Apple’s AI moment is coming

Image: Alex Parkin / The VergeStarting this fall, it appears Siri is going to be much more powerful. Whether this is good news or a harbinger of infinite technological frustration depends on how you feel about Siri, AI, virtual...

Jun 7, 2024 - 21:02

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On The Vergecast: a lot of chips news, a WWDC preview, and a $56 billion motivational tactic.

By David Pierce, editor-at-large and Vergecast co-host with over a decade of experience covering consumer tech. Previously, at Protocol, The Wall Street Journal, and Wired.

Jun 7, 2024, 1:11 PM UTC

Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge

Starting this fall, it appears Siri is going to be much more powerful. Whether this is good news or a harbinger of infinite technological frustration depends on how you feel about Siri, AI, virtual assistants, and the whole idea that your devices should be able to do stuff on your behalf. Either way, it seems virtually certain that at Apple’s WWDC event on Monday, we’re going to hear an awful lot about how Siri can make your life better.

This year’s WWDC is actually an important one for Apple. CEO Tim Cook and others have been hinting that this is when Apple will reveal its grand plans for AI and end the notion that Apple is somehow behind Google, OpenAI, and the rest. What will it look like, though? Who knows! But it’s going to be AI, and it’s going to be everywhere.

On this episode of The Vergecast, we preview what’s coming at WWDC and whether a heaping helping of AI is actually what Apple devices need. But before we get to that, we run through a laundry list of gadget news, from Intel’s new chips to Humane’s would-be buyers to Palmer Luckey’s new Game Boy. After that, it’s WWDC time.

Once we finish talking about Apple, and how Alex Cranz wants to use AI to ugly up her phone real good, we do a proper lightning round and talk about streaming price hikes, Chromebooks, Elon Musk, and whether $56 billion is enough to motivate someone to care about their job. Tough question, really.

If you want to know more about everything we discuss in this episode, here are a few links to get you started, first with the week’s gadget news:

And on WWDC:

And in the lightning round: