Apple fumbles AI again: new 'LLM Siri' update for iOS 19 delayed, now expected with iOS in 2026

Apple's much-anticipated AI-powered update for Siri was originally slated for release within iOS 19, but it has been delayed according to reports, further highlighting Apple's failure in AI so far.

3

In his new report on Bloomberg, insider Mark Gurman writes in his PowerOn newsletter that Apple's plans to release an "LLM Siri" that could keep up in world with ChatGPT, Grok, and Alexa+ have been delayed. Right now, Siri inside of iOS 18 essentially has two brains: one that operates the regular Siri commands like timers and making calls, while another handles advanced quieries.

But, in order for Apple Intelligence to be baked into iOS 18, Apple rushed and didn't spend the time melding the two systems together, meaning it doesn't work anywhere near as good, and rivals haven't just caught up, but leap-frogged Apple when it comes to integrating AI into their systems.

Apple is meant to introduce an AI-powered SIri inside of iOS 19, with the new system called "LLM Siri" internally, and would introduce a more conversational approach... but Gurman writes "that is now running behind as well and won't be unveiled in June".

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

He adds that "before Apple can go full-throttle on development of that Siri, which is supposed to finally work more like ChatGPT and the new Alexa, Apple will need to get the underlying system fixed. And that won't be easy. That's why people within Apple's AI division now believe that a true modernized, conversational version of Siri won't reach consumers until iOS 20 at best in 2027".

This means that Apple is 5 years late to the AI game, its competitors are far out and ahead and by the time Apple catches up in the next couple of years, their rivals would be even further ahead. Gurman writes that a "big reason for that is the amount of time Apple is still spending working to get the features announced last year out the door. It's challenging to move on to next year's release before this year's operating system updates have rolled out to customers".

3

"That's left Apple at a make-or-break point. Clearly, the company isn't moving fast enough internally to create an underlying AI technology it needs to keep up with the competition - and that suggests a change is required".

Another issue for Apple is having enough AI accelerators to power its AI features across the iPhone, where Gurman says that according to people involved in Apple's AI work say its foundational and large language models (LLMs) -- the basis for Apple's in-house AI features -- are "reaching their limits". There have been issues with competitors poaching Apple staff, and what these sources explain as "ineffective leadership".

Apple is hoping its AI models become more capable, but getting their hands on AI chips has been another issue, where the rest of the industry was buying up that capacity, once Apple realized it had been majorly caught off guard with ChatGPT, it was too late to get enough. Gurman adds that "moreover, the AI industry is advancing so quickly that the team's work is often obsolete by the time it's ready to unveil, employees say".