Apple Intelligence failure: 'rushed to market to appease an AI-obsessed Wall Street'

Apple has been working on an AI-powered update for its Siri digital assistant, but according to the latest report, it is "facing engineering problems and software bugs, threatening to postpone or limit its release".

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The update on the AI-powered update for Siri is coming from Mark Gurman on Bloomberg, where he reports the news "according to people with knowledge of the matter". After announcing its plans for new AI-powered Siri abilities at its developers conference in June 2024, advertising its new features around the world, the company is still not ready.

Some of the new features were planned for an April 2025 release, but Gurrman's sources said that these features "may have to be postponed until May or later". Apple refused to comment on the Siri project, after promising some major updates coming to the digital assistant in June 2024:

• the ability to tap into a customer's data to better answer queries and take actions.
• a new system that would let the assistant more precisely control apps.
• the capability to see what's currently on a device's screen and use that context to better serve users.

Gurman writes that Apple is considering delaying or limiting at least some of the new Siri abilities until iOS 18.5, which "will be released as early as May" according to his sources. Gurman continues, saying that even inside of Apple, many employees testing the new Siri have discovered these features "don't yet work consistently" adding that "it's nearing crunch time for the software to be ready".

• Read more: Apple is about to make Siri a whole lot smarter in a new imminent update
• Read more: Apple delivers ChatGPT to Siri: introduces 'Apple Intelligence' at WWDC 2024

Apple has had a huge, multi-million-dollar, global marketing campaign for Apple Intelligence... but the world's second most-valuable company (aside from NVIDIA) has been struggling with AI. OpenAI has ChatGPT, Google has Gemini, Meta has Llama, and then X with xAI... but Apple and its machine-learning team have struggled to meet deadlines reports Gurman. He adds that "some engineers believe the system was rushed to market to appease AI-obsessed Wall Street".