Apple’s long-promised Apple Intelligence-infused Siri faces delays
Apple CEO Tim Cook with the only vision he’ll ever have
Apple’s long-promised overhaul of its long-neglected Siri digital assistant is beset with “engineering problems and software bugs” that threatening to delay or significantly limit its release, Mark Gurman reports for Bloomberg News citing “people with knowledge of the matter.”
At WWDC 2024 last June, Apple highlighted three significant upgrades for Siri:
• Enhanced access to personal data to improve query responses and execute actions.
• A new system allowing for more precise control over apps.
• The ability to interpret the content displayed on a device’s screen to provide more context-aware assistance.
Marjk Gurman for Bloomberg News:
The company first unveiled plans for a new AI-infused Siri at its developers conference last June and has even advertised some of the features to customers. But Apple is still racing to finish the software, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the situation is private. Some features, originally planned for April, may have to be postponed until May or later, they said.
The Siri makeover is a centerpiece of the Apple Intelligence platform, the company’s effort to catch up in AI and spur iPhone upgrades… Getting Siri right is especially crucial for Apple, which first introduced the digital assistant in 2011 as a groundbreaking interface. After falling behind competitors, the technology has come to represent the company’s shortcomings in artificial intelligence.
Apple is considering delaying or limiting at least some of the overhaul until iOS 18.5, which will be released as early as May, the people said… Inside Apple, many employees testing the new Siri have found that these features don’t yet work consistently.
Despite a marketing blitz for Apple Intelligence, the company is struggling internally with a difficult reality: The AI platform is behind rival systems like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Alphabet Inc.’s Google Gemini, and Meta Platforms Inc.’s Llama…
Behind the scenes, Apple is looking to make changes to its AI and machine-learning organization, the people said. The company recently tapped longtime software executive Kim Vorrath, who is known for whipping the original iPhone and Vision Pro software into shape, for a senior role on the team. The AI effort is run by John Giannandrea, a former senior Google executive who joined Apple in 2018.
The gradual release of Apple Intelligence features has impacted the broader software development cycle. The company is preparing major updates tied to the fall launch of the iPhone 17, but delays to iOS 18 capabilities are rippling through the process. In some cases, iOS 19 features that were planned for the end of this year may be pushed back until 2026.
MacDailyNews Take: Shocker.
Apple pays and has been paying John Giannandrea, Senior Vice President of Machine Learning and AI Strategy, millions upon millions of dollars for years. WTF of any import does he really do? WTF of any import has he really delivered? Have you used Siri lately? Yup, it’s still a steaming pile of dogshit.
Where’s Apple’s generative AI, John? “Too hard; too late; look for partners; gimme my paycheck and stock options.”
AAPL shareholders need to start asking real questions of these executives, especially those who are supposedly in charge of Apple’s “AI Strategy,” when the company clearly has none. How about some accountability for once? – MacDailyNews, March 18, 2024
Note: Apple’s (virtual, of course) 2025 Annual Meeting of Shareholders is scheduled for February 25, 2025 at 8:00 am P.T.
Apple was caught flat-footed, due to a lack of vision on the part of leadership… So, the only solution is to partner with a [Google, OpenAI, Baidu, etc.] for the real GenAI stuff while pretending (marketing) really hard that some on-device AI Apple has whipped up in a few months is “insanely great Apple innovation” that’s at the heart of Apple’s 2024’s AI announcements when it’s really just an adjunct… Watch Apple make a big show of its on-device AI at WWDC and run many ads touting it from June onwards.
Apple hopes to buy time for the data center buildouts and investments that will be required for them to someday own their own AI technology and not have to license it from the likes of [Google, OpenAI, Baidu, etc.].
This is what happens after a decade plus with a caretaker CEO at the helm after he hits the last page of his iteration playbook, yet attempts to stay in the game for too long. – MacDailyNews, April 1, 2024
Clearly, Apple is not as innovative as it was under Steve Jobs who even started the company’s work on Apple Silicon, Apple Watch, and Apple Vision Pro, but, thanks to Jobs and Cook’s subsequent management of iterations of products and services conceived during Jobs’ tenure, including the retail store buildout which is responsible for a significant portion of Apple’s growth, the company now has more than enough money to make up for Cook’s lack of vision. – MacDailyNews, April 23, 2024
The new “AI features” for iOS, iPadOS, and MacOS to be revealed at WWDC is mainly a marketing exercise. The pressure is on Apple’s marketing team to position the company as an innovator in the space (“only Apple does so much on-device AI which enhances users’ privacy to ‘stunning’ effect,” etc.) that also makes “smart partnerships” with other AI companies (OpenAI, for example; even though it’s currently forced to partner if they want to offer any real GenAI features). Now, more than ever, finding themselves so far behind, Apple needs to sell, sell, sell! – MacDailyNews, May 28, 2024
When you’re caught flat-footed like Tim Cook’s Apple, you pop into scramble mode to try to catch up. Early on, you hit it with a big marketing flourish (WWDC24) in order to buy some more time. Then you dribble out features as they get finished and actually exist. Classic vaporware. – MadDailyNews, July 31, 2024
Executing a vaporware strategy is an unfortunate necessity without a visionary CEO and it takes time to actually realize (code, test, build out datacenter infrastructure, etc.) a grand marketing vision. – MacDailyNews, September 10, 2024
You know, some people get upset when we point out that Tim Cook is a boring, reactive caretaker who’s not really the best person to be running Apple today or for at least the past several years.
Operations manager Cook should have been a 3-5 year stopgap after Steve Jobs’ untimely passing, running the iteration playbook, providing continuity for the company while it found a real CEO. Instead, he hung on — and keeps hanging on — well past his sell-by date.
Sigh.
You can be upset with us for having the temerity to call it like we see it, but the fact remains that Apple would be doing significantly better today with a visionary who’d have seen AI on the horizon, who’d have recognized the intrinsic importance of Siri and therefore invested in it instead of criminally neglecting it, and who wouldn’t have squandered the company’s gigantic leads in things like personal assistants and podcasting. – MacDailyNews, August 22, 2024
Until it gets another visionary leader (fingers crossed; Apple’s history has shown – cough, Sculley, Spindler, cough – that the next CEO could be far, far worse than the very competent caretaker Cook), Apple can afford to miss things like generative AI – which they clearly did – and then use its huge war chest to catch up – which they’re doing right now (fun times and 80-hour weeks inside Apple Park!) – and, hopefully, [someday] surpass rivals (or at least be as good). Apple will very likely unveil their catch-up work within months (this June at WWDC 2024) in iPhones (and iPads, Apple Watches, etc.) with built-in on-device generative AI and other new AI-driven features. – MacDailyNews, February 14, 2024
Apple needed new blood years ago, but the old blood simply won’t let go. – MacDailyNews, January 22, 2025
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