Fourth Industrial Revolution

Is Siri about to get smarter?

Luke Peters demonstrates Siri, an application which uses voice recognition and detection on the iPhone 4S, outside the Apple store in Covent Garden, London  October 14, 2011. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett (BRITAIN - Tags: BUSINESS SOCIETY SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY TELECOMS) - RTR2SNOL

A man demonstrates Siri on the iPhone 4S. Image: REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett

Matt Weinberger

As many predicted, Apple officially announced that its Siri digital assistant is coming to the Mac as part of MacOS Sierra, the next free update to the newly-renamed operating system.

In an on-stage demo at Apple's WWDC event, top exec Craig Federighi demonstrated Siri on the Mac, asking her "How do you like being on the Mac?"

"Lots of space, aluminum unibody walls, no complaint about the lack of Windows," Siri answered, a clear dig at Apple's long-time rival Microsoft Windows operating system.

Beyond just dissing Microsoft, Siri on the Mac can answer a lot of the same questions as her iPhone- and iPad-based versions, but she can also intelligently search your Mac's files. In the demo, Federeghi asked Siri to search for "files from Ken marked as draft," and she came back with the correct files.

Apple and Microsoft have been slowly reestablishing their once-intense rivalry: At an iPad event in March, Apple exec Phil Schiller slammed the fact that most Windows PCs are more than 5 years old, quipping "that's really sad."

But it's not all bad blood between the two companies. All versions of Siri use the Bing search engine, which is quickly becoming a nice little business for Microsoft, which may also give Google cause for concern.

In other Siri news, Apple announced that with the forthcoming iOS 10 for iPhone and iPad, it'll be opening up to developers, opening up the door for apps like Slack and Pinterest on the iPhone to be controlled via voice. It's currently unclear if you can get similar integrations on Siri with the Mac.

Read more:

Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

Sign up for free

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Stay up to date:

Fourth Industrial Revolution

Share:
The Big Picture
Explore and monitor how Fourth Industrial Revolution is affecting economies, industries and global issues
A hand holding a looking glass by a lake
Crowdsource Innovation
Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale
World Economic Forum logo
Global Agenda

The Agenda Weekly

A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

Subscribe today

You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.

Closing the AI equity gap: Trust and safety for sustainable development

Keyzom Ngodup Massally and Jennifer Louie

December 3, 2024

1:55

How countries and platforms are making the internet safer for children

About us

Engage with us

  • Sign in
  • Partner with us
  • Become a member
  • Sign up for our press releases
  • Subscribe to our newsletters
  • Contact us

Quick links

Language editions

Privacy Policy & Terms of Service

Sitemap

© 2024 World Economic Forum