Apple finally fixed Siri. So why does it feel anticlimactic?

Apple finally fixed Siri. So why does it feel anticlimactic?

苹果终于修好了 Siri,但为什么感觉反响平平?

After rounds of delays, Siri AI arrived in the consumer beta build of iOS 27, launched in July. The AI assistant now does what Apple promised: It understands your personal context, taps into broad world knowledge to answer your questions, and surfaces relevant information stored on your iPhone. And yet, the arrival feels somewhat anticlimactic. 经过多轮延期,Siri AI 终于在 7 月发布的 iOS 27 消费者测试版中亮相。这款 AI 助手现在实现了苹果的承诺:它能理解你的个人语境,利用广泛的世界知识回答你的问题,并调取存储在 iPhone 上的相关信息。然而,它的到来却让人感觉有些反响平平。

Apple finally has a functional — actually, a fairly impressive — AI assistant, but it’s arrived past the time where such a launch feels novel and exciting. If anything, the AI race has surged ahead in the months and years Apple has dawdled on AI. Today, AI tools are coding and building software, AI agents are completing multistep tasks, and AI is working alongside you, using your computer, reasoning, thinking, remembering, creating media, and more. Being a functional chatbot or AI helper isn’t the breakthrough that it once would have been. 苹果终于拥有了一款功能完备——实际上相当令人印象深刻——的 AI 助手,但它的出现已经错过了那种让人感到新奇和兴奋的时期。在苹果迟疑于 AI 发展的这段时间里,AI 竞赛早已突飞猛进。如今,AI 工具可以编写代码和构建软件,AI 智能体可以完成多步骤任务,AI 还能与你并肩工作,操作你的电脑、进行推理、思考、记忆、创作媒体内容等等。仅仅作为一个功能性的聊天机器人或 AI 助手,已不再是曾经那种具有突破性的成就了。

That is not to say Apple’s Siri AI isn’t valuable or useful. With Siri AI’s launch, Apple delivered on its promises and then some. You can now have natural, back-and-forth conversations with Siri, which has settings that let you tweak the expressivity and pacing of its voice responses. You can also type to the assistant, if you choose, or use it via a dedicated app for the first time, referencing past conversations. 这并不是说苹果的 Siri AI 没有价值或用处。随着 Siri AI 的发布,苹果兑现了它的承诺,甚至做得更多。你现在可以与 Siri 进行自然的双向对话,并且可以通过设置调整其语音回复的表现力和语速。如果你愿意,还可以选择通过打字与助手交流,或者首次通过专用应用程序使用它,并回顾之前的对话。

The assistant can understand your personal context, helping you find things like photos, emails, contacts, texts, or calendar appointments — even when you’re not quite sure what you’re looking for or where. For instance, you could ask it to pull up the last receipt you saved on your iPhone, without saying where it was stored or what the receipt was for, and Siri will find it for you. You can also ask it about things you’ve saved only as a photo, like your driver’s license number from a pic of your license, or a QR code you screenshotted to reference later, as a reminder to visit someone’s website. 该助手能够理解你的个人语境,帮你查找照片、电子邮件、联系人、短信或日历日程等内容——即使你不确定自己在找什么或它存放在哪里。例如,你可以让它调出你保存在 iPhone 上的最后一张收据,而无需说明它存储在哪里或收据的用途,Siri 就能为你找到。你还可以询问仅以照片形式保存的信息,比如从驾照照片中提取驾照号码,或者查找你截图保存的二维码,作为访问某人网站的提醒。

You can launch websites and use apps via Siri, doing things like getting directions, playing music, editing a photo, drafting an email, playing your audiobooks, and much more. Thankfully, Siri now consistently and accurately plays the song, podcast, or audiobook you request on your preferred app — a low bar to be sure, but one where Siri stumbled before. 你可以通过 Siri 启动网站和使用应用程序,执行诸如获取导航、播放音乐、编辑照片、起草电子邮件、播放有声读物等多种操作。值得庆幸的是,Siri 现在能够稳定且准确地在你偏好的应用程序中播放你请求的歌曲、播客或有声读物——这当然是一个很低的标准,但却是 Siri 过去经常出错的地方。

Siri can brainstorm with you, too. Among other things, it can help you refine ideas, learn about a new topic, or explore a recipe — like suggesting something you can make with your random ingredients in your fridge! You can ask when your favorite band is playing or when a particular event is, and Siri answers correctly, giving you the information you need, based on your location. You can use Siri in the camera’s viewfinder to learn about things in the real world or to help you split a restaurant bill with your friends. Siri 还可以与你进行头脑风暴。除其他功能外,它可以帮助你完善想法、学习新主题或探索食谱——比如建议你用冰箱里现有的随机食材做些什么!你可以询问最喜欢的乐队何时演出或特定活动的时间,Siri 都能根据你的位置准确回答并提供所需信息。你还可以在相机取景器中使用 Siri 来了解现实世界中的事物,或者让它帮你与朋友分摊餐厅账单。

In short, it’s exactly what you always hoped Siri would be: a useful assistant that lets you use your iPhone easily, just by talking, and one that can answer questions of any sort instead of shuffling you off to the web. These improvements were made possible by Apple’s partnership with Google for the use of its Gemini AI models. Apple didn’t just slap its name on Gemini AI; it used Google’s technology to train and refine its own proprietary Apple Foundation Models. The result is AI models designed to run on Apple’s own silicon and on its private cloud compute infrastructure and actually work. 简而言之,这正是你一直希望 Siri 成为的样子:一个实用的助手,让你只需通过说话就能轻松使用 iPhone,并且能够回答各种问题,而不是把你推向网页搜索。这些改进得益于苹果与谷歌的合作,使用了后者的 Gemini AI 模型。苹果并没有简单地在 Gemini AI 上贴上自己的标签;它利用谷歌的技术来训练和优化其专有的“苹果基础模型”(Apple Foundation Models)。其结果是,这些 AI 模型被设计为在苹果自研芯片及其私有云计算基础设施上运行,并且真正发挥作用。

Yet, despite finally delivering a functional, helpful version of Siri, it feels almost like Apple fixed a long-standing bug — a forever-broken Siri — rather than doing something revolutionary here. This is how Siri was meant to work all along. The only marvel is that, after so many years of failing to perform tasks correctly, it actually works. The general public who don’t run beta builds on their devices will gain access to the new Siri when Apple officially releases iOS 27, expected in September. 然而,尽管苹果终于推出了一个功能完备且实用的 Siri 版本,但这感觉更像是苹果修复了一个长期存在的漏洞——一个永远坏掉的 Siri——而不是做了一件革命性的事情。这本应是 Siri 一直以来的工作方式。唯一令人惊奇的是,在经历了这么多年的任务执行失败后,它终于能正常工作了。不运行测试版系统的普通大众,将在苹果预计于 9 月正式发布 iOS 27 时用上全新的 Siri。