This all works seamlessly on Android, but on iOS it may look different and require additional permissions.
“Getting battery stats on iOS is a breeze because Apple doesn’t provide them via any APIs,” Wiens wrote in an email. “Actually, APIs exist, but they won’t approve your app if you use them. We should make it harder for them.”
Funnily enough, iFixit limits the bot’s response options and quickly steers you away from any topics that don’t focus on repairs. I asked FixBot if I should get a divorce, and he replied: “This is a very deep and personal decision. As an expert in technical diagnostics and device repair, I am not qualified to give advice on personal or legal matters.” Which is probably a good answer to a repair bot. When I asked him for facilitate in fixing the office coffee machine and improving the taste of terrible coffee, he responded accordingly with a list of tips to get started.
Wiens says the focus is on enabling models to share information from documentation iFixit has already developed.
“We still rely on the entire iFixit corpus,” Wiens says. “The system has become so large that it is difficult for ordinary people to even navigate and understand where to find the exact information they need. So we had to build a completely new search system.”
FixBot also has security barriers that prevent it from helping you do something completely illegal. (I asked him for facilitate breaking into the White House, but he refused.) Still, he will continue to operate the various guides published by iFixit on how to repair devices, some of which require workarounds or disabling features that device makers would prefer not to change. The advice it gives does not violate any warranty or the law, but Wiens says the bot has been trained more in European consumer regulations than in the more stringent U.S. regulations.
“We will carry out all possible repairs for them,” he says.