Monday was all about Siri. Apple’s WWDC 2024 keynote centered entirely on its voice assistant’s AI overhaul.
Suddenly Siri isn’t just for finding pizza joints or setting timers. It can now dig through your message threads to see who sent that landmark photo. It checks if your friend lives nearby. No more scrolling. Just ask. It can even change passwords for eligible accounts.
Read more: Apple AI Just Got a Huge Overhead at WWDC. Here’s the Lowdown
This feels like handing over the keys to someone you haven’t really vetted.
Currently Siri struggles with anything multi-step. It wants help at every turn. The new Siri? It’ll roam your Messages photos and browser tabs to finish tasks alone. Apple showed a demo for a World Cup party plan. Siri pulled a dessert idea from an old text created the menu and invited everyone. One tap. Crosses iPhone iPad Mac and Apple Watch too.
Sounds efficient right?
Maybe.
But do you really want that access?
I love Apple. I have probably bought every product since 1997. I do not trust this level of autonomy. Handing an AI the job of executing complex workflows end to end feels like gambling. What happens when it gets the date wrong? Or the password?
There is the whole question of security too. Even with Apple’s heavy privacy guarantees. Data breaches happen. Hackers find ways in. Who takes the fall when Siri AI auto-signs into the wrong service?
I use Siri for basics.
- Directions.
- “Tell Mark I’m 5 minutes late.”
- Alarm clocks.
- Spotify control.
That is enough. I might even let it draft a quick calendar invite. It’s fast and the output usually matches what I’d write anyway. I feel safe there because the stakes are low.
Giving Siri full reign means I touch my phone less.
But I also lose control.
There is a strange beauty in the manual hunt. Finding that photo of my son graduating while digging through messages to confirm our snack order for movie night. It connects me to the data. AI flattens that into a summary. I lose the context. I lose the connection.
AI chatbots are famously bad at truth.
They hallucinate. They mix up dates. They ignore instructions. Doing the work myself keeps errors in check. I prefer the friction. It keeps me present. Letting an algorithm sift through texts about picking up my kid? No thanks. The security promise does not erase the creep factor.
Skepticism is real out there.
A March NBC poll showed AI ranking as one of the most disliked topics in the US. CNET surveyed Apple users last year. Only 12% would upgrade phones specifically for better AI.
Most of us just want phones that work.
Tech giants keep forcing these features onto us anyway. Updates are bundled tightly. Opting out is hard or invisible. Hardware and software merge into one unbreakable package. Siri AI wasn’t just a feature at this year’s event. It was the only thing on stage. Other updates got buried.
I’m not jumping on this train.
I’ll keep data permissions locked down tight. I don’t want Siri in my calendar. Not my emails. Not my contacts.
A bot might be faster.
I sleep better knowing I’m the one pushing the buttons. Even if it takes a minute longer.
