Google is considering a GPT-style brain transplant for its flagship Assistant. Long positioned as an AI-based tool to accomplish searches and other functions through voice prompts, it may now be subject to a teardown. This flows from the recent acceleration in underlying tech and standards around AI.
All of this comes to us from Axios, which reports that Google is working on a major Assistant upgrade, with GPT-based conversational AI at its core. As part of this move, it will reorganize the team currently working on Assistant (read: layoffs). This could meaningfully uplevel Google Assistant.
Moreover, this raises an important question for the crop of AI assistants that are currently coasting on the previous generation of AI innards. Do you replace the tool altogether – likely with something that has the initials GPT? Or do you renovate these established apps with the latest and greatest AI chops?
Upgrade or Usurp
If this question sounds familiar, it’s because we discussed it on last week’s This Week in Local podcast, and in a companion article here on Localogy Insider. Stemming from rumors around “Apple GPT,” we posed the question of whether or not this means the end of the Achilles heel that is Siri.
But a fast follow-up to that question (posed by TWiL cohost Charles Laughlin) is whether you swap out Siri with its younger and faster GPT-based counterpart, or perform a complete down-to-the-studs renovation. And it appears Google has chosen the latter. But like a lot of things, it depends…
Breaking down the pros and cons, legacy products have brand equity (pro). Conversely, and to varying degrees, they may also have brand baggage (con). Google Assistant’s brand baggage may or may not be as great as Siri’s, which could be one reason Google is choosing to upgrade rather than usurp.
As for Siri’s performance, it’s great for predictable system functions such as setting timers and weather updates (some people love it for these functions). But answering practical questions, and doing so with natural language (NLP) inputs, often results in exchanges that leave you wanting more.
The big issue for Apple is that Siri’s shortcomings continue to drag down the UX of its high-end products. This is a costly blemish for a company whose brand ethos exudes the strict standards of clean and elegant UX design. Apple is likely eager for an AI assistant that lives up to that standard.
Ep. 32 Asks Will Apple GPT Kill Siri & Does “X” Mark the Super App?
Key Moment
Apple’s challenge with Siri also comes down to how embedded it is. Yes, Google Assistant is embedded throughout Google products… but Google is mostly software. Siri is emblazoned on Apple products such as Siri the button on your iPhone and Apple TV remote. This creates a switching cost for Apple.
For either company, now is a key moment. And that statement is perhaps truer for Apple than it is for Google. Unlike Google, AI isn’t a core competency for Apple. But the availability GPT-based APIs from the likes of OpenAI essentially level the playing field. It represents Apple’s chance to get AI right.
In that sense, this is the moment Apple has been waiting for. By developing a decent AI engine on top of underlying conversational AI tech from OpenAI, it can elevate its native voice assistant to a quality that lives up to its UX standards. This could engender Apple-esque polish that isn’t blemished by Siri.
And that brings us back to the question of renovate or replace? For Google, the answer seems to be the former, if Axios’ reporting is correct. For Apple, it’s less clear-cut. We’ll watch closely to see what it does… and how the same question applies to other legacy AI assistants. We’re looking at you Alexa.
