Apple is reportedly increasing its AI efforts after recent moves from other companies, and tvOS appears to be the first testing platform for an upgraded Siri.
A report on Thursday from 9to5Mac claims evidence of expanded Siri features in the tvOS 16.4 beta, said to be codenamed “Bobcat.” The new framework, called “Siri Natural Language Generation,” starts with using language generation to tell jokes but could also extend to timers.
Generative AI refers to algorithms that can create content such as audio, images, text, and videos. For example, Siri currently relies upon a database of known information but isn’t capable of creating anything in response to a user’s question.
Former Apple engineer John Burkey recently said that upgrading Siri required engineers to rebuild the entire database, and the process could take up to six weeks. But generative capabilities might help Siri provide information more quickly, though Burkey doesn’t believe that Siri will become a chatbot like ChatGPT.
So far, Apple has reportedly released the new AI features to tvOS. If the rumor is true, the company will likely expand the technology to the rest of its operating systems.
