iOS 17.4 beta has signs of an AI-improved Siri ahead of WWDC 2024

By Amber Neely

Apple could announce an AI-powered version of Siri as soon as June, and there are signs inside the iOS 17.4 beta that it exists.

Apple is testing its in-house Chatbot Siri against ChatGPT

Apple has yet to release an equivalent to ChatGPT's artificial intelligence tools, but that doesn't mean it's not coming. The company has allegedly invested $1 billion in adding AI to Siri.

9to5Mac has uncovered code in the first beta of iOS 17.4 that suggests that Apple is still working on a new version of Siri. Interestingly enough, there are references to OpenAI within the code.

OpenAI's ChatGPT does not seem to power Siri's artificial intelligence features. Instead, it exists as a yardstick for Apple to compare its own Large Language Model (LLM) against.

Apple appears to be testing four different AI models, including AjaxGPT, its in-house LLM. The code shows that Apple is testing two versions of AjaxGPT, one processed on-device and one not.

9to5Mac also reports that Apple is testing a model dubbed FLAN-T5.

In early January, there were rumors that Apple was planning to integrate its generative AI technology into Siri and other services, with an announcement expected at the 2024 Worldwide Developer Conference.