Intelligence Lag

Users of iPhones and MacBooks were eagerly waiting for the fulfilment of an earlier announcement by Apple that its popular digital assistant, Siri, was being further integrated with artificial intelligence (AI) . The promise was that anything in the phone or laptop, like emails or app data, could be material for Siri to offer personalised services. Say, someone messaged you about a concert some weeks back and you only had a vague recollection of it. You could ask Siri and it would check, tell you about ticket prices and perhaps even book them. All this will now have to wait because Apple says they have pushed back the AI leap of Siri to next year. It released a statement that said, “We’ve also been working on a more personalized Siri, giving it more awareness of your personal context, as well as the ability to take action for you within and across your apps. It’s going to take us longer than we thought to deliver on these features and we anticipate rolling them out in the coming year.” In hardware, Apple is known for taking its time to bring in features already present in the market, but with their own standout flair and excellence. This strategy might not work for AI considering the furious march of the technology.

Dub Smash

Amazon has announced that it is testing an AI dubbing system that will translate some of its content on Prime Video into other languages. The AI system will generate dubs and professionals will most likely, as per reports, edit them later for accuracy. Apart from Amazon, others too have begun to tap into AI, like YouTube’s dubbing tool, released last year, which allows creators to automatically dub their videos in other languages.

New Disruptor In Town

Not long after Chinese startup DeepSeek caused a stir with the launch of its DeepSeek-R1 model, another Chinese startup, Monica, has begun to create buzz with its AI agent Manus. Currently available as an invitation-only web preview, it is believed to be capable of executing practical and fairly complex tasks, like drawing a holiday itinerary, offering analysis of stocks, and creating coursework for teachers.

Robot Brain

A Shanghai-based startup, Agibot, recently unveiled a AI model that can enable humanoid robots to understand and perform real-world tasks. Called Genie Operator-1, the model is designed to serve as a general-purpose brain for humanoid robots. In a demonstration video, its robots were shown making toasts, coffee and handing out badges as a receptionist. Other startups too are trying to develop AI-powered brains for robots.

AI leapAmazonartificial intelligenceDeepSeekSiriTech talktechnology