Tim Cook will front his last major Apple event as CEO tomorrow morning Australian time when he hosts the company’s all-important Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). Before handing over the reins, Cook is expected to deliver a voice assistant that finally lives up to the hype.
WWDC OPENING KEYNOTE BEGINS 3AM TUESDAY 9TH JUNE (Sydney Time)
Siri has been on Apple’s books since Cook took over as CEO in 2011. Since then, Apple has powered on to enormous heights under Cook’s leadership. The market cap of the company is more than US$4.5 trillion, second only to AI darling NVIDIA. So Tim Cook’s reign has been a runway success.
But … AI has been a thorn in Apple’s side since it exploded onto the global scene with ChatGPT. When Siri can’t give you an answer, it needs to ask ChatGPT for help. Apple’s focus on privacy is one reason why it’s lagged behind the other voice assistants, especially Google recently. Many people would say this is a good thing, but the more an AI knows about you, the better it can serve you.
Ironically, Apple has turned to Google to help fix Siri’s shortcomings. Siri promised so much but never delivered. The long-awaited contextual awareness will change everything. When Siri works, it’s fine, although limited. One example I mentioned on Sky News was playing the right podcast. I’ve been listening to the same podcast for 20 years, and Siri still gets confused most of the time when I ask to play it. For the record, the podcast is ‘This Week in Tech’, often followed by ‘MacBreak Weekly’. I’m often left frustrated like many other users and cannot wait until ‘Siri 2.0’ officially lands.
Tim Cook will officially step down as CEO on September 1st, handing the reins to Hardware Engineering SVP John Ternus. In the meantime, Cook will preside over WWDC, a gathering of the Apple faithful, in person and online. WWDC is primarily a software event, and nothing is more vital for Apple than getting AI on track for the hardware coming in September.
