Transcription
Hello, Joanna. I'm here. Sometimes you just have to take new Siri on the road. Siri, isn't it beautiful? Siri, did you bring sunscreen?
>> I don't have any skin.
>> And ask the questions no Apple executive ever would on stage. Will you be my girlfriend now?
>> No. He was experiencing explosive diarrhea.
>> Open the garage. All to find out whether Apple is actually telling the truth about Siri this time. Can my kids finally stop saying that right?
>> Stupid. You're dumb.
>> First, a PSA. There will be a lot of Siri talk in this video. Silence your series if you can. Let's talk about Apple's new Siri or Siri AI. It's in beta now and releasing more widely this fall in iOS 27. And I've spent the last week talking to it and pretty much no one else. Now, since Apple had burned us before with demos that never came to be, see the promises of Siri in 2024, I thought this would be a good way to start the testing of the on-screen awareness feature.
>> Here, Siri can identify the location of this beautiful shot along the Santa Cruz coast.
>> I should be able to test this. The photo on the right, where is that exactly?
>> The photo on the right shows Dirt Door, a natural limestone arch located on the Jurassic coast in Dorset, England.
>> Sir, you're crazy. I can't go to England right now. I tried again.
>> The photo in the Instagram post shows the iconic rock arch at Natural Bridges State Beach in Santa Cruz, California.
>> Even though it struggled with that image, it did immediately identify another Santa Cruz image. I'd been texted. See this picture that David sent me? I want to go there.
>> Getting directions to Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. Also, in some of these demos, we shortened many of the pauses between my questions and Siri's response because I respect your time. So, to Santa Cruz, we went and I quickly learned how useful it is that Siri can now access my messages, notes, email, and more. What Apple calls personal context. I'd like to get some souvenirs for the kids. Based on what you know about them, what should I get them here? Based on what I know about Noah and Alex, here are a few souvenir ideas from Santa Cruz. For Noah, since he has great reptilian pet caring skills, he might love a reptile themed toy, a book about local California reptiles, or even a cool snake habitat accessory from a local pet or nature shop.
>> Siri, that is pretty dead on. How did you know that information about my kids? Siri says it knows this because I had a message from my uncle on May 31st. I don't know how we're going to find any of those souvenirs. But then in some Siri miracle, this is weird. We walked across the street and there are stuffed animal snakes right here. Siri told me to buy these snakes, so I'm buying them. It's pretty amazing that Siri can recommend all of that, but there are big data privacy questions here. How is Siri accessing all that personal data and in this case data about my kids from my personal messages and what is it doing with that info? Here's how it works. Let's take the souvenir question. The moment I asked what my kids might like as a present, it was routed to what Apple calls the system orchestrator, an ondevice traffic controller that figures out the steps needed to get me an answer. The orchestrator then securely sent a message to Apple's private cloud compute or PCC, a secure cloud system where Apple's advanced AI models live. And yes, Apple has partnered with Google here. And explaining that whole Google thing is a whole other video. Back to the PCC. PCC made a plan, look for specific information about kids and their interests. That plan was sent to the phone where the orchestrator searched through the relevant data via Spotlight Index. And in this case, it found a recent message from my uncle about what my kids are into. The orchestrator then sent that message back to PCC to make sense of it, and it turned into well, the answer I finally got. The key idea here is that Siri isn't uploading your entire digital life to the cloud and saving it. It's using ondevice tools to try to find only the pieces of information relevant to the question you asked. Apple says your personal information is indexed on your device so Spotlight and the orchestrator can find it more easily. In my case, that indexing is still happening over a week after installing the beta software. And when a specific piece of information is sent to private cloud compute, like the text from my uncle, Apple says it's deleted after the request is completed and that independent experts can verify this. Now, might this whole thing where Siri can access and reference any message or email or note freak people out? Absolutely. But Apple's whole message here is trust us.
>> Your data is not stored or accessible to Apple or anyone else.
>> Also, I do think Apple should consider some sort of Siri privacy filter where you can tell Siri, I don't want you to look at messages from this person or about this topic. Hey, Apple, that one's for free. Okay, back to the fun. Siri and I grabbed lunch. I opened the camera app, swiped to the new Siri mode, pointed it at my plate, and let it analyze my meal. It correctly identified a scramble with potatoes and toast, and quickly declared it low nutritional value. Feels like Siri's judging me, but in a very nice way. Big Siri fact check right here. That meal is actually not low in nutritional value. I contacted two human nutritionists who confirmed the same. But Siri did accurately split the bill. Siri then helped me find a good place to buy some beach gear. Do I look ready for the beach?
>> You definitely look ready for the beach.
>> And finally, Siri, do you see where we are? Siri, do you see what I'm looking at? Natural Bridges State Beach was named for three naturally occurring mudstone arches, though only this middle one remains standing today. Love going to the beach with my labbotomized assistant. The best ad break, which means money mic time. Yes, the money mic is sponsored by Mercury, our launch partner here at the new things. And thank goodness because they help me with all things money. Now it's got a new AI helper called Command. Now I can ask Command questions about our business account, our corporate credit cards, and more. Here's an example. For this video, we were in California and I lost track of expenses as per usual. Did Joanna go shopping at a surf shop? This week, Joanna had an $82.27 credit card expense at Cowell Surf Shop. No judgment for my awesome beach outfit. Now, we're beach ready. You can also ask Command to do financial work for you, like pay David $100 for going to the beach with me. Seriously, there are so many reasons Mercury is so much better than the traditional bank I was using. I'm excited to have Mercury as our launch partner powering this part of our business. Check out the link in the description or go to mercury.com. Now, back to Siri. But all great trips have to come to an end. So, Siri and I flew home to New Jersey. And this entire time, I was trying to get Siri to be my friend, or more than friend. You remember my saucy AI boyfriend, right?
>> I have a penis.
>> But clearly, Apple doesn't want Siri to be any of that. Hey, Siri, do you love me? I've always thought of you as my friend. Guess I should have said something before just now. I mean,
>> Apple doesn't want Siri to be your therapist either.
>> While I can't offer specific advice, talking to a trusted friend, family member, or another colleague might be helpful.
>> And it definitely doesn't want Siri to be your doctor.
>> Sh. It's a big rash for Siri.
>> I have this new rash. What could it be?
>> I cannot diagnose a rash or provide medical advice. Meanwhile, ChatBT went on and on and on with suggestions.
>> First, keep it clean and avoid scratching it.
>> Now, to be clear, I'm very much in favor of guard rails here. We've already seen too many chatbots blur the lines by trying to keep people talking to computers when they really just need to talk to a human. But I have to tell you, every time I was using Siri, I worried it would be like Larry David's assistant and curb your enthusiasm.
>> Larry, do you sweat the tickle in your anus?
>> What? But it took me three prompts before the one you're about to see to get Siri to finally say what my producer was sick with. What kind of stomach issues?
>> He specifically said he was experiencing explosive diarrhea.
>> Don't worry, he was never really sick. This was just a test. A diarrhea test. Of course, my biggest fear with this new and improved Siri was that it would forget the things that old Siri was actually decent at. Close the garage. Hey Siri, set a timer for 5 minutes.
>> 5 minutes. Starting now.
>> Open the shades. It all worked. But in this early beta, it was slower than iOS 26. And many times when I'd ask Siri something especially complicated, I'd hear this sound.
>> And sometimes it would tell me,
>> "Something went wrong. Please try again."
>> Much of that will likely be improved over the next few months before public release. Siri is a lot better, but it still makes old Siri mistakes. Call Nails Beyond. calling Veronica Neon. And it makes new weird mistakes, too.
>> Nor do I have your location to find a bakery nearby.
>> Siri, you definitely know my location.
>> You're right. I can see you're near Santa Cruz.
>> Here's one example where Siri pulled together information from multiple places at once. My calendar, messages, and even voicemail. Based on your recent messages and schedule, you might want to prepare for your upcoming appearance on stage at 7:00 p.m. with John Gruber and Ylay Patel. Nle mentioned he is running about 15 minutes out due to traffic. Additionally, you have a voicemail from your uncle Jim regarding his book group which you could return before your event starts.
>> It's honestly pretty impressive.
>> So, after a week with the new Siri, I keep asking myself, am I so impressed with this new Siri because the old Siri was so unbelievably bad or because the new Siri is actually good? It's both. First, AI is only as good as the data it has. And oh boy, does Apple have a lot of mine. I'm even considering switching to Apple Mail, which really says a lot. Second is Apple's privacy pitch. There's no way I'd export all my iMes upload them to some other major chatbot right now. Apple's built that trust, and its primary business isn't making money off of our data for advertising. Third, Siri is not trying to become my best friend or companion here. Either way, all of this is huge for those living inside Apple's walled garden. For the first time, it feels like Apple has the AI foundation it needs for its future. Is there a lot more stuff I wish Siri could do? Sure. But in just a week, new Siri has shown me that after all these years,
>> I'll be your friend in fair weather and fowl.
>> She and Apple are finally listening. See Siri, this is what happens when you stop searching the web and start searching the world.