How Siri Became Apple’s Bad Apple

Twelve years ago I fell in love with Siri, the virtual-assistant app that Apple had just added to the iPhone. Secretary 3.0, I called her. My feelings were widely shared. David Pogue gave her a rave review. Siri, Steve Rohr wrote in The New York Times, "represents the future of Apple as a business.”

Sure glad he was wrong about that!

Unlike like the smart young secretary who typed her way up, Siri never evolved. Now she’s a middle-aged drudge. Her cousins, Alexa and Google Assistant, aren't much better. (To be fair, Alexa will tell me the time of the next high tide when I ask her. Siri diffidently offers me a tide chart and expects me to figure it out myself.) 

Clunky coding (perhaps dating back to a Pentagon project in Siri’s case) and poor strategy doomed Siri and her ilk. See this new Times report. Now the enthusiasm once showered on these early attempts to make Artificial Intelligence useful is lavished on far more powerful A.I. tools, like chatbots.

What about it, Apple? Could you get it right this time?

One ‘Bad Apple’ Can Spoil a Metaphor