For context, Apple Intelligence wasn’t even available when the iPhone 16 lineup came out. When it did eventually make its way to iOS it consisted of a very small number of the promised features. Apple has been slowly releasing more and more of what it initially showed off but the most important tool — a revamped Siri digital assistant — still remains missing.
There were a multitude of factors that led up to this failure but the two that stand out to me are the company’s executives and its commitment to user privacy.
Apple executives didn’t see the potential of AI
AI didn’t just suddenly become a thing when OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot exploded in popularity a few years back. Major companies like Google, Meta and Amazon had been working on perfecting AI for years because they all saw that it was going to be a major aspect of computing in the near future.However Apple executives — despite Steve Jobs’ fascination with Siri before his passing — apparently didn’t see what the hype was about. Senior vice president of software engineering at Apple, Craig Federighi, didn’t think AI would ever become anything important according to an employee.
Federighi remained reluctant to invest in AI. What’s even more tragic is that multiple other senior executives saw the potential of AI over a decade ago but when they tried to get Federighi on board he didn’t listen. Other executives at Federighi’s level also remained skeptical about the future of AI.
When OpenAI allowed access to ChatGPT Apple was completely taken aback. LLMs (Large Language Models) which make modern AI possible came out of the blue for Apple. When Craig Federighi used ChatGPT to write some code for a personal project he finally saw what AI could be. Unfortunately it was too late to catch up with competitors.
Apple’s strict commitment to user privacy
Many consumers think of the iPhone as a more secure option. | Video credit — Apple
Apple is very strict about the privacy of its users’ data. This, according to people working for the company, has resulted in a drastically slowed pace for training its AI models. While OpenAI scrapes the web and ChatGPT sessions, Apple refuses to train its AI on iPhone and Mac users’ data. Furthermore Apple allows websites to easily opt out of the list of sources its web crawler can scrape for data.
This has meant that, even after Apple started piling resources into AI research, it still lags behind its competitors. Apple currently has thousands of analysts across multiple countries that are analyzing its AI’s outputs for inaccuracies. The company is also working on a completely separate digital assistant — called “LLM Siri” — that it plans to replace the current Siri with, whenever it’s ready.
John Giannandrea, who worked for Google’s AI groups before joining Apple in 2018, has recently been stripped of control over product development. Giannandrea maintains that Apple faces no threat from other AI competitors. CEO Tim Cook — who is obsessed with AI development — has consequently lost faith in Giannandrea’s ability to deliver.
Craig Federighi has also taken on more responsibility for Apple’s AI research and development going forward. I suppose he feels somewhat responsible for the entire ordeal. Apple executives also recently said that they’re taking personal accountability for the failure of Apple Intelligence.
The iPhone looks to Gemini and other AI models
Apple is currently scrambling to bring as many of its promised AI features to its devices as it can. To that end the company is currently in talks with Google to bring its flagship AI model Gemini to the iPhone. This is the same approach that Samsung used for the Galaxy S25 series and Google, understandably, for the Pixel 9 phones.
Employees claim that Apple is going to be much more careful now and only announce features a few months before their confirmed launch. That is also why this year’s WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) will likely be a lot less bombastic.
