Apple (AAPL) has suffered a significant setback in making its virtual assistant Siri more personalized and able to take action across apps. The tech giant has confirmed it will take long to re-launch the assistant with artificial intelligence features. A confirmation that an upgraded Siri with AI features could come next year is sure to send shockwaves at a time when the company is exploring ways to revitalize iPhone sales.
Siri AI Setback
The delay comes after Apple made attempts to improve Siri’s conversational capabilities. As a result, OpenAI’s ChatGPT was included to enhance user experience. Apple debuted a new generation of iPhones last year that prioritized artificial intelligence (AI) in order to draw in customers with innovative AI features.
These tools, dubbed “Apple Intelligence,” were supposed to include a variety of text-generation and photo-editing features as well as an enhanced Siri voice assistant. The Cupertino, California-based company’s most recent iPhone sales for the crucial December quarter were $69.1 billion, down almost 1% from the previous year and below the $70.7 billion.
IPhone sales have been under pressure in recent years owing to smartphone saturation in the market and stiff competition from Chinese companies. Consequently, Apple has been under pressure to develop game-changing features that would give people a reason to upgrade or buy its flagship iPhones.
Wayfair AI Integration
Meanwhile, Wayfair (W) intends to reduce 340 jobs and boost productivity through generative artificial intelligence. The cuts follow the company’s technological resources moving to a cloud computing environment. The company is increasingly investing in AI and other advanced technologies to improve customers’ shopping experience and increase productivity through generative artificial intelligence.
The majority of the cash payments will be made over the course of the next 12 months, and Wayfair anticipates incurring charges of $33 million to $38 million, mostly related to cash employee-related expenses. Wayfair, which is shutting down its Austin, Texas, technology development center, stated that it anticipates high transition costs will soon outweigh structural cost reductions.
Microsoft takes on OpenAI.
Microsoft Corp (MSFT) has developed competitive internal AI models with industry leaders, such as partner OpenAI. Recent test results for a family of models Microsoft is creating indicate that they were competitive with cutting-edge competitors.
The Redmond, Washington-based tech giant has tested the models’ potential performance on a range of tasks, including powering components of its AI assistants under the Copilot brand. Copilots are made to respond to a wide variety of user inquiries and offer targeted recommendations to those completing documents or participating in conference calls.
In order to handle increasingly complicated queries and demonstrate human-like problem-solving abilities, Microsoft is also creating so-called reasoning models. Microsoft may become less dependent on OpenAI thanks to its MAI models.
Microsoft has invested about $13 billion in the ChatGPT developer, and the relationship between the two businesses has generated discussion in the tech community. After renegotiating their agreement, Microsoft and OpenAI announced in January that OpenAI could use servers from other cloud computing competitors to power its services, provided Microsoft did not want the company itself. Their contract expires in 2030.
