Siri Gets Smarter but Remains No Match for ChatGPT

The current version of Siri is bad and has been for years. It’s slow to reply, dumb, and used primarily as a spoken flashlight switch. I’m confident most Siri invocations happen accidentally.By comparison, Siri AI — bundled with iOS 27 — is a big upgrade, able to answer far more complex requests with fewer mistakes and random flubs. But, saying that, it’s still far behind other chatbots.The biggest problem is that, when you ask Siri a question, it answers almost immediately. You cannot change that, tell it to “think” longer, as you can with other models, or increase the “effort” behind its response. That makes it very fast to respond, but that also keeps it from thinking through more complex problems, searching for more information, and returning only when it has a more confident answer. Unable to do this, Siri fails with basic search requests that other models easily complete, even with multiple replies. Siri will also be unappealing to AI power users, as it lacks many of the now standard advanced features that other models can use. It can’t connect to websites and tools through MCPs — an industry standard connector — nor can it be loaded with custom instruction sets known as skills. The new Siri app is similarly basic, containing a list of your previous conversations and little else. It’s fine but basic and somewhat ugly. Beyond my initial testing, I doubt I will ever use it.If you’re comparing it to ChatGPT, the new Siri is a massive disappointment; if you’re comparing to the last Siri, it’s a massive improvement. But it shines most when integrated into the rest of the Apple interface, particularly for features that were previously clunky and hard to use.The best example is Shortcuts. This app that has long been highly capable but terribly designed and almost inscrutable to the average person. I wanted to set up various automations but found the interface too unpleasant to bother with.With Siri AI, that’s changed: You can just tell it, within Shortcuts, what you want an automation to do — or what you want changed — and it will set it up for you. I’m looking forward to seeing what people use this for, but for now, it’s great to have my phone automatically turn the display monochrome, enable Do Not Disturb, and drop the brightness to 50 percent at 9:15 p.m., then undo those changes and open the Oura and Ultrahuman apps as soon as my alarm goes off.The new search function is another perfect example, finally turning Spotlight into a much fuller search tool on the iPhone. Take music. If you use Apple’s Mail, Music, and Calendar apps, you can search for emails, songs, and events right from the phone’s Home Screen. If you remember some random lyric, you can just fire it into the search box, and Siri will likely find the song. You’ll get more out of this if you’re more enmeshed in Apple’s ecosystem — as a Gmail user, the email search wasn’t that useful — and even if you don’t, you’ll encounter it as Apple has once again changed up the swiping layout.You can now swipe down from the Dynamic Island to open Siri — which I’ve found out repeatedly, accidentally, when I’m trying to change my music.

Siri Gets Smarter but Remains No Match for ChatGPT

Siri Gets Smarter but Remains No Match for ChatGPT

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