Advertising for postponed Siri feature: Apple sued in the USA
Apple actually wanted to give its voice assistant more context soon. Nothing came of it. A TV commercial that has since been withdrawn is now being lamented.
Excerpt from deleted Siri advertisement: Unfortunately only a demo.
(Image: Apple)
Apple's lawyers have more work to do(once again): The company is being sued in the United States for misleading advertising for a Siri feature. The TV advertisement that appeared in September (can be seen here on X) had announced more context for the voice assistant – something that was not available at the time and has yet to materialize.
False expectations raised?
The lawsuit, which was first reported by the news portal Axios, states that Apple is also violating the principle of fair competition. "Apple's advertising has permeated the Internet, television, and other channels to create a clear (...) expectation among consumers that these new features would be available upon the [new] iPhone's release."
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In fact, the commercial featuring non-binary British actress Bella Ramsey contains a disclaimer in text form, but it is not very meaningful. It states that "some features and languages" will be coming "over the next year". However, Apple does not specify which functions these are. The lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court in San Jose this week (Case 5:25-cv-02668), goes on to say that the advertisement has caused a lot of excitement in the market and promoted the view among customers that Apple could be the winner in the AI race.
"I am a genius"
In mid-March, Apple had to admit that the so-called context-sensitive Siri would probably not be released until next year. But that was exactly what was advertised in the commercial: The actress met a person and then had Siri tell her when she had met them. "I wouldn't have believed that you would remember me." The music "I am Genius" plays in the background, and at the end there is a reference to the then new iPhone 16 Pro.
Apple did not initially comment on the lawsuit. It was filed by affected customers and is being supported by the Clarkson Law Firm, which had already sued Google and OpenAI over their AI practices. The lawyers would like the court to allow a class action lawsuit. Apple – could at least theoretically – be looking at millions of dollars in damages. Apple has already included various disclaimers on its website about the missing functions, but now writes that some of the functions are still under development.
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