Latest news with #SoftwareEngineering
Yahoo
22-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
5 Googlers who started as interns share their advice on securing a full-time offer
Five former Google interns shared tips on securing their internships and converting to full-time employees. They emphasized preparing early and aiming for underclassman-targeted internships. Some also suggested being communicative on the job and networking with other Google employees. With internship application season in full swing, you might be wondering how to make the most of your summer gig — and how to turn it into a full-time offer. Landing an internship at a Big Tech company is highly competitive, but having one on your résumé can help you get in early. Google offers general online guidance for navigating the hiring process, including practicing coding on platforms like CodeLab, Quora, and Stack Overflow. The company also suggests keeping your résumé to one page and considering skills relevant to the role. Business Insider spoke to five former Google interns who turned their summer gigs into full-time job offers at the tech giant. They shared their process of landing internships at Google and advice on landing a permanent offer. If you want direct insight from the perspectives of those who landed internships and turned them into full-time jobs, keep reading. Nancy Qi graduated in the winter and planned to return to Google full-time last June after spending three summers there as an intern, the first two with STEP and the last with Google's Software Engineering internship. Her primary advice: start early. Qi said she started taking data structure classes in high school at a community college and was practicing with leet code the summer before she started college, well before she had interviews lined up. When Qi started sending out applications in the fall of her freshman year, she said her résumé mainly had website initiatives and leadership experience for volunteering clubs from high school. She said she also had some part-time tutoring experience teaching math and English, "I think at that age, you're not expected to have so much CS experience or coding experience," Qi said. "So I think if you have some leadership experience or experience that shows your character, I think that's important at that time." During her internship, Qi said she thinks her strong suit was building relationships with her teammates by getting lunch with them every day. She said doing helped to create "team chemistry," and she also said it helped her feel excited for work and "motivated to pump out code." Islina (Yunhong) Shan interned at Google three times, beginning in the summer of 2022. She graduated from an accelerated computer science Master's program at Duke University and started a full-time role as a software engineer at the tech giant this spring. Shan first participated in STEP and later in the Software Engineering Internship, which is a more competitive program geared toward technical development. When she applied for her first internship, Shan said she had some hackathon experiences and some technical projects from school. After she sent her résumé, she was invited to two rounds of final interviews, both of which were technical and back-to-back, she said. Her advice to interns hoping to secure full time jobs: choose a team during the match process that you're actually interested in. "Interest is really important in driving you to finish the project," Shan said. She also said it's important to choose a team with a manager you can see yourself working with because you'll have to communicate with them regularly. When she first started her internship, she said she set unrealistic goals. Once she adjusted expectations, she started seeing more progress. Shan suggested seeking help if needed, adding that Google engineers tend to be friendly. Lydia Lam graduated from college in 2024 and participated in three Google internships, beginning with a STEP internship in 2021. In her internship résumé, Lam included a seven-week Google program for high-school graduates called the Computer Science Summer Institute. She also had experience with a summer program for girls who code and a tech consulting student organization that she joined during her first semester of college. Lam also recommended applying early in the recruiting cycle and said programs geared toward first and second-year students tend to be more aligned with that experience level. Lam said "strong engineering practices" are highly valued at the company and mentioned feeling imposter syndrome and wanting to impress her internship host. However, she said asking questions sooner rather than later can help projects get done more quickly. "It's much more efficient to ask someone else who knows a lot more than you try to figure it out longer," Lam said. She also suggested "producing a lot of artifacts," whether designs or other "tangible pieces of work," that can help show your skill set and contributions. Tawfiq Mohammad interned for two summers at Google before becoming a full-time software engineer at the tech giant. He said the summer after his first year in college, he didn't have any internships, so he took summer classes and did his own projects at home, like a gadget that read the license plate on his car and opened the garage without him having to press a button. Mohammad's biggest advice for incoming interns is to be prepared for imposter syndrome. Mohammad said the "biggest block" for him at first was being scared to do anything, and he suggested tuning out those negative feelings as much as possible. "You're going to feel very out of place initially," Mohammad told BI. "I honestly felt like I had no idea what I was doing." He said interns should set a goal to "learn as much as possible" from the more experienced employees and try to believe that they, too, felt like they didn't fully "know what they were doing" at one point. "They're really smart so you want to absorb as much information as you can from them," Mohammad said. He also suggested thinking "outside the box." "You're going to be given a project that summer and try to own that project. Try to own it from A to Z," Mohammad said. He also recommended networking with other interns and team members, adding that Google provides a number of opportunities to do so. "It's good to build up a good network of successful people and it's just good to network with people that are farther along the career path than you," Mohammad said. Zachary Weiss interned at Google for three summers before landing a full-time job as a software engineer in the Cloud department. He said he wasn't thinking about summer internships when he started as a freshman at the University of Michigan, but an older computer science major encouraged him to apply to Google's STEP program. Weiss said he was "ecstatic" to get the offer from Google a few months later. He went on to intern in multiple teams before returning full-time as a software engineer on the Cloud team. The Googler had two main takeaways from his internships, one of which was the importance of showing a "concerted effort" to management. Google interns are given a summer project, and Weiss said that being proactive and anticipating problems in advance is key to the job. He said a former internship manager complimented him for identifying an issue with a "one in a thousand" chance of occurring. He said interns should think about all the "weird edge cases" and speak up instead of waiting for a manager to say something. "You're given work that would have been going to a full-time employee," Weiss said, adding that employees value your opinion and voice. Weiss said communication was another key skill that he didn't anticipate would be so pivotal. He said that in school, students tend to focus on learning the principles, algorithms, and data structures involved in programming. In a workplace, though, verbal skills matter, too, Weiss said. "My day-to-day, I speak a lot more English. I read a lot more English. I read and write and talk and communicate a lot more than I am actually coding," Weiss said. "And I think communication is something that's really important." He said that at the University of Michigan, there were three courses about technical communications, like writing design memos, emails, and presentations. He said many students didn't take the class seriously, and it ended up teaching a crucial skill. 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Tahawul Tech
10-06-2025
- Business
- Tahawul Tech
Apple Intelligence adds more powerfu new capabilities across Apple devices
Developers can now access the Apple Intelligence on-device foundation model to power private, intelligent experiences within their apps. CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA — Apple has announced new Apple Intelligence features that elevate the user experience across iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple Vision Pro. Apple Intelligence unlocks new ways for users to communicate with features like Live Translation; do more with what's on their screen with updates to visual intelligence; and express themselves with enhancements to Image Playground and Genmoji. Additionally, shortcuts can now tap into Apple Intelligence directly, and developers will be able to access the on-device large language model at the core of Apple Intelligence, giving them direct access to intelligence that is powerful, fast, built with privacy, and available even when users are offline. These Apple Intelligence features are available for testing starting today, and will be available to users with supported devices set to a supported language this fall. 'Last year, we took the first steps on a journey to bring users intelligence that's helpful, relevant, easy to use, and right where users need it, all while protecting their privacy. Now, the models that power Apple Intelligence are becoming more capable and efficient, and we're integrating features in even more places across each of our operating systems,' said Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of Software Engineering. 'We're also taking the huge step of giving developers direct access to the on-device foundation model powering Apple Intelligence, allowing them to tap into intelligence that is powerful, fast, built with privacy, and available even when users are offline. We think this will ignite a whole new wave of intelligent experiences in the apps users rely on every day. We can't wait to see what developers create.' Apple Intelligence features will be coming to eight more languages by the end of the year: Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, Portuguese (Portugal), Swedish, Turkish, Chinese (traditional), and Vietnamese. Live Translation Breaks Down Language Barriers For those moments when a language barrier gets in the way, Live Translation can help users communicate across languages when messaging or speaking. The experience is integrated into Messages, FaceTime, and Phone, and enabled by Apple-built models that run entirely on device, so users' personal conversations stay personal. In Messages, Live Translation can automatically translate messages. If a user is making plans with new friends while traveling abroad, their message can be translated as they type, delivered in the recipient's preferred language, and when they get a response, each message can be instantly translated.2 On FaceTime calls, a user can follow along with translated live captions while still hearing the speaker's voice. And when on a phone call, the translation is spoken aloud throughout the conversation.3 News Ways to Explore Creativity with Updates to Genmoji and Image Playground Genmoji and Image Playground provide users with even more ways to express themselves. In addition to turning a text description into a Genmoji, users can now mix together emoji and combine them with descriptions to create something new. When users make images inspired by family and friends using Genmoji and Image Playground, they have the ability to change expressions or adjust personal attributes, like hairstyle, to match their friend's latest look. In Image Playground, users can tap into brand-new styles with ChatGPT, like an oil painting style or vector art. For moments when users have a specific idea in mind, they can tap Any Style and describe what they want. Image Playground sends a user's description or photo to ChatGPT and creates a unique image. Users are always in control, and nothing is shared with ChatGPT without their permission. Visual Intelligence Helps Users Search and Take Action Building on Apple Intelligence, visual intelligence extends to a user's iPhone screen so they can search and take action on anything they're viewing across their apps. Visual intelligence already helps users learn about objects and places around them using their iPhone camera, and it now enables users to do more, faster, with the content on their iPhone screen. Users can ask ChatGPT questions about what they're looking at on their screen to learn more, as well as search Google, Etsy, or other supported apps to find similar images and products. If there's an object a user is especially interested in, like a lamp, they can highlight it to search for that specific item or similar objects online. Visual intelligence also recognizes when a user is looking at an event and suggests adding it to their calendar.4 Apple Intelligence then extracts the date, time, and location to prepopulate these key details into an event. Users can access visual intelligence for what's on their screen by simply pressing the same buttons used to take a screenshot. Users will have the choice to save or share their screenshot, or explore more with visual intelligence. Apple Intelligence Expands to Fitness on Apple Watch Workout Buddy is a first-of-its-kind workout experience on Apple Watch with Apple Intelligence that incorporates a user's workout data and fitness history to generate personalised, motivational insights during their session.5 To offer meaningful inspiration in real time, Workout Buddy analyses data from a user's current workout along with their fitness history, based on data like heart rate, pace, distance, Activity rings, personal fitness milestones, and more. A new text-to-speech model then translates insights into a dynamic generative voice built using voice data from Fitness+ trainers, so it has the right energy, style, and tone for a workout. Workout Buddy processes this data privately and securely with Apple Intelligence. Workout Buddy will be available on Apple Watch with Bluetooth headphones, and requires an Apple Intelligence-supported iPhone nearby. It will be available starting in English, across some of the most popular workout types: Outdoor and Indoor Run, Outdoor and Indoor Walk, Outdoor Cycle, HIIT, and Functional and Traditional Strength Training. Apple Intelligence On-Device Model Now Available to Developers Apple is opening up access for any app to tap directly into the on-device foundation model at the core of Apple Intelligence. With the Foundation Models framework, app developers will be able to build on Apple Intelligence to bring users new experiences that are intelligent, available when they're offline, and that protect their privacy, using AI inference that is free of cost. For example, an education app can use the on-device model to generate a personalised quiz from a user's notes, without any cloud API costs, or an outdoors app can add natural language search capabilities that work even when the user is offline. The framework has native support for Swift, so app developers can easily access the Apple Intelligence model with as few as three lines of code. Guided generation, tool calling, and more are all built into the framework, making it easier than ever to implement generative capabilities right into a developer's existing app. Shortcuts Get More Intelligent Shortcuts are now more powerful and intelligent than ever. Users can tap into intelligent actions, a whole new set of shortcuts enabled by Apple Intelligence. Users will see dedicated actions for features like summarising text with Writing Tools or creating images with Image Playground. Now users will be able to tap directly into Apple Intelligence models, either on-device or with Private Cloud Compute, to generate responses that feed into the rest of their shortcut, maintaining the privacy of information used in the shortcut. For example, a student can build a shortcut that uses the Apple Intelligence model to compare an audio transcription of a class lecture to the notes they took, and add any key points they may have missed. Users can also choose to tap into ChatGPT to provide responses that feed into their shortcut. Additional New Features Apple Intelligence is even more deeply integrated into the apps and experiences that users rely on every day: The most relevant actions in an email, website, note, or other content can now be identified and automatically categorised in Reminders . Apple Wallet can now identify and summarise order tracking details from emails sent from merchants or delivery carriers. This works across all of a user's orders, giving them the ability to see their full order details, progress notifications, and more, all in one place. Users can create a poll for anything in Messages , and with Apple Intelligence, Messages can detect when a poll might come in handy and suggest one. In addition, Backgrounds in the Messages app lets a user personalise their chats with stunning designs, and they can create unique backgrounds that fit their conversation with Image Playground. These features build on a wide range of Apple Intelligence capabilities that are already available to users: Writing Tools can help users rewrite, proofread, and summarise the text they have written. And with Describe Your Change, users can describe a specific change they want to apply to their text, like making a dinner party invite read like a poem. Clean Up in Photos allows users to remove distracting elements while staying true to the moment as they intended to capture it. Visual intelligence builds on Apple Intelligence and helps users learn about objects and places around them instantly. Genmoji allow users to create their own emoji by typing a description. And just like emoji, they can be added inline to messages, or shared as a sticker or reaction in a Tapback. Image Playground gives users a way to create playful images in moments, with concepts like themes, costumes, accessories, and places. And they can add their own text descriptions, and create images in the likeness of a family member or friend using photos from their photo library. Image Wand can transform a rough sketch into a polished image that complements a user's notes. Mail summaries give users a way to view key details for an email or long thread by simply tapping or clicking Summarise. Smart Reply provides users with suggestions for a quick response in Mail and Messages. Siri is more natural and helpful, with the option to type to Siri and tap into its product knowledge about the features and settings on Apple products; Siri can also follow along if a user stumbles over their words, and maintain context from one request to the next. Access to ChatGPT is integrated in Writing Tools and Siri, giving users the option to tap into ChatGPT's image- and document-understanding capabilities without needing to jump between tools. Natural language search in Photos makes it easier for users to find a photo or video by simply describing it. Users can create a memory movie in Photos by typing a description. Summaries of audio transcriptions in Notes are automatically generated to surface important information at a glance. Users can generate summaries of call transcriptions to highlight important details. Priority Messages , a section at the top of the inbox in Mail, shows the most urgent emails, like a same-day invitation to lunch or a boarding pass. Priority Notifications appear at the top of a user's notifications, highlighting important notifications that may require immediate attention. Notification summaries give users a way to scan long or stacked notifications and provide key details right on the Lock Screen. Previews in Mail and Messages show users a brief summary of key information without needing to open a message. The Reduce Interruptions Focus surfaces only the notifications that might need immediate attention. A Breakthrough for Privacy in AI Designed to protect users' privacy at every step, Apple Intelligence uses on-device processing, meaning that many of the models that power it run entirely on device. For requests that require access to larger models, Private Cloud Compute extends the privacy and security of iPhone into the cloud to unlock even more intelligence so a user's data is never stored or shared with Apple; it is used only to fulfill their request. Independent experts can inspect the code that runs on Apple silicon servers to continuously verify this privacy promise, and are already doing so. This is an extraordinary step forward for privacy in AI. Availability All of these new features are available for testing starting today through the Apple Developer Program at and a public beta will be available through the Apple Beta Software Program next month at Users who enable Apple Intelligence on supported devices set to a supported language will have access this fall, including all iPhone 16 models, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, iPad mini (A17 Pro), and iPad and Mac models with M1 and later, with Siri and device language set to the same supported language: English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish, Japanese, Korean, or Chinese (simplified). More languages will be coming by the end of this year: Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, Portuguese (Portugal), Swedish, Turkish, Chinese (traditional), and Vietnamese. Some features may not be available in all languages or regions, and availability may vary due to local laws and regulations. For more details, visit
Tahawul Tech
10-06-2025
- Tahawul Tech
Apple boosts iPhone experience with iOS 26
The release delivers a stunning new design, powerful Apple Intelligence capabilities, new ways to stay connected in the Phone and Messages apps, and exciting updates to CarPlay, Apple Music, Maps, and Wallet. CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA — Apple previewed iOS 26 on Monday, a major update that brings a beautiful new design, intelligent experiences, and improvements to the apps users rely on every day. The new design provides a more expressive and delightful experience across the system while maintaining the instant familiarity of iOS. Integrated throughout the system and built with privacy from the ground up, Apple Intelligence gets even more capable. Updates to the Phone and Messages apps help users stay connected while eliminating distractions like unwanted calls. iOS 26 also introduces new features in CarPlay, Apple Music, Maps, and Wallet, as well as Apple Games, a brand-new app that gives players a single destination for all their games. 'iOS 26 shines with the gorgeous new design and meaningful improvements to the features users rely on every day, making iPhone even more helpful,' said Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of Software Engineering. 'Experiences are more expressive and personal, from the Lock Screen and Home Screen, to new capabilities across Phone and Messages that help users focus on the connections that matter most. And with powerful new Apple Intelligence capabilities integrated across the system, users can get things done easier than ever.' A Beautiful New Look The new design makes apps and system experiences more expressive and delightful, while keeping iOS instantly familiar. It's crafted with Liquid Glass — a new translucent material that reflects and refracts its surroundings, bringing greater focus to content, and delivering a new level of vitality across controls, navigation, app icons, widgets, and more. The new design extends to the Home Screen and Lock Screen, making them more personal and expressive than ever. Liquid Glass also brings new customisation options to app icons and widgets, including a stunning clear look. On the Lock Screen, the time fluidly adapts to the available space in an image, and spatial scenes bring wallpapers to life with a 3D effect when users move iPhone. Updated design elements also deliver fresh experiences in apps. A simplified, streamlined Camera layout helps users keep their attention on the moment they're capturing, and the Photos app is updated to feature separate tabs for Library and Collections views. In Safari, web pages flow from the top edge to the bottom of the screen, enabling users to see more of the page while maintaining access to frequently used actions like refresh and search. In Apple Music, News, and Podcasts, the tab bar is redesigned to float above users' content, dynamically shrink when users are browsing to put content front and center, and then expand when they scroll back up. An updated set of APIs provides developers with access to Liquid Glass materials and components so they can make their apps appear just as dynamic and delightful. New Capabilities Powered by Apple Intelligence Apple Intelligence elevates the iPhone experience and helps users get things done easier than ever, while unlocking new ways to communicate and do more with what's on their screen. Live Translation is integrated into Messages, FaceTime, and Phone to help users communicate across languages, translating text and audio on the fly.1 Live Translation is enabled by Apple-built models that run entirely on device, so users' personal conversations stay personal. Building on Apple Intelligence, visual intelligence extends to a user's iPhone screen so they can search and take action on anything they're viewing across apps. Users can ask ChatGPT questions about what they're looking at onscreen to learn more, as well as search Google, Etsy, or other supported apps to find similar images and products. Visual intelligence also recognises when a user is looking at an event and suggests adding it to their calendar, repopulating key details like date, time, and location.2 Genmoji and Image Playground provide users with even more ways to express themselves, including mixing their favorite emoji, Genmoji, and descriptions together to create something new.3 Shortcuts are now more powerful and intelligent than ever. Users can tap into intelligent actions, a whole new set of shortcuts enabled by Apple Intelligence, and will see dedicated actions for features like Writing Tools and Image Playground. Apple Intelligence can now automatically identify and summarise order tracking details from emails sent from merchants and delivery carriers, giving users the ability to see their full order details and progress notifications all in one place — even for purchases not made with Apple Pay. Additionally, a new Foundation Models framework opens up access for any app to tap directly into the on-device foundation model at the core of Apple Intelligence, giving developers direct access to powerful intelligence that's fast, built with privacy at its core, and available offline, using AI inference that is free of cost. Features for Staying Connected and Eliminating Interruptions Fundamental to the iPhone experience, the Phone app now offers a unified layout that combines Favorites, Recents, and Voicemails all in one place. Call Screening builds on Live Voicemail and helps eliminate interruptions by gathering information from the caller and giving users the details they need to decide if they want to pick up or ignore the call.4 And for the times when a user is stuck on hold, Hold Assist notifies the user when a live agent is available.5 In Messages, users can now screen messages from unknown senders, giving them more control over who appears in their conversation list. Messages from unknown senders will appear in a dedicated folder where users can then mark the number as known, ask for more information, or delete. These messages will remain silenced until a user accepts them. iOS 26 also offers enhancements to conversations, including custom backgrounds and the ability to create polls. With Apple Intelligence, Messages can detect when a poll might come in handy and suggest one, and users can generate unique backgrounds that fit their conversation with Image Playground. Additionally, in group chats, users can now see typing indicators, and request, send, and receive Apple Cash.6 Enhancements to CarPlay CarPlay — the smarter, safer way to use iPhone while driving — is used over 600 million times per day, and now with iOS 26, it receives updates that make it even more beautiful and easy to use. The stunning design includes a new compact view for incoming calls, allowing users to see who's calling without missing key information like upcoming directions. iOS 26 also brings Tapbacks and pinned conversations to Messages in CarPlay, and with widgets and Live Activities, users can stay in the loop without losing focus on the road. These updates also come to CarPlay Ultra, which brings the best of iPhone and the best of the car together for a deeply integrated, unified experience across every screen. Updates to Apple Music, Maps, and Wallet In Apple Music, Lyrics Translation helps users understand the words to their favorite songs, while Lyrics Pronunciation allows everyone to sing along, regardless of language. AutoMix uses intelligence to transition from one song to the next like a DJ, using time stretching and beat matching to seamlessly move from one song to the next. In Apple Maps, Visited Places help users remember the places they've been. Users can choose to have iPhone detect when they're at a place like a restaurant or shop, and view all of their Visited Places in Maps. Visited Places are protected with end-to-end encryption and cannot be accessed by Apple. Additionally, iPhone can now use on-device intelligence to better understand a user's daily route, presenting them with their preferred route when they're headed home or to the office, along with notifying them of delays and offering alternate routes. Updates in Apple Wallet help make everyday interactions with the physical world easier than ever. Users can choose to pay with installments or rewards when they make in-store purchases with Apple Pay using iPhone. Refreshed boarding passes in Wallet offer the ability to see and share Live Activities for real-time updates on a flight. They also provide convenient access to a traveler's most relevant information, such as Maps to navigate airports, Find My to track important items and report missing bags, and more. Additional features in iOS 26: Apple Games is a new app that gives players an all-in-one destination for their games. It helps players jump back into titles they love, find their next favorite, and have even more fun with friends. They'll find out what's happening across all their games, including major events and updates, so they never miss a moment. The Games app is also the best way to experience Apple Arcade, Apple's game subscription service with more than 200 award-winning and highly rated games for the whole family. AirPods are more versatile than ever with new features for AirPods 4, AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation (ANC), and AirPods Pro 2. Building on the benefits of Voice Isolation, studio-quality audio recording allows iPhone, iPad, and Mac users to record their content with great sound quality and enjoy even clearer calls. With camera remote, users can press and hold the AirPods stem to take a photo or start and stop a video recording on iPhone or iPad. Parents can now create or move kids into Child Accounts even more easily, taking advantage of a wide set of parental controls designed to keep children safe. Enhancements across Communication Limits, Communication Safety, and the App Store include parental approvals for contact requests from kids, blurring out sensitive content in FaceTime calls and photos in Shared Albums, and enabling parents to grant an exception for their child to download an app with an age rating that exceeds the app content restriction they set. Browsing in Safari gets even more private with advanced fingerprinting protection extending to all browsing by default. Powerful accessibility features include Accessibility Reader, which provides a customised systemwide reading experience, and Braille Access, an all-new interface for iPhone devices with connected braille displays. Updates to Live Listen, Background Sounds, Personal Voice, and more bring a new level of accessibility across the Apple ecosystem. Availability All of these features are available for testing starting today through the Apple Developer Program at and a public beta will be available through the Apple Beta Software Program next month at New software features will be available this fall as a free software update for iPhone 11 and later. The Apple Intelligence features detailed require supported devices, which include all iPhone 16 models, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, iPad mini (A17 Pro), and iPad and Mac models with M1 and later that have Apple Intelligence enabled and Siri and device language set to the same supported language: English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish, Japanese, Korean, or Chinese (simplified). More languages will be coming by the end of this year: Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, Portuguese (Portugal), Swedish, Turkish, Chinese (traditional), and Vietnamese. For more information, visit Features are subject to change. Some features may not be available in all languages or regions, and availability may vary due to local laws and regulations. For more information about availability, visit
TechCrunch
09-06-2025
- TechCrunch
Still no AI-powered, ‘more personalized' Siri from Apple at WWDC 25
At this year's Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC 25), Apple announced a slew of updates to its operating systems, services, and software, including a new look it dubbed 'Liquid Glass' and a rebranded naming convention. Apple was notably quiet on one highly anticipated product: a more personalized, AI-powered Siri, which it first introduced at last year's conference. Apple's SVP of Software Engineering, Craig Federighi, only gave the Siri update a brief mention during the keynote address, saying, 'As we've shared, we're continuing our work to deliver the features that make Siri even more personal. This work needed more time to reach our high-quality bar, and we look forward to sharing more about it in the coming year.' The time frame of 'coming year' seems to indicate that Apple won't have news before 2026. That's a significant delay in the AI era, where new models, updates, and upgrades ship at a rapid pace. First announced at WWDC 24, the more personalized Siri is expected to bring artificial intelligence updates to the beleaguered virtual assistant built into iPhone and other Apple devices. At the time, the company hyped it as the 'next big step for Apple' and said Siri would be able to understand your 'personal context,' like your relationships, communications, routine, and more, Plus, the assistant was going to be more useful by allowing you to take action within and across your apps. While Bloomberg reported that the in-development version of the more personalized Siri was functional, it was not consistently working properly. The report said its quality issues meant Siri only performed as it should two-thirds of the time, making it not viable to ship. Apple officially announced in March it was pushing back the launch, saying the Siri update would take longer to deliver than anticipated. The company also pulled SVP of Machine Learning and AI Strategy John Giannandrea off the Siri project and put Mike Rockwell, who had worked on the Vision Pro, in charge. The shake-up indicated the company was trying to get back on track after stumbling on a major release. It also suggested Apple's AI technology was behind that of rivals, like OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic, worrying investors. Techcrunch event Save $200+ on your TechCrunch All Stage pass Build smarter. Scale faster. Connect deeper. Join visionaries from Precursor Ventures, NEA, Index Ventures, Underscore VC, and beyond for a day packed with strategies, workshops, and meaningful connections. Save $200+ on your TechCrunch All Stage pass Build smarter. Scale faster. Connect deeper. Join visionaries from Precursor Ventures, NEA, Index Ventures, Underscore VC, and beyond for a day packed with strategies, workshops, and meaningful connections. Boston, MA | REGISTER NOW In the meantime, Apple partnered with OpenAI to help close the gap; when users asked Siri questions the assistant couldn't answer, those could be directed to ChatGPT instead. With the upcoming release, iOS 26, Apple has updated its AI image generation app, Image Playground, to use ChatGPT as well. At this year's WWDC 2025, the company continued to make other AI promises, including developer access to the on-device foundation models, live translation, upgrades to Genmoji (in addition to aforementioned Image Playground), Visual Intelligence improvements, an AI 'Workout Buddy' for Apple Watch, AI in Xcode, and the introduction of an updated, AI-powered version of its Shortcuts app for scripting and automation.
Mint
23-04-2025
- Business
- Mint
Building trust in Agentic AI and the future of enterprise solutions
In a tech-led world, the evolution of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been rapid – from predictive AI that analyses large data sets to forecast future outcomes, to generative AI that creates new content like text, images and music, and now to agentic AI which can not only generate content but also be conversational and autonomously act and react to dynamic situations. The role of humans at work has become more interesting and creative than ever before in an AI-empowered world. Agentic AI is expected to transform industries like healthcare, finance and manufacturing – AI agents capable of independent action and decision-making will act as digital labour and are expected to improve many aspects of work from productivity, efficiency to strategic decision-making and even job satisfaction. The latest episode of Mint's series All About AI brought together the humans who build these AI Agents. This includes senior technology and product leaders from Salesforce including Saloni Borar, Vice President (VP), User Interface/ User Experience, Vinod Shah, VP, Software Engineering, Parul Jain, VP, Software Engineering and Vaijayanth MK, VP, Product Management, who shared their insights on this new disruption, what it means for the workforce and the backend of how these agents are put together. Watch the full episode below, Fundamental to the success of any feature or technology or product is a good understanding of the market and the customers. This helps design the right kind of user experience, which is critical to adoption of any technology. 'It is a no brainer across industries that AI is driving massive disruptions, whether you talk about healthcare, manufacturing, automotive, every other industry. But, the excitement is also complemented with skepticism because if I talk to start-up founders, or even for the big manufacturing and automotive customers, or CXOs, the question is two-fold. There are a lot of things agents can do, but when we talk about enterprise scale applications and products, how are you going to take care of customer data?' said Vaijayanth. Working very closely with the product team is design, which forms a core element of any product especially if it is a new one, as it needs to meet the needs of the target audience. At Salesforce, different departments – like product, engineering, research – collaborate to develop new products and solutions with the customer at the core of it. The job of the design team is to ensure that everything is coming together as planned. 'One of the key things, especially around the agentic era is trust. It is also the number one value at Salesforce and the design team takes it very seriously. With trust comes simplicity. When something is new, there are challenges. Making it simplified is one of the top goals for our design teams. We do not reinvent something just because it needs to be different,' said Borar. On the product side, one of the key products for Salesforce is Marketing Cloud, which now has built-in AI adaptations and agents. The aim here is to develop a product which ensures data safety as it automates manual tasks and helps create a digital work force for the customer. 'Every single brand out there is powered by Salesforce when it comes to sending marketing campaigns. And the beauty of the agentic era is how do we cut the marketers time to the minimal and still offer a personalised customer experience in a trusted manner. We build systems that are safe, because data is not our product,' said Shah. Data is at the core of every solution. Another Salesforce product – Data Cloud – contains meta data which can be leveraged by all the products that are offered. Then, there is also the flagship product – Sales Cloud, which is the Salesforce CRM solution. 'Sales Cloud is all about seller productivity. Sellers want to be productive, they want to save their time, but ultimately, they want to sell more. And, today, with the advent of generative AI and predictive AI, we can do a lot more for our sellers because we can have this whole agentic workforce out there to help our sellers. In today's times when technology is advancing so fast, solution development is based on products – the teams choose the right technology that fits the problem that a seller is facing. All the different teams work in close collaboration, right from product development to sales and after sales, to ensure customer satisfaction at every level. 'There is the demand for features by customers, and one can never have enough features. And, then, there is the reality of what can be delivered. So, that is where the great collaboration between all of the teams plays a significant part, because you have to prioritise what will give the biggest chance of customer success, and then you go with that. It's a very good process that we have to enable doing that,' said Sanket Atal. First Published: 23 Apr 2025, 12:46 PM IST
