It is worth noting that in January 2025, 13 years after it was first released, Siri continues to be a joke. Every time I try to use Siri in front of a member of my family, there’s a 50–50 chance of success. When it fails, they laugh at it, and at me.

Recently, I was going to bed and told Siri to turn off the bedroom lights. Instead, it turned out all the lights downstairs on the rest of my family. (For bonus points, the bedroom lights stayed on.)

Paul Kafasis and John Gruber most recently documented Siri’s failings. I can’t help but feel we are at a crossroads. Apple made many promises in June about Siri improving with the arrival of Apple Intelligence, and we haven’t seen it in the public betas yet. I hope we get a peek with the next beta cycle, iOS 18.4.

I am not encouraged by the rumor that there is yet another Siri brain transplant rumored to happen in the future. I find it hard to believe that Apple lacks the competency to substantially improve Siri, which makes me wonder when they’ll get the resolve to do so. I sure hope it’s this year.

It’s easy to quarterback from the outside, but if I were in charge, I’d start a “boil the ocean” project to fix Siri and I’d seriously consider rebranding it to something else so that normal folks (like my family) don’t immediately associate it with a joke.