Seeing people who aren't developers create apps through vibe coding lately has reminded me of something from two years ago that bodes well for the future of Siri. Vibe coding is the term assigned to the process of building apps using AI by describing the app that you want to exist.
Vibe coders need no prior knowledge of app development. AI tools like ChatGPT provide the expertise. Vibe coders just bring the vision.
The thing that vibe coding reminded me of is a Wayne Ma report for The Information in January 2023. It ran under the headline “Apple Devising Software to Help Anyone Build AR Apps, to Drive Headset Sales.”
Based on the report, it sure sounds like the Apple Vision Pro team under new Siri boss Mike Rockwell saw where AI was headed before vibe coding arrived. From the report at the time:
With the software tools, Apple hopes that even people who don't know computer code could tell the headset, via the Siri voice assistant, to build an AR app that could then be made available via Apple's App Store for others to download. The tool, for example, could allow users to build an app with virtual animals moving around a room and over or around real-life objects without the need to design the animal from scratch, program its animations and calculate its movement in a 3D space with obstacles.
Publishing software to the App Store that was created using Siri seemed far-fetched.
Two years later, it seems evident that Mike Rockwell saw vibe coding on the horizon and thought it could be a compelling tool for Apple Vision Pro.
No such feature was ever announced by Apple, however, and it hasn't been brought up in reporting since. Apple is still trying to get Siri AI features that it announced almost a year in shape to reach customers.
However, my takeaway from revisiting this report is that Rockwell's team had more ambitions for Siri two years ago than anything we've seen ship.
That's the best argument for why Mike Rockwell might actually be the right person to push Siri forward right now.
