Apple Hiring Engineers to Improve Struggling Siri

Artificial intelligence is a massive trend currently and with the popularity of smart speakers globally, it looks like Apple want to improve Siri further. The virtual assistant known as Siri is world renowned as one of the best AI systems for personal use, Apple has posted several job openings for engineers to work on the technology around the world.

Data accumulated by Thinknum shows that the number of open vacancies that contain the term “Siri” has inflated in the last few weeks. An all-time high of 161 job listing was posted on March 31st alone, proving that Apple intends on expanding there Siri service on a large scale.

Thinknum is a web-driven platform that allows investors to receive data-driven investment ideas by monitoring company’s websites for any changes. Thinknum said that the Siri keyword has jumped by 24% in just over a month which marks a time for hiring.

The Data also stated that most the job openings are based in Apple’s new HQ in the Santa Clara Valley. Of the 161 openings, 125 will be based there.

Recently, Apple has been under a lot of pressure to improve Siri due to its “lagging intelligence”. Several media reports have suggested that Siri’s AI performance is below the current standard in comparison to the likes of Amazon’s Alexa and the Google Assistant.

A recent study by investment firm Loup Ventures has proven that Siri falls in third within the three speaker giants. There are 782 standardised questions that are used to test the AI capabilities and Siri on the HomePod answered 52% of the questions adequately. In comparison, the Amazon Echo answer 64% correctly and the Google Home was astonishing at 81%.

Apple is known for excelling in the technology sector and currently, it looks like the HomePod and Siri are lacking in comparison to other brands. This has likely lead to the need for fresh recruitment and it looks like Apple are going to do everything to become the best.

It’s likely the mobile app development will be an area they need to cover next, with the current feedback from the iPhone X, a lot of app developers haven’t been kept in the loop with the new format and apps aren’t integrating to it as planned.