Feeling lonely? Having trouble with your love life or lack thereof? Were you hoping the new AI-powered Siri could fill those voids?
Unfortunately, you may have to look elsewhere for companionship. Apple's Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi says Siri is just not that into you – and Apple purposefully designed it that way.
At WWDC this week, Federighi and Apple's Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Greg Joswiak sat down for an interview with Laurie Segall of the tech YouTube channel Mostly Human.
During the interview, Segall pointed out that the features showcased during WWDC focused on Siri AI as a utility and not as a companion.
Federighi responded by explaining that this was a very purposeful move by Apple.
"I think that utility is at the foundation of human creativity and ultimately time for connection, right?" Federighi said. "I think the unlock around all of this is that you get to live the rest of your life and you get to feel really empowered doing it. I guess that's where the sexy part comes in, right? I don't think the sexy part actually belongs in the computer. It belongs in your life and so that's our focus. The idea of AI as a solution for loneliness, I mean loneliness is about a lack of connection to real people, you know, real humans."
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Federighi's discussion around AI as a solution for loneliness is significant. Numerous AI companies have been sued over the past few years due to AI chatbots and assistants attempting to have a human-like relationship, platonic or romantic in nature, and that connection resulting in real-life injury or death.
Apple's view seems to be in stark contrast to the approach of some of these other AI companies.
"Many of the existing chatbots, they're really focused on engagement to a large degree and sycophancy, right?" said Federighi. "They kind of want to pull you in. They might encourage you to reveal things about yourself and then use that as a basis to establish a connection. We view it quite the opposite. The way that we have designed Siri, Siri really wants to say, 'Listen, that's not what I'm here for, right? I'm here to I'm here to help you. I can help you get things done. I can help you learn about the world.' But if you try to engage Siri as a romantic partner, Siri's not up for that. Siri's 100 percent not into that."
So, there you have it. Apple says no funny business with the new Siri. And that seems to be the safe approach.
