Hey, Siri. Are you already smart?

It’s hard to believe Siri was introduced over 13 years ago at this point. And all this time, Apple’s Assistant was mildly useful for doing basic tasks like setting timers and sending messages, but it was eventually overtaken by Google Assistant (now Gemini), Alexa and now ChatGPT.

So how is Apple responding? By deploying a new Siri with Apple Intelligence within the framework of iOS 18.1. The updated Siri has a new design with light animation and stays listening so you can continue the conversation. This means Siri is more context aware. Additionally, you can now tap Siri and ask all kinds of questions about iPhone or iOS and get step-by-step instructions.

New Siri vs. Old Siri: How Smart Is Apple Intelligence? – YouTube

Look on it

To be clear, Siri is still a work in progress as more features still need to be added. This includes ChatGPT Integration it happens iOS 18.2 and the ability to use voice commands with your apps in future updates. But I wanted to know how much smarter Siri is now, so I put a iPhone 15 Pro Max with the new Siri against an iPhone 11 Pro Max running iOS 17 to see how far we’ve come.

New Siri vs Old Siri: Find me the nearest steakhouse

I was feeling peckish, so I asked old and new Siri what steakhouses were nearby. Surprisingly, the old Siri came back with more results in its list, but it wasn’t able to give me the times for entry #2 on the list; it was also a bit slow. This might give me some guidance though.

The new Siri was not only faster, but it could also provide me with times and directions to the second restaurant without me having to press the side button. This is a benefit of the new Siri that keeps listening, which you can see by the glow around the screen.

Winner: New Siri