Apple to simplify the wake-up method of the Siri digital assistant service

Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman hinted in a recent piece that Apple may announce an update to their digital assistant, Siri, during WWDC 2023. This update is anticipated to simplify the activation process, which currently requires the keyword ‘Hey, Siri’, to a simplified ‘Siri’ to prompt a query.

Although it may seem minor, the shift from ‘Hey, Siri’ to just ‘Siri’ reduces the auditory reference points for identifying the wake word. This comes with the added complexity of discerning accents or dialectical nuances, thereby increasing the difficulty of voice recognition.

Transitioning to a simplified ‘Siri’ would likely render the digital assistant more intuitive in its application, bringing its user interface more in line with Amazon’s digital assistant, Alexa.

Additionally, Apple may expand Siri’s interoperability with third-party services, enhancing its cognitive capabilities to better understand the context between successive inquiries, thereby reducing repetitive queries from users.

Whether Apple will adopt automated generative artificial intelligence and develop its own large-scale natural language model for the Siri digital assistant service is yet to be seen, with more details possibly emerging from WWDC 2023.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, enhancements to the Siri digital assistant service are expected to be one of the key updates at WWDC 2023.