Questionable Rumor Claims Siri iCloud Integration and Contextual Learning Coming in iOS 11

Tuesday March 28, 2017 4:14 am PDT by Tim Hardwick

Siri is set to gain contextual learning abilities and deep integration with iMessage and iCloud in iOS 11, according to an unverified rumor shared by Israeli site The Verifier.

Citing information "received directly from the development teams based in Israel and the U.S.", the site says Siri's AI codebase will receive a major update that will enable it to learn a user's usage habits, similar to abilities claimed by Samsung for its new virtual assistant Bixby.

The upgrade is said to extend Siri's capabilities beyond its current limited command pool by stacking multiple queries and offering different actions depending on the context. For example, Siri's integration into iMessage means it will be able to offer suggestions relevant to the ongoing conversation, such as where to dine out, how to get there, and one-step Uber taxi booking.

In addition, the claim is that Siri's integration with iCloud will enable it to identify meaningful connections between the various devices associated with an Apple ID account and offer practicable actions that crisscross Mac and iOS systems.

Moreover, Apple will embed Siri deeper into the Apple TV and Apple Watch experience, with significant updates to tvOS and watchOS. Advanced Siri abilities are also said to extend to a "smart clock" feature, although no other details were given.

The Verifier does not have an established track record for accurate rumors, making it unclear how reliable the information is, while the iMessage features described above can already be found in published Apple patents. Previously the site said that group FaceTime calls will be introduced in iOS 11, but so far we've been unable to corroborate the claim.

Details of what's in store for iOS 11 have been scant in general, but it is expected to be released with new iPhones in the fall of 2017, while a preview of the new software could come at the Worldwide Developers Conference 2017 held in June.

Tags: Siri Guide, theverifier.co.il

Top Rated Comments

(View all)

rudychidiac

37 months ago

Bring offline Siri for basic commands...

Rating: 33 Votes

keysofanxiety

37 months ago

Apple's obsession with privacy will never allow their offering to be good as Google's

Can't disagree more with this. AI and speech recognition is in the very, very, very early stages. The war hasn't been won yet; it hasn't even begun. AI today is what the original Macintosh was to raw hardware performance.

Apple's staunch stance on privacy means they'll be going the longer and more difficult route, which I maintain will be the better approach in the long term. This is because the core recognition will evolve to recognise any speech and any language without having to reference lots of other data already collected.

Think Star Trek Next Gen/Voyager and see how crew or new visitors interact with the computer using speech; that's what I'm envisioning could still be possible with a commited AI team, whilst still maintaining an obsession for privacy. That's far from an impossible idea.

Yes, Siri does need a lot of improvement; nobody's denying that. But so do the others. With the leaps and bounds that technology makes every year, it's much too early to simply say that the only way forward in AI and speech/context recognition is data mining.

Rating: 27 Votes

Jsameds

37 months ago

I turned Siri off. Comically bad compared to Google's natural language processing engine.

Apple's obsession with privacy will never allow their offering to be good as Google's; you need collectively analyze all human speech to actually develop something that will understand all dialects, intonations, and nuances of a spoken language.

I'll take privacy any day of the week.

Rating: 18 Votes

moxxham

37 months ago

I use Siri frequently and it understands me 90% of the time! Works incredibly well for me. Just like everyone else though, I do wish it was much, much smarter

Rating: 14 Votes

icanhazapple

37 months ago

Rating: 9 Votes

keysofanxiety

37 months ago

it's been what, five years now? Thanks, but I'll keep using Google. You can continue to wait for plausibly accurate dictation engine from Apple.

For what it's worth, it is pretty accurate when I use Siri. Siri makes my life a little easier with setting alarms, timers, or dictating texts/calling people when I'm driving. That's it, though. Just a little easier.

Siri's not particularly smart. Neither is Google's solution, though; nor Amazon's, nor Microsoft's. None are anywhere close to what we've seen in science fiction. Until some serious advancements are made, I'll happily take a bit poorer recognition, iOS integration, and user privacy in the interim.

So yeah, I'll continue to wait. So will you, by the way. It's not like Google's current system rivals the Enterprise computer. :)

Rating: 6 Votes

Chupa Chupa

37 months ago

Apple is upgrading some lonely guys' only partner....

More like only kid -- you ask her to do something and sometimes she will do what you ask. Other times she'll either get sassy with you, misinterpret what you asked, pretend she doesn't understand, or ignore you all together.

Rating: 6 Votes