Unleashing Apple’s True Potential in AI: A Glimpse into the Future
This week, OpenAI announced that apps can now function directly within ChatGPT, allowing users to plan trips, create playlists, and adjust designs from a single interface, thus minimizing the need to switch between various applications. Many are starting to call this integrated app ecosystem the future—imagine a scenario where ChatGPT makes Apple’s App Store obsolete.
Nonetheless, while OpenAI’s app framework presents a potential threat, Apple’s efforts to revitalize Siri—though significantly delayed—may still bear fruit.
It’s worth noting that Apple manages both the hardware and operating systems, boasting approximately 1.5 billion iPhone users globally, while ChatGPT enjoys 800 million active weekly users. If Apple’s strategy proves effective, it could not only strengthen its stance in the app marketplace but also revolutionize the way apps are utilized in an AI-driven landscape.
Apple strives to eliminate the app icon while preserving the applications themselves. Its vision for AI-enhanced computing—first articulated at last year’s developer conference—intends to revamp how iPhone users engage with Siri, potentially transforming app access on mobile devices (think less tapping, more dialogue).
Are apps facing extinction, or will they persist?
This idea is at a crucial crossroads.
Organizing small, clickable icons on your iPhone’s Home Screen for easy content access feels dated. Designed to mimic a simplified desktop, the relevance of apps as a primary method for users to connect with their favorite online services is diminishing.
Today’s users are just as likely to turn to an AI assistant for help as they are to start a Google search or use specific applications like Yelp. Whether they’re asking for their favorite songs through smart speakers or Bluetooth headphones, consulting chatbots for business inquiries, or looking for movie reviews, the landscape is changing.
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The AI, a large language model trained on web-sourced data and various materials, understands user intent and generates responses.
This is arguably more straightforward than sifting through Google’s search results for the correct link. (Google recognized this shift over a decade ago by displaying direct answers on its search result pages.)
Furthermore, AI often aids in discovering the appropriate app on an increasingly crowded iPhone, launching it, and navigating its interface to complete tasks or find solutions.
While ChatGPT’s app system enhances this interaction model, it remains limited to the ChatGPT experience. Users must access their apps via a chatbot interface, which may require some learning. To open an app, it needs to be explicitly mentioned, or users must choose a button directing them to “use the app for the answer.” Specific phrasing is crucial. (Errors can result in users getting stuck on a loading screen, as initial Bloomberg tests have shown!)
We must ask: is this the true future of applications, or merely a stopgap as alternatives emerge? As new options arise—especially those integrated into your iPhone—will users remain loyal to ChatGPT, or will they gravitate back to Siri? The answer is uncertain, but Apple shouldn’t be disregarded, despite Siri’s less-than-stellar reputation.
Siri may currently stir debate, but Apple’s extensive ecosystem presents significant advantages. Users already have their favorite apps installed or can easily find them in the App Store. Many have used these apps for years, which emphasizes the importance of muscle memory!
At the same time, users encounter many obstacles when adopting ChatGPT’s app platform.
Initially, users must install the relevant app and then connect it to ChatGPT via a detailed permission screen, which requires authenticating using an existing username and password and possibly entering a two-factor authentication code.
Once this one-time setup is complete, the experience will likely be more efficient. For example, after generating a Spotify playlist using AI, it can be easily accessed in the Spotify app with a simple tap.
However, this experience may not differ much from Apple’s approach if it successfully implements its strategy. Apple asserts that users will engage with Siri using voice or text to manage their applications.
There are additional drawbacks to OpenAI’s app model. Users can engage with only one app at a time, unlike the advantage of toggling between apps—which is essential for comparing prices or evaluating options between hotels and Airbnbs.
Using apps within ChatGPT may also dilute the branding, presentation, and user experience associated with individual applications. (For those frustrated with Spotify’s cluttered interface, this might be seen as beneficial. However, others may feel differently.) In some cases, using the mobile app might be more intuitive than the ChatGPT version, given its limited flexibility.
Ultimately, persuading users to transition to a different app environment may prove challenging when the benefits of utilizing apps within ChatGPT are not clearly defined—beyond the novelty aspect.
Can Apple salvage Siri’s reputation through AI advancements?
At its WWDC 2024 presentation—definitely not “demoware”—Apple demonstrated how apps would function within this innovative framework, employing AI capabilities like proofreading.
Most importantly, Apple informed developers that numerous AI features could be harnessed with minimal extra effort—like a note-taking app with proofreading or rewriting functionalities. Also, developers who have previously integrated SiriKit into their apps will enjoy enhanced features, enabling users to execute tasks directly within those applications. (SiriKit, a toolkit designed to allow apps to communicate with Siri and Apple’s Shortcuts, has been available since iOS 10.)
These developers will reap immediate rewards when the new Siri version is launched.
Apple stated that its initial focus will include categories like Notes, Media, Messaging, Payments, Restaurant Reservations, VoIP Calling, and Fitness.
Applications in these categories will enable users to perform actions via Siri, meaning that Siri will have access to any menu item from an app. For example, users can ask Siri to show their notes for a presentation in the corresponding app, and it will respond accordingly.
The apps will also be able to access any visible text on the screen through Apple’s standard text systems, possibly allowing for a more intuitive user experience without requiring precisely worded commands. For instance, if users want to wish their grandfather a happy birthday, they just say “FaceTime him” to execute that action.
Apple’s existing Intents framework will also get enhancements to include Apple Intelligence, covering a wide array of applications like Books, Browsers, Cameras, Document Readers, File Management, Journals, Mail, Photos, Presentations, Spreadsheets, Whiteboards, and Word Processors. Apple is developing new pre-defined, trained, and tested “Intents” for developers to utilize.
This could allow users to instruct the photo-editing app Darkroom to apply a cinematic filter to an image through Siri. Additionally, Siri will be able to suggest actions from any app, helping iPhone users uncover the functionalities of their applications and execute those tasks.
Developers are increasingly embracing the App Intents framework introduced in iOS 16, as it facilitates expanded functionalities for integrating their app’s actions and content with platform features, including Spotlight, Siri, the iPhone’s Action button, widgets, controls, and visual search capabilities—not merely relying on Apple Intelligence.
Additionally, unlike ChatGPT, Apple operates its own operating system on its unique hardware, accompanied by an App Store that serves as a discovery channel, offering supporting infrastructure for apps, developer resources, APIs, and frameworks—not merely an AI-powered interface for engaging with applications.
While Apple may need to source some AI technologies from third parties for AI functionalities, it possesses the data necessary for personalizing app recommendations and provides users with privacy-conscious tools to manage the extent of information apps can collect. (We wonder where the “Do Not Track” feature is for ChatGPT’s app ecosystem?)
OpenAI’s model does not inherently incorporate all your apps at launch. It requires developer engagement and relies on the Model Context Protocol (MCP), a newer approach for aligning AI assistants with other platforms. This explains why ChatGPT currently supports only select applications like Booking.com, Expedia, Spotify, Figma, Coursera, Zillow, and Canva. As MCP adoption increases, any delays in broader implementation could provide Apple an opportunity to catch up.
Moreover, reports suggest that Apple’s AI system is nearing completion. Insider testing has reportedly enabled users to perform actions within apps using Siri commands. Bloomberg reported that this intelligent version of Siri integrates seamlessly with various applications, including major services like Uber, AllTrails, Threads, Temu, Amazon, YouTube, Facebook, and WhatsApp. Apple has confirmed it is on schedule for release next year, as cited by TechCrunch.
Apple has an iPhone, while OpenAI has Jony Ive
The iPhone’s status as an app ecosystem will be hard to disrupt, even by a powerful contender like OpenAI.
OpenAI understands this, which is why it is investigating its own hardware possibilities in tandem with Jony Ive, Apple’s former chief designer. Their goal is for their AI to integrate seamlessly into users’ daily routines and habits, potentially necessitating new hardware.
However, recent information suggests that the company has encountered challenges in envisioning a computing model that transcends the smartphone. Simultaneously, public sentiment reveals hesitance towards always-on AI devices, clashing with familiar social conventions and raising privacy apprehensions.
The backlash against AI has affected multiple sectors, visible in the AI device maker Friend’s subway ads in NYC, negative perceptions of Taylor Swift due to her association with AI, and threats to the reputations of various consumer brands. This uncertainty casts doubt on the viability of an OpenAI hardware product.
At present, this indicates that OpenAI’s application strategy primarily revolves around employing its app to manage other applications.
If Apple successfully implements its Siri enhancements, such mediation may become unnecessary.
