Has Apple, the globe’s largest corporation, mishandled its approach to generative artificial intelligence?
Uncertainty came to light when an insider, technology analyst John Gruber, publicly criticized the company in a blog post entitled "Something Is Rotten in the State of Cupertino," where Apple’s main offices are located. This scathing review was published earlier this month.
The respected analyst and Apple enthusiast said he was furious for not being more skeptical when the company announced last June that its Siri chatbot would be getting a major generative AI (genAI) upgrade.
The technology, set to be launched as part of the Apple Intelligence collection of iPhone software, aimed to elevate the significantly criticized voice assistant’s functionalities far beyond merely providing weather updates or configuring timers.
Investors hoped the upgrade would launch the iPhone on a much-needed super-cycle, in which a new feature on the smartphone proves so tantalizing that users rush to snap up the latest and most expensive models.
Apple Intelligence and its promised Siri upgrade was very much supposed to fuel that demand, starting as soon as the release of the iPhone 16, which came out in September.
Rather than that, Apple discreetly declared on March 7th that the deeply customized version of Siri was not going to arrive as soon as anticipated.
Increasing the stakes further, Amazon unveiled a new iteration of its Alexa voice assistant in February, which now incorporates generative AI technology.
Apple stated, "This will require more time than initially anticipated to implement these features, and we expect their rollout to occur over the next year."
Data privacy vs AI
Opinions differ regarding why Apple is struggling to capture the AI spotlight.
According to Marcus Collins, who teaches marketing at the University of Michigan, Apple’s difficulties with generative AI and specifically Siri might stem more from the company’s emphasis on data privacy rather than an issue with innovation capability.
To make AI personalized, it requires processing large volumes of individual user information.
And "Apple hasn't let up on the gas when it comes to privacy," Collins told AFP.
But at some point, "people's information, creations, language... are all being exploited to help grow better AI," and squaring that circle might be harder than bargained for by Apple.
For tech analyst Avi Greengart, "The fact that Apple has advertised Apple Intelligence so heavily with the iPhone 16 is a bit of a black eye, because most of what was promised in Apple Intelligence is not in the iPhone 16."
But he cautions that even if Google's Gemini AI features in its Android line of phones are way ahead of anything Apple has delivered, customers may not have noticed much.
"Even the best implementation of AI on phones today doesn't fundamentally change the way you use your phone yet," he said.
"No one has delivered on the full vision and that gives Apple time to catch up -- but it certainly needs to catch up."
Still, Apple's harshest critics complain that Apple rests too much on its laurels and the uber-popularity of its iPhone.
Moreover, the stumbles on AI came swiftly after lackluster reception of Vision Pro, Apple's expensive virtual reality headset that has failed to gain traction since its release in 2024.
Despite the recent negative headlines for Apple and the fact that its share price is down 8 percent since the start of the year, it remains the world's most valuable company and its stock is still up almost 30 percent from a year ago.
And Apple reported a whopping $124.3 billion in revenue in the year-end holiday quarter, even if sales growth fell shy of market expectations.
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