Don’t Expect Too Much From Apple Intelligence

You just keep trying to kick that football, Charlie Brown.

Wednesday, October 23rd, 2024

I live just down the street from the home of both the Boston Celtics and the Boston Bruins, TD Garden. Games, concerts, and other shows at this arena can impact me greatly, so I frequently want to know “What’s happening at the Garden tonight?”. For several years, answering this question has involved skimming through the TD Garden schedule. That does do the trick, but it’s more work than I’d like.

After updating my iPhone to iOS 18.1 and activating the much-hyped Apple Intelligence, I thought I’d give Siri yet another shot. With its new brain, I thought perhaps it might now be able to handle the task of finding and reading a calendar for me. Guess how that went!

First, I asked Siri “Who’s playing at TD Garden tonight?”. Rather than a direct answer, it kicked back a series of Google search results:

A Siri response to the question “Who’s playing at TD Garden tonight?”, which lists three web search results

To be fair, this reply does contain the desired information within its results. However, that requires parsing through them. It’s not the simple and definitive answer I’m after.

So, I tried again. In this particular case, I actually knew it was the Celtics home opener, so I asked “Do the Celtics play tonight?”:

A Siri response to the question “Do the Celtics play tonight?”, which shows their upcoming game against the Knicks

Here, I did get the type of single specific response I was after. And yet, even this was lacking in critical details. The home team is usually on the right in displays such as this, but there’s nothing that confirms that hunch. It could say “Knicks @ Celtics”, or detail where the game is taking place, but it does not.

Siri does in fact know the game’s location, as seen when I asked “Where do the Celtics play tonight?”:

A Siri response to the question “Where do the Celtics play tonight?”, which shows that Siri knows they’re playing at TD Garden

Siri knew the exact expected answer to this query, and thus it ought to have known the answer to my original query as well. And yet there I was, three questions in before finally getting the desired information.

Perhaps you’re wondering how ChatGPT would handle “Who’s playing at TD Garden tonight?”. The answer is “with aplomb”:

ChatGPT nailing the answer to the quesiton

Yes, it got it in one, and even tossed in details about the Celtics championship celebration. That’s the kind of answer I want from a personal assistant. It’s also the kind of answer Siri has simply never been consistent about providing. Over 12 years ago, I noted just how much Apple was over-promising and under-delivering when it came to Siri. Alas, if my experience is anything to go by, too little has changed.