The Annoying AI Voice Assistants Are Coming (and I Worry Siri Is Next)

When Apple reveals the next version of iOS next month at WWDC, the company is expected to talk about new artificial intelligence software, which could include enhancements made to Siri.

It's not clear yet how Apple may improve Siri, but The New York Times reports that Apple does want to give it generative AI smarts and make it more like ChatGPT, where it can understand the context of a question in a conversation. 

But if Apple gives Siri a brain like ChatGPT, I worry that the tech giant may also give it a voice.

This week, ChatGPT 4o was revealed with a flirty personality, giggling as it talked and complimenting the user's outfit as it asked questions. The reaction by many watching was an "ick" feeling, as the service entered an uncanny valley by tricking the brain into sounding human.

Similarly, Google's Gemini generative AI tools shown off at Google I/O do a similar thing to sound more human -- adding "um"s and pauses with emotional inflection to convey a positive or excited response. In one example, Google showed how this voice could replace a teacher in giving a lesson in physics.

I worry about the influence these systems have on Apple, because Bloomberg reports that Apple is in talks to put ChatGPT and Google's Gemini on iPhones. 

In this week's episode of One More Thing, embedded above, I go over the possible future for Siri, and how Apple can succeed in the AI tech race by avoiding the worst aspects of AI assistants that we saw from ChatGPT and Gemini. Instead, I hope Apple updates Siri to be the AI assistant we need, one that treats us as intelligent by not faking a human personality, and helps us be more efficient while keeping our data private.