Early testing suggests Apple’s redesigned Siri will know when to stop responding, and that appears to be intentional. In an interview with Mostly Human, spotted by MacRumors, Craig Federighi said Apple’s new Siri will not behave like chatbots from OpenAI, Google, and other companies that often try to keep users engaged.
“As you may know, if you use many of the existing chatbots, they’re really focused on engagement to a large degree,” said Federighi, Apple’s software chief. “And sycophancy, right? They kind of want to pull you in. They might encourage you to reveal things about yourself, and then use that as a basis to establish a connection.”
Apple says it has taken a different approach with Siri. “We view it quite the opposite,” Federighi said. “I mean, the way that we have designed Siri, Siri really wants to say ‘Listen, that’s not what I’m here for, right? I’m here to help you. I can help you get things done. I can help you learn about the world.’ But if you try to engage Siri as a romantic partner, Siri’s not up for that. Siri’s 100 percent not into that.”
The interview, which also included Apple marketing chief Greg Joswiak, covered a range of topics, including privacy and the company’s new child safety protections.
