LOS ANGELES June 8 — When Apple holds its developer conference at its Cupertino, California headquarters on Monday, the big draw will be a widely expected overhaul to Siri, the AI assistant the iPhone maker two years ago promised, but failed, to improve.

Siri debuted in 2011 and is accessible through the bulk of Apple’s installed base of 2.5 billion devices, but hundreds of millions of consumers have been chatting with apps from OpenAI and Anthropic instead. In China and elsewhere, consumers are turning to AI agents — bots that can carry out complex tasks on behalf of human users - to manage daily schedules and take care of rote tasks.

But analysts say Apple is still sitting on an AI gold mine in the form of the personal data that lives on every iPhone — emails, messages, calendar appointments and other information scattered across the operating system and apps. That data could make Siri’s answers more useful and make the assistant more helpful and competent at carrying out tasks.

Apple’s challenge is that such data is locked down in its operating systems in the name of privacy and security. Third-party apps purposely cannot read data from one another, and even Apple cannot access much of it without a user’s permission.

Its task will be unlocking the power of that data, both for itself and for developers.

“They have to make Siri not suck, but Apple also has to put the framework together of how their developers can take advantage of AI themselves,” said Patrick Moorhead, founder of tech consulting firm Moor Insights & Strategy. “It sounds kind of boring, but AI is all about data, because data is what creates context and what creates better results.”

To be sure, Apple has hardly been punished by Wall Street for its approach to AI. Its shares are up about 50 per cent over the past year, less than the roughly 120 per cent gain of Google parent Alphabet, which has benefited from the success of its Gemini model, but also better than Microsoft’s 7 per cent decline in that time. That firm has suffered from being perceived as falling behind the capabilities of rivals such as Anthropic, in part due to Microsoft’s close ties to OpenAI.

Developers await Siri tweaks

The most visible moves for Monday will likely be the introduction of a “chat” mode with Siri and a “personal context” option to share that data with the assistant, said Andrew Cornwall, a senior analyst with tech research firm Forrester.

Cornwall expects Apple to let developers plug their apps into Siri using what Apple calls “extensions” and let those developers choose among AI models from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google’s Gemini in their apps. Apple also might introduce a new method of tapping into the AI processing capabilities of its custom chips, Cornwall said.

The point on which analysts tend to agree is that Apple is likely to frame AI not as a technology but rather as experiences or features that its customers will find helpful. Polls have found the US public uneasy about AI, and while Apple customers in other major markets such as China view AI more positively, Apple has historically never embraced technology for technology’s sake.

While Nvidia and Microsoft this year have spent time trying to tame OpenClaw, a technology that can direct an army of AI agents on a personal computer to log into a user’s online services and carry out tasks for business users, Ben Bajarin, CEO of tech consultancy Creative Strategies, does not expect Apple to follow suit just yet.

Bajarin said he does not expect Apple to put much emphasis on emerging technologies like OpenClaw, which still have potential security issues.

“It’s way too early for the consumer,” Bajarin said. “Honestly, I’m not even sure businesses are ready for this in an uncontrolled context.” — Reuters 

LONDON, June 11 — Homelessness in the UK is “entirely preventable” thanks to AI-supported technology, Prince William told the London Tech Week conference yesterday.

The heir to the British throne spoke as his homeless charity, Homewards, launched the Homelessness Data Lab — a national collaboration it said can improve how data and technology flag “clear warning signs long before” someone loses their home.

This could involve the sharing of personal data on an individual’s finances, welfare benefits and health between different bodies, prompting some cautionary comments elsewhere at London Tech Week surrounding data privacy.

“Homelessness is not inevitable, it is entirely preventable, it is predictable,” William said during a panel discussion.

The prince said “data and the technology” can be used “to keep people in their homes, their jobs, their communities, families, at school”.

“In life, prevention is better than the cure,” the royal told a packed conference hall.

Homewards notes that there are more than 430,000 people in the UK experiencing homelessness, half of whom are children.

Data privacy 

Dan Hughes, a trustee of the property sector charity LandAid that is partnering with Homewards to deliver the data lab, cautioned that data privacy needed to be respected while seeking to tackle homelessness with the help of tech.

“We can throw huge amounts of data at solving this, but a lot of it is about individuals and people,” he told a separate London Tech Week event yesterday.

“We need to make sure that we take best practice on personal data and how we can leverage that information without risking privacy.”

Zahra Bahrololoumi, chief executive of Salesforce UK and Ireland, a tech company also involved with the data lab, said “AI will help... identify the interventions that will actually work” in preventing homelessness.

“Our mission is to reduce the administrative burden on frontline workers,” she said sat alongside William.

“We are applying AI tooling... (that) will enable the frontline worker to focus on the individuals and families that need the support the most,” she added. — AFP