Finding where Siri AI fits in

It's still early days in testing Siri AI. I've only had it for a few hours as I write this.

As a vocal person who has been against the worst uses of AI, I'm trying to understand how I feel about this new Apple implementation.

There's a lot to Apple's new foundation models, Apple Intelligence, and where it all fits into the system. Today I'm focused on one specific aspect – Siri as a chatbot and search engine.

Until now, I've never had one of these products on my devices beyond ten minutes of poking around for an article I had to write. Some are upset that Apple has pushed AI across its ecosystem, but from what I can tell, this is a private, secure implementation that can easily be ignored.

But if it is here and private, I should at least try it out and see if it fits my needs. I've also turned off the ChatGPT extension to ensure I'm only ever interacting with Apple's AI.

I was approved for Siri AI yesterday and threw some queries at it. It performed well, better than I expected even compared to other AI entities in this space. I kept topics to things I knew the answer to so I could easily verify if it hallucinated.

From my initial findings, I think Siri might be able to act as my search engine and go-to for various interactions I previously reserved for the web. At least, that's where I'd like it to fit in. I'm very cautiously approaching this new technology and plan to use it as a reference only.

If you're paying for ChatGPT, I wonder if this will replace that function. Coding agents are a different story, so if you rely on those, you're likely going to continue to. Luckily, Xcode leans into their use.

Let me say this here: I will not be generating images, text, or anything for use in my blog or at AppleInsider. I also won't be using Siri AI as a source. It does a great job of showing all of its sources, so when I ask a question, I know I can navigate to a reliable source to verify the info right away.

In cases where I need more traditional search, I'll rely on DuckDuckGo as I have been. All search engines are problematic these days thanks to their ties to Israel, Russia, or Google being Google. I like that Apple has provided an option that's a clear silo where I can search and inquire without worrying about what data goes where.

I had a long chat with it about the plot of Kingdom Hearts and it pulled data from Wikipedia and Fandom to answer, accurately. It never hallucinated or got any details wrong there, likely because the information is so well organized on the web.

I also tested some queries that I might use for work, like verifying dates and such about Apple products. It did a great job laying out details and providing answers I anticipated I'd have to ask for next. I was able to easily verify details through the provided links as well.

For one of the chats, I asked what musical this photo I took was referencing, it said Cabaret. I asked when and where it was taken, it said June 7 at the Martins Center. I asked what was showing at the time and it got everything right about the production, who was running it, what musicals were being portrayed, but got the name of the production wrong because the only reference it had was a photo of a poster on Facebook.

That's the only hallucination I've seen (or noticed) so far. And like with all LLMs, it can't do math. That's always going to be a problem for a non-deterministic system.

I've said it all along. Artificial Intelligence is a dumb name for a set of problematic technologies that can easily be misused or abused. But when applied correctly, it can be a powerful tool that enhances human capability.

There will be more about this as I integrate Siri AI into my day-to-day. For now, know that everything Apple announced during WWDC is here and working great.

This is only the first week. We're going to see some interesting stuff going forward.