Hey, Siri, what happened to you?



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I remember the introduction of Siri on the iPhone 4S long ago. It was going to be a magical Apple feature that no one could ever catch up on. Instead of having to dig into settings and apps, you can just talk to your iPhone.

Competitors, however, quickly emerged. Who could forget S Voice, Samsung’s forgettable voice assistant, which was eventually replaced by the equally forgettable Bixby. Then there was Google Now. This product was a bit more polished, but Google Assistant has now shown that is a thing of the past.

What can I help you with?  Siri, we need to talk.

What can I help you with? Siri, we need to talk.

James Martin / CNET

Somehow, Amazon entered the voice assistant fray with a tubular speaker known as Echo. It was an incredibly strange product when it was first introduced. Why would I still want a speaker to listen to me? What did Amazon know about voice assistants?

It turns out that Amazon knew a lot. He gave his virtual assistant Alexa a wide range of skills. Then the Google Assistant, billed as your own personal Google, began to show its intelligence.

Siri has received minor enhancements during all of this, but it’s far from the best in class. That being said, Apple can still make a difference. Siri has gotten some improvements recently, since around the time Apple picked up an ex-Googler, John Giannandrea, to be his VP of Machine Learning and AI Strategy in 2018. Watch my video above to learn more.

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