Tim Cook Envious of OpenAI’s Sam Altman

Tim Cook of Apple is a tech boss who is likely feeling rather envious of OpenAI following the release of their most recent ChatGPT version

Unlike Apple’s assistant, ChatGPT-4o communicates in a conversational manner that is replete with emotion; no “wake words” or specific commands such as “Hey Siri!” are required.

ChatGPT takes another significant step forward as Siri and Amazon’s Alexa remain neutral.

On Monday, Mira Murati, chief technology officer of Open AI, demonstrated the audio mode of ChatGPT-4o, a voice chat assistant.

It is designed to converse with you in a natural, back-and-forth fashion. (To be fair, we have only seen a portion of ChatGPT-4o in a strictly regulated public demonstration; therefore, we shall determine its true nature in person.)

The parallels to the female voice assistant in the film “Her” were so evident that Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, even commented on it via Twitter.

It is unknown whether this characteristic can be modified, but the voice conversation assistant is feminine and capable of displaying a range of emotions, including excitement, friendliness, and sarcasm.

In the interim, Apple executives are likely fuming with envy. The New York Times reported last week that senior Apple executives ordered a significant redesign of Siri after testing ChatGPT the previous year.

Siri, which has existed for more than ten years, is indispensable for many duties but is also extremely limited. It requires the phrase “Hey, Siri” to be activated, and it cannot carry on conversations that occur organically.

If you’ve ever used Siri, you know how frequently it fails to comprehend your speech or carry out your commands.

Amazon’s voice assistant, Alexa, has experienced a similar issue. Alexa provides information such as the weather and music in my residence.

However, upon exploring generative AI chatbots, I couldn’t help but observe how much less intelligent Alexa seems in comparison; she is rudimentary and unable to perform basic tasks such as selecting a specific album from Spotify rather than an artist playlist.

OpenAI has developed a voice assistant chatbot that surpasses Siri’s current capabilities. Tim Cook must be feeling slightly inspired.

However, Apple retains a significant advantage whenever it redesigns Siri with AI: It is already the voice assistant on your iPhone, which is enormous.