AI and Siri problems: Why so much is riding on Apple Intelligence
The problems surrounding AI functions at Apple – including the announcement drama – threaten the entire business. Managers of the company itself assume this.
Apple Intelligence logo and icon: much talk, little delivery?
(Image: Apple)
Delays in improving Siri, various personnel squabbles and a technology that appears to be much less capable than the competition: Apple Intelligence, Apple's in-house AI system introduced with iOS 18 & Co. can hardly be considered a success. The question now is how quickly improvements will be made. The pressure appears to be high: Several anonymous Apple managers, including apparently still active ones, have now made statements to US media. In them, they paint a picture of a ship that has been sinking for some time – and emphasize how important it is for Apple as a company to fix the problems. After all, numerous products depend on it.
AI is different from a typical Apple product
According to the article published by the financial news agency Bloomberg over the weekend, the dominance of the iPhone, for example, is under threat, as are new technologies such as robotics. The “AI for the rest of us” with which Apple Intelligence was initially advertised threatens to become a fiasco. Apple's head of software Craig Federighi is said to have experienced this himself when he ran a beta on his iPhone a few weeks before April – when iOS 18.4 with the improved Siri was due to be released –. Important announced functions such as finding driver's licenses using voice search from the photo database or other features shown as prototypes last summer simply did not work. “This is a crisis,” a member of Apple's AI team told Bloomberg. Another employee said it was like the aforementioned sinking ship: “And it's been sinking for a long time.” According to internal data, Apple's technology is still “years” behind that of its competitors.
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It is not unusual for Apple to take its time. Whether with smartphones, MP3 players, computer watches or tablets, Apple was never the first to market, but the company always had an exciting solution at the ready that outperformed others. Even then, many devices were still “baked” by customers – through constant software updates. But the basics were right. There are apparently also internal doubts that this is the case with Apple Intelligence. The problem is also that Apple has invested enormous resources in its experiments, but there is hardly anything to show for it. Nevertheless, the company is also technically behind in other areas, having bought fewer GPUs for language model training or having fewer experts for LLM AI.
“Do Engine” – but Siri doesn't make it
According to Bloomberg, Apple's vehicle project was also ultimately discontinued due to AI issues because it failed to produce a fully autonomous car. AI is of central importance for many areas. Steve Jobs is also said to have seen the future in Siri. His idea was to create a “do engine” that would allow you to “talk to the internet and your assistant will do everything for you”. Siri only came onto the market after Jobs' death. After a turbulent development period, fewer and fewer functions were added, and the voice assistant was much ridiculed.
Another obvious problem for Apple in the AI sector is that it often remains unclear what the product is. According to a long-standing Apple manager, Federighi is not someone who simply throws a lot of money and people into a project without it being clear. When ChatGPT was launched at the end of 2022, Apple Intelligence was “not even a thought”. But OpenAI had certainly been observed. “Anyone who was paying attention in this market should have seen that and got fully involved.” A month later, Federighi himself wrote code with ChatGPT for a personal project, writes Bloomberg, and he realized the potential. After that, there were meetings with OpenAI, Anthropic and other players. iOS 18 should get as many AI functions as possible – with the known result.
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