The Talk Show With John Gruber · Tuesday, August 11, 2026
Early betas of iOS 17 have shown Siri's dictation model to be overly sensitive, frequently asking for clarification even when there's a high probability of understanding the user's intent. This hyper-sensitivity leads to a frustrating experience for basic commands, such as identifying baseball teams.
“I think one of the things they've done and maybe they've toned it down a bit through the betas, but at least in Beta 1 and 2, the dictation model for Siri interactions seemed to be like hyper sensitive.”
“It did not ever want to assume what you were saying.”
“And it thought if there was like a 50% chance that it misheard you, it was going to ask you to clarify.”
“What time does the Reds play tonight?”
“And iOS 17, it started saying, did you mean the Cincinnati Reds or the Boston Red Sox?”