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Drama at Apple as AI failures cause heads to roll
Problems, they say, are gifts to help you change. If that’s the case, then Apple has some changing to do, at least when it comes to AI development, which a new Bloomberg report suggests is in crisis.
The crisis runs so deep, allegedly, that Apple will introduce no Siri upgrades at WWDC 2025 — and the report claims to have seen internal data that shows Apple “remains years behind its competition.” It paints a picture of weak leadership, conflicting priorities, flawed decision-making, and problematic integration between teams.
It particularly points at weak communication between Apple’s AI and marketing teams, evidenced by the heavy hype thrown at Apple Intelligence last year, even before features were baked — some of which have still failed to launch. The central claim seems to be that the debut of generative AI came as a complete surprise to Apple management, who were moving at a more deliberate pace.
Internal conflicts
Some of the biggest problems, however, appear to be based on misalignment of budget, as some teams got less than they needed to put effective AI solutions together. Some of the blame sits at the feet of Apple’s AI leader, John Giannandrea, who insiders say should have been more aggressive in pursuing the funding he needed. He should have shouted harder to get what he needed, the report implies.
Other claims lean into assertions we’ve already heard, such as the idea that after resistance to genAI investment, Apple SVP of software engineering Craig Federighi had a eureka moment as to its importance when using ChatGPT on a personal coding project. It seems that at that point, he finally understood the threat posed by genAI and mandated that work on artificial intelligence intensify – which is when work on what we now call “Apple Intelligence” really began.
Changing tactics
Apple has been changing its approach rapidly in recent months, since the company famously missed its schedule for launch of the biggest Apple Intelligence feature of contextual intelligence in Siri. That miss has clearly become a crisis at Apple. Since it was revealed, elements of the existing AI leadership have been shifted aside, projects realigned, and budgets reallocated, but the problems aren’t yet resolved.
With a resolve to “do whatever it takes,” Apple has also become more open to partnership. Its original AI partnership with OpenAI will now be extended to others, likely including Google and more. The company is also working with Anthropic to deploy AI from that company in Xcode.
Part of this crisis seems to extend from the difference between Apple’s existing machine intelligence models and the genAI it hopes to deploy. The report cites an illustration of Siri, which remains less effective at some tasks than competing services can be, with integration attributed as the cause.
Meanwhile, the company has a team building a version of Siri that is entirely LLM-based, aiming to make Siri more conversational and better at processing information. This will eventually replace the hybrid Siri that Apple is using at the moment. Interestingly, the report says Apple is training the LLM Siri with synthetic data, which implies some useful advances in that side of AI technology.
The impact of choice
All of these problems, the report implies, seem so great that Apple may decide to extend the opportunity to replace Siri with other, less private voice assistants on its devices.
It may have to.
The company is already working to enable that kind of choice in Europe as it expects it may be required to under what it sees as the bloc’s opaquely applied Digital Markets Act.
One way to look at this could be that if Apple can’t quickly make Siri an effective competitor, it may need to give users a choice of assistant. Even if the AI isn’t Apple’s, the device used to run that code should still be.
It’s a high-risk plan — particularly as we wait on an AI-powered device reported to be in development at OpenAI — but remains one that Apple may have to take as it responds to what Bloomberg seems to want to characterize as failure by Apple’s leadership.
Despite the hyperbole, in my view, the company still has time in which to get things right, thanks to the high customer satisfaction its hardware and software generate.
While people are increasingly making casual use of AI, justifiable suspicion of the tech remains, and Apple can continue to generate credibility by maintaining its focus on building a private, focused version of AI that solves real problems real people face. If it takes more time to deliver on that promise, then so be it.
Apple may decide it must become a lot more AI-transparent on its journey there, even as regulators force it to become more open. It must also never again make promises it cannot keep.
Ultimately, it was failing to follow through on the promises it made when marketing Apple Intelligence that, more than anything else, left Apple looking weak. While it was at that time seen as being behind the curve, it now appears to be struggling. That’s not a look the people that run Apple will want to keep for very long.
Problems, they say, are a gift to help you change, and a changeis going to come.
You can follow me on social media! Join me on BlueSky, LinkedIn, and Mastodon.
#drama #apple #failures #cause #heads
Drama at Apple as AI failures cause heads to roll
Problems, they say, are gifts to help you change. If that’s the case, then Apple has some changing to do, at least when it comes to AI development, which a new Bloomberg report suggests is in crisis.
The crisis runs so deep, allegedly, that Apple will introduce no Siri upgrades at WWDC 2025 — and the report claims to have seen internal data that shows Apple “remains years behind its competition.” It paints a picture of weak leadership, conflicting priorities, flawed decision-making, and problematic integration between teams.
It particularly points at weak communication between Apple’s AI and marketing teams, evidenced by the heavy hype thrown at Apple Intelligence last year, even before features were baked — some of which have still failed to launch. The central claim seems to be that the debut of generative AI came as a complete surprise to Apple management, who were moving at a more deliberate pace.
Internal conflicts
Some of the biggest problems, however, appear to be based on misalignment of budget, as some teams got less than they needed to put effective AI solutions together. Some of the blame sits at the feet of Apple’s AI leader, John Giannandrea, who insiders say should have been more aggressive in pursuing the funding he needed. He should have shouted harder to get what he needed, the report implies.
Other claims lean into assertions we’ve already heard, such as the idea that after resistance to genAI investment, Apple SVP of software engineering Craig Federighi had a eureka moment as to its importance when using ChatGPT on a personal coding project. It seems that at that point, he finally understood the threat posed by genAI and mandated that work on artificial intelligence intensify – which is when work on what we now call “Apple Intelligence” really began.
Changing tactics
Apple has been changing its approach rapidly in recent months, since the company famously missed its schedule for launch of the biggest Apple Intelligence feature of contextual intelligence in Siri. That miss has clearly become a crisis at Apple. Since it was revealed, elements of the existing AI leadership have been shifted aside, projects realigned, and budgets reallocated, but the problems aren’t yet resolved.
With a resolve to “do whatever it takes,” Apple has also become more open to partnership. Its original AI partnership with OpenAI will now be extended to others, likely including Google and more. The company is also working with Anthropic to deploy AI from that company in Xcode.
Part of this crisis seems to extend from the difference between Apple’s existing machine intelligence models and the genAI it hopes to deploy. The report cites an illustration of Siri, which remains less effective at some tasks than competing services can be, with integration attributed as the cause.
Meanwhile, the company has a team building a version of Siri that is entirely LLM-based, aiming to make Siri more conversational and better at processing information. This will eventually replace the hybrid Siri that Apple is using at the moment. Interestingly, the report says Apple is training the LLM Siri with synthetic data, which implies some useful advances in that side of AI technology.
The impact of choice
All of these problems, the report implies, seem so great that Apple may decide to extend the opportunity to replace Siri with other, less private voice assistants on its devices.
It may have to.
The company is already working to enable that kind of choice in Europe as it expects it may be required to under what it sees as the bloc’s opaquely applied Digital Markets Act.
One way to look at this could be that if Apple can’t quickly make Siri an effective competitor, it may need to give users a choice of assistant. Even if the AI isn’t Apple’s, the device used to run that code should still be.
It’s a high-risk plan — particularly as we wait on an AI-powered device reported to be in development at OpenAI — but remains one that Apple may have to take as it responds to what Bloomberg seems to want to characterize as failure by Apple’s leadership.
Despite the hyperbole, in my view, the company still has time in which to get things right, thanks to the high customer satisfaction its hardware and software generate.
While people are increasingly making casual use of AI, justifiable suspicion of the tech remains, and Apple can continue to generate credibility by maintaining its focus on building a private, focused version of AI that solves real problems real people face. If it takes more time to deliver on that promise, then so be it.
Apple may decide it must become a lot more AI-transparent on its journey there, even as regulators force it to become more open. It must also never again make promises it cannot keep.
Ultimately, it was failing to follow through on the promises it made when marketing Apple Intelligence that, more than anything else, left Apple looking weak. While it was at that time seen as being behind the curve, it now appears to be struggling. That’s not a look the people that run Apple will want to keep for very long.
Problems, they say, are a gift to help you change, and a changeis going to come.
You can follow me on social media! Join me on BlueSky, LinkedIn, and Mastodon.
#drama #apple #failures #cause #heads
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