iOS18.1 Beta are cosmetic in nature.
So far, all we've seen from Siri in Apple Intelligence is a cosmetic change to the user interface and a conversation tone
Sure, the glowing lights on the edges of the iPhone when Siri is invoked look cool, and Siri's more conversational tone is a nice improvement too. But if you ask Siri which iPhone was the first to feature Siri, you'll get three websites to search. Ask Gemini Advanced, the AI-powered replacement for Google Assistant on the Pixel series, and you'll get one correct answer: “The first phone with Siri was the iPhone 4S, released in 2011.”
Ask Siri a question and you'll get three websites to search. Ask Gemini Advanced a question and you'll get a single, correct answer. | Image credit: PhoneArena
Siri will not show any improvements until the end of this year When ChatGPT integration will be added to Siri for iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max users. It is not included in the iOS18.1 Developer Beta, although it could still appear in the stable version of iOS18.1 (expected in October) or iOS18.2 (expected in December). With ChatGPT on board, when Siri can't answer a query, it won't send you to the three websites it tells you to read, but will turn to ChatGPT to give you a useful, clear answer.
Before Siri forwards a request for information from ChatGPT, you will first be asked for your permission to do so.
While Apple Intelligence includes writing tools that let you change the tone of an email or text before sending it, or have an AI proofread your writing, you won't be able to compose emails or texts for a specific occasion until ChatGPT launches. Once that happens, you'll be able to ask it to write a letter or compose an email asking your landlord to fix a leak. You'll also be able to write a letter or email complaining to your wireless carrier, explaining that you never gave a rep permission to add a new line to your account. Image generation will also be possible on ChatGPT.
Image generation using AI can be pretty cool, as these images show
The disadvantage for iPhone users is that if they want the useful version of Siri that doesn’t let them search three websites to find the answer to a question that iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Maxor the upcoming iPhone 16 series. And the latest rumor heard at the water cooler (if that water cooler is in Mark Gurman's office at Bloomberg) says that the iPhone SE 4 will come with 8GB of RAM, which is enough to power Apple Intelligence.
Will it be a big year for iPhone16 shipments as iPhone users around the world upgrade to take advantage of Apple Intelligence's AI features.
