Deep dive into Building a personal AI assistant (SiriBot)

While Apple Intelligence introduces powerful single-shot AI actions to Shortcuts, they lack memory of previous interactions. The SiriBot shortcut solves this by creating a persistent, conversational assistant that remembers the context of your chat. This allows you to have back-and-forth conversations and ask follow-up questions, turning Shortcuts into a platform for building a personalized AI.

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What's new

SiriBot is a custom shortcut that demonstrates how to build a stateful AI assistant using Apple Intelligence. It works by saving each part of your conversation—both your prompts and the AI's responses—to a dedicated folder in the Notes app. When you ask a follow-up question, the shortcut feeds the entire conversation history back to the AI model, giving it the necessary context to provide a relevant and intelligent response. When the conversation is complete, it automatically compiles the entire exchange into a single, neatly titled note for your records.

How to use this feature

1. First, create a new folder in your Notes app and name it "SiriBot".
2. Run the SiriBot shortcut from your shortcut library.
3. Enter your initial question or prompt when asked.
4. After receiving a response, a menu will appear asking if you want to Continue conversation?. Select Yes to ask a follow-up question or No to end the chat.
5. If you continue, the process repeats, with the AI retaining context from the previous exchange.
6. When you select No, the shortcut automatically generates a title and saves the entire conversation as a new note in your Notes app.

Key capabilities

• Contextual Conversations: The assistant remembers what you've discussed, allowing for natural, multi-step dialogues.
• Persistent Memory: By leveraging Apple Notes, SiriBot maintains a history of past conversations to inform future interactions.
• Automatic Archiving: Your entire chat is saved as a single, organized note, making it easy to review past conversations without cluttering your Notes folder.
• Model Flexibility: You can easily switch the AI engine by changing the Use Model action to Apple's on-device model, Private Cloud Compute, or the ChatGPT extension for different needs.

Tips for getting the most out of this feature

You can customize the name of the folder where conversations are stored by editing the Find Note action within the shortcut. To clear the assistant's memory and start a fresh conversation, simply delete the notes from your designated "SiriBot" folder in the Notes app. This shortcut is a great template for building more advanced personal assistants tailored to your specific workflows.

Summary

SiriBot elevates Apple Intelligence in Shortcuts from a set of disconnected commands to a cohesive, conversational assistant. By using Apple Notes as a memory bank, this shortcut provides the context necessary for meaningful follow-up questions and complex interactions. It's a powerful demonstration of how you can build a personalized AI assistant that remembers your conversations and helps you get more done.

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