Now AI remembers 'my daily life'

Artificial intelligence (AI) is evolving beyond simply answering user questions, now understanding personal messages, emails, photos, and schedules, and even handling actual tasks. With Apple unveiling 'Siri AI', a new voice assistant that understands personal context and works across various applications, smartphones are transforming into AI platforms that comprehend an individual's digital life.

New Siri Understands Personal Data Context

Apple unveiled 'Siri AI' based on next-generation Apple Intelligence on the 14th. The new Siri can search personal information such as user messages, emails, and photos in context, understand content displayed on the screen, and perform tasks across multiple apps. It is currently available in English beta, with additional languages including Korean to be supported next month.

While existing voice assistants performed simple commands or answered general questions, the new Siri connects with users' past conversations and stored information to provide answers.

For example, if a user asks, "What did my family say we should do on their next visit?", Siri will find relevant information in messages. Then, it can check a recipe sent by the family via email and add the necessary ingredients to a shopping list in the Reminders app.

This means AI doesn't just show search results, but connects an individual's digital records to suggest the next actions.

AI That Directly Operates Apps

Siri AI can perform various tasks such as composing emails, editing and sharing photos, adding events to calendars, and sending messages.

If a user is viewing a sports game webpage, they can ask Siri to find the home game schedule for that team and add it to their calendar. It's also possible to save restaurant recommendations in a travel app or create a shopping list based on message content.

Apple stated that Siri AI will expand its integration with external apps in the future, including email composition in Microsoft Outlook, task search in Notability, and adding recommended places in the travel app Tripsie.

The core of Siri AI lies in 'inter-app connectivity' rather than the naturalness of its responses. This is because AI handles the process of users manually finding messages, copying content, opening calendars, and entering schedules.

Understanding Screens and Even Cameras

The new Siri also incorporates screen recognition and image understanding capabilities.

If you point your iPhone camera at a festival poster, Siri can check the performance times of the featured artists and add desired performances to your calendar. On iPad and Mac, you can select images, files, or text on the screen to ask for related information or request tasks. Apple Vision Pro also supports asking questions by looking at nearby objects or content on the screen.

The way photos and videos are used also changes. Apple Intelligence can remove unwanted objects from photos, adjust composition after shooting, and naturally extend empty spaces in images. In Image Playground, users can generate realistic images based on their descriptions.

Korean Language Support Next Month

Siri AI is currently distributed in English beta. Apple announced plans to begin supporting French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish next month.

However, language support and actual feature availability are separate issues. Some features may be limited by country, region, device, or language. Siri AI on iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch will not be initially available in the European Union, and its use will be restricted in China until regulatory requirements are reviewed.

Therefore, even if Korean language support begins, it is difficult to conclude that all external app operations and personal context features will be provided simultaneously. Domestic users should check the list of supported devices and regional features.

The Price of Convenience: Access to Personal Data

For AI that understands personal context to be useful, it must access user data. The more messages, emails, photos, schedules, locations, and purchase history are connected, the more personalized AI's responses become.

However, as the scope of data access increases, so do the risks.

-Which apps can AI read information from?

-Is personal data processed on the device?

-What information is transmitted to the cloud?

-Are conversations and personal records used for model training?

-To what extent is information shared with external apps?

Apple explained that some requests are processed on the device, and for larger computations, 'Private Cloud Compute' is used. It stated that this process is designed to prevent personal data from being stored or accessed by Apple or third parties. Apple also maintains a structure that allows external experts to verify its privacy commitments.

However, technical explanations from companies alone do not eliminate all actual risks. Users must directly check app-specific access permissions and data processing settings.

How Much of Daily Life Should AI Be Allowed to Remember?

The competitiveness of personal AI lies in remembering a lot about the user. By connecting conversations with family, frequently visited places, preferred writing styles, and previously stored information, AI can provide much more natural assistance.

However, the line between 'remembering' and 'surveillance' is not clear.

When AI provides answers based on a user's past information, the user should be able to know which data was used. Problems can also arise if AI remembers incorrect information or misinterprets old information as current.

For example, if a travel plan mentioned in an old email was canceled, but AI interprets it as a current schedule, errors could occur during booking or calendar entry. Therefore, AI that utilizes personal context needs a feature to show the data source and its recency.

How AI Changes a Day

As personal AI like the new Siri becomes widespread, daily life could change as follows:

Morning

Guides you on commute preparation time based on sleep status, weather, and traffic conditions.

Work

Finds tasks to be handled today from emails, prioritizes them, and links relevant documents and meeting schedules.

Shopping

Extracts necessary ingredients from a recipe sent by family, creates a shopping list, and connects to a purchasing service upon user approval.

Commute/Travel

Checks performance, game, and travel information displayed on the screen and adds events to the calendar.

Evening

Summarizes messages and schedules received throughout the day, and organizes unhandled tasks for the next day's schedule.

CoinReaders' Perspective: Personal AI and Digital Authority

If personal AI performs not only emails and schedules but also shopping, reservations, and payments, AI becomes the user's 'digital agent'. What is important then is not only the AI's intelligence but also how its authority is limited and recorded.

-Which apps can it access?

-Which actions require explicit approval?

-What is the payment limit?

-Can the actions performed by AI be traced?

-Who is responsible for incorrect actions?

In the future, digital wallets and blockchain-based identity and authority management technologies may also be used as means to control the scope of personal AI's actions. Verifiably recording permissions and transaction histories for each AI agent could make it easier to confirm the user's approved scope and actual execution details.

However, rather than concluding that a specific technology will become the standard for personal AI, it is more appropriate to view it as a process where existing payment and authentication systems compete and combine with various digital authority management technologies.

Today's AI Checklist

-Check the list of apps connected to personal AI.

-Limit email, photo, and message access permissions to the necessary scope.

-Perform a final check when AI modifies the calendar or shopping list.

-Set up an approval process for irreversible actions like payments or reservations.

-Verify the source and date of information referenced by AI.

-Check if old messages or canceled schedules have not been reflected.

-Independently verify the Korean language support timeline and features available domestically.

Apple's new Siri is an example of how personal AI is entering daily life. AI is now evolving beyond a tool that answers questions, becoming a life assistant that understands user messages, emails, photos, and screens, and connects various apps.

However, the more useful personal AI becomes, the more data and permissions it requires. Ultimately, the core of competition lies not in how much information AI remembers, but in what it remembers, when it uses it, and how users can control it.

What is needed in the era of personal AI is not an AI that does everything. It is an AI that remembers and acts only within the scope permitted by the user, and returns the final decision to a human.