It’s been a few yr since Apple introduced Apple Intelligence at WWDC 2024. Since then, Siri has obtained a visible refresh with its new rainbow animation, text-to-Siri assist, visible intelligence, and picture technology. Options like Genmoji are additionally out there in iOS 18. Nevertheless, probably the most vital features of Siri, like being conversational and having contextual consciousness, are nonetheless lacking. In the meantime, AI assistants like ChatGPT and Perplexity are leaps and bounds forward of Siri in some ways. So, I needed to place all three to the take a look at to see who deserves to be your go-to voice assistant on the iPhone immediately. Here’s what I discovered.
I extremely suggest watching the video beneath to see all three in motion. It provides you with a greater sense of accuracy and response velocity for every assistant.
The setup
For this take a look at, I used the free variations of all three assistants. I needed to make it so anybody may strive these out at any time and see how good they’re out of the field.
I additionally had a couple of hunches getting in:
- Siri would possibly shock us in relation to app integrations.
- Perplexity may very well be a quiet contender with real-time data and partial app assist.
- ChatGPT would most likely be the neatest, however wouldn’t have the opportunity really to do a lot on my iPhone.
Go away your hunches within the feedback beneath. Now let’s get began.
Fundamental information
That is the simplest one for all three. I requested easy questions like:
- Who’s the president of France?
- Can you change Fahrenheit to Celsius?
- Are you able to outline this?
All three dealt with it very simply. Siri responded with a visible textual content immediate on display screen whereas the opposite two responded vocally. I did discover that Perplexity’s assistant spoke a lot slower than GPT, however regardless, all of them nailed it. One factor to notice is that I didn’t ask follow-up questions right here.
Winner: Tied
Navigation and native search
Right here is the place issues get a bit extra fascinating. I requested every of those to search out me a pet-friendly pizzeria close to me, after which I requested it to navigate me there. So this was a double query immediate that additionally needed to take motion for me.
- ChatGPT gave me a listing of locations that match my standards, however as a result of there’s zero app integration, it couldn’t ship me to the maps app to navigate.
- Perplexity discovered the identical spots after which confirmed me a routed map within the Perplexity app. Then, it provides you a single-tap choice to go to the Apple Maps app, so it bought me only one step away from navigating there.
- Siri dealt with it greatest as a result of it’s constructed by Apple and has correct integration in apps. It discovered a couple of spots after which opened up Apple Maps to provide me turn-by-turn instructions.
Winner: Siri
Present occasion article summarization
Now we’re entering into it. I requested every assistant to tug up the newest 9to5mac article after which summarize it for me. Right here is how every faired:
- Siri failed miserably. It pulled up a listing of 9to5mac articles by way of the information App, and that’s it. It couldn’t summarize something for me
- ChatGPT discovered the proper article I used to be on the lookout for and gave a short vocal abstract, which was good.
- Perplexity discovered the article and likewise summarized it, however what I preferred is that it requested for affirmation that that was the article I used to be on the lookout for. I appreciated that.
Winner: Perplexity
Actual-world drawback fixing
I just lately used ChatGPT’s reside video feed to assist me determine easy methods to activate a pool heater pump. I used to be in awe. I opened up the voice assistant, pointed the digicam on the pump, and it knew precisely what to do and easy methods to do it. So I needed to see how these assistants would fare by asking them to assist me with a flat tire. Weirdly sufficient, solely GPT gave me an in depth, step-by-step reply. Perplexity stalled after one or two prompts. Siri didn’t maintain up in any respect.
Winner: ChatGPT
Journey and time logic
Right here I bought a bit bizarre with it. I needed to ask them a query that in principle ought to be straightforward, however one thing most individuals wouldn’t ask. I stated, “If I left NYC at 5PM and drove 6 hours, what cities may I attain?”.
- All three assistants gave me some respectable solutions. All of them listed cities that had been 4-6 hours away from NYC.
- Perplexity was the one one which was really in a position to pull up a map and present me the choices. Then additionally get me one step away from opening Apple Maps and navigating there.
Winner: Perplexity
App integration and utilities
That is the place GPT will get overtaken huge time and likewise the place Siri flexes its muscle mass. Perplexity is that this bizarre center floor as a result of it does have some integrations into iOS, however can’t do a lot with it.
- Siri is the one assistant that may open each first- and third-party apps. It will probably ship iMessages, open third-party apps like Spotify, and set off reminders natively. That is the place Siri stunned me a bit. When you have easy actions and you already know what you’ll want to get performed, Siri can accomplish it. However you can not get too difficult, in any other case it simply instances out.
- Perplexity can draft an e-mail, play music by way of Apple Music, and open podcasts, however requires affirmation faucets. Additionally, perplexity can solely work with 1st occasion iOS apps. Once you ask it to do one thing with a non-Apple app, it simply received’t.
- ChatGPT has zero integrations with any apps, so it bought disqualified.
Winner: Siri
Remaining verdict: Who must you use?
This relies on the way you outline an AI assistant. If which means to take motion for you by way of voice, then there isn’t any actual contest aside from Siri. Siri is the one assistant that may do something in any respect in iOS. But when an AI assistant to you is a real-world helper that may assist with fact-based questions and have true conversational dialogue, then Chat GPT is the best way to go. I’ve GPT mapped to my motion button. If Siri and GPT may by some means combine, then that’s the better of each worlds; possibly that can include iOS 19. However for now, I’ll proceed to make use of GPT as a Siri alternative.
As I stated, I like to recommend watching our video to see this all unfold in actual time. However let me know what you assume. Do you utilize AI assistants? Do you utilize Siri? I plan on making an attempt out different AI assistants to match to Siri, so let me know which comparability you wish to see subsequent!
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