I remember the launch of Siri on iPhone 4S way back when. That would be an amazing Apple feature that no one would ever be able to catch up with. Instead of having to go through settings and programs, you can just talk to yourself iPhone.
However, participants showed up quickly. 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 showed that it was the past.
How can I help you? Siri, we need to talk.
James Martin / CNET
Somehow, Amazon is entering the voice assistant battle with a tube speaker known as the Echo. It was an incredibly strange product at the time of its launch. Why do I want a speaker to listen to me anyway? What did Amazon know about voice assistants?
It turns out that Amazon knew a lot. It gave his virtual assistant Alexa a great variety of skills. Then Google’s assistant, who introduced your own personal Google, started his tricks.
Siri has received minor upgrades during this entire period, but it is far from the top of the class. That being said, Apple can still turn things around. Siri has recently received improvements as Apple has picked up about a former Googler. John Giannandrea, to be his VP for machine learning and AI strategy back in 2018. Watch my video above for much more.