Previously, Gurman mentioned that Apple is developing an internal project referred to as ‘LLM Siri’ — a revamped, generative AI version of its virtual assistant. The prior attempt to integrate this new version with the existing Siri has proven inefficient. Gurman highlights several reasons for this failure, but here’s a brief overview:

Apple is now adjusting its strategy. Rather than attempting to merge generative AI with the old Siri, the company is opting for a complete renovation of the assistant. According to Gurman, Apple’s AI team in Zurich is focused on creating a new framework that will rely entirely on an LLM-based engine. Gurman reported in November that Apple is working towards enhancing the assistant’s conversational capabilities and its ability to process information effectively.

Another part of the solution is leveraging iPhones and differential privacy to improve Apple’s synthesized data — comparing fake training data with language from iPhone users’ emails, but doing so on-device and sending only the synthesized data back to Apple for AI training. And one way the company is discussing improving Siri is letting the LLM version loose on the web to “grab and synthesize data from multiple sources.” Basically, Siri as an AI web search tool not unlike Perplexity, which is one of the companies Apple has approached about partnering for AI search in Safari.

Whatever the outcome, apparently Giannandrea won’t be a direct part of it, having been taken off of product development, Siri, and robotics projects in the spring. According to Gurman, Apple execs have talked about putting him “on a path to retirement,” but are concerned that some of the research and engineering folks he brought with him would leave with him, too. Whatever the case, Gurman says Giannandrea plans to stick around, “relieved Siri is now someone else’s problem.”