Apple is in “early discussions” with Google to license its Gemini AI model for Siri. Read that again. This is Apple—the tech giant that used to define innovation—now going hat in hand to borrow Google’s AI brain just to keep Siri alive. I should be shocked. Instead, I’m just tired.
The AirPower Template: Sell the Dream, Not the Product
We’ve seen this play before. Back in 2017, Apple announced AirPower, the magical charging mat that would let you drop your iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods anywhere on its surface and watch them charge in harmony. Apple went further than just unveiling a concept: they actively positioned AirPower as the wireless charger to wait for. “Don’t buy the other ones,” was the message. “Ours is coming, and it will be the best ever.”
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“Our team knows how to do it” were the last words of this product presentation. |
Competitors were already shipping functional wireless chargers. But Apple didn’t want to lose early market share. So instead of matching product with product, Apple matched product with promise.
People held off buying other chargers, trusting that Apple’s would soon arrive. Except it never did. By 2019, AirPower was quietly canceled, with Apple admitting it couldn’t solve the engineering and overheating problems.
That’s been Apple’s playbook in the past decade: stall the market with marketing until competitors lose their momentum, then either show up late or not at all.
Apple Intelligence, Same Story
Fast-forward to 2024. AI explodes into the mainstream. ChatGPT rewires workflows. Google pushes Gemini across its products. Microsoft bakes Copilot into Office. But Apple steps onstage at WWDC and says: Don’t invest in the others. Don’t start building your AI workflows yet. Because Apple Intelligence is coming—and it’ll be better.
They sold a vision of a smarter Siri that could handle multi-step tasks and fully integrate into your Apple devices, and even understand your context across apps. Ads literally carried the words “Available now.”
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I can’t tell you how many people skipped the cheaper iPhone 14 or 15 because they wanted to “future-proof” with the 16 Pro and get the full Apple Intelligence suite. |
By March 2025, Apple pulled its “Available now” video and admitted the Siri revamp was delayed—again. The AI features weren’t arriving until 2026. A class-action lawsuit followed, accusing Apple of false advertising and unfair competition. Investors also sued, alleging securities fraud: Apple had no working prototype when it promised Siri AI would drive iPhone 16 sales.
Apple Intelligence turned out to be vaporware dressed up as marketing, just like AirPower.
The “Intelligence” We Actually Got
Of all the things Apple Intelligence could have delivered, what did we actually get? A ridiculous emoji and image generator. Try the Playground app for more than a minute and your $1,200 iPhone 16 Pro Max will start overheating. That’s the cutting edge of Apple AI: unstable emoji doodles.
Meanwhile, the Siri upgrade was actually a step backward. Old Siri, for all its clumsiness, could at least look things up. New Siri punts the request to ChatGPT.
So after years of telling customers, “Don’t use other AIs, ours is coming,” Apple’s AI turned out to be… the very other AI. And now, barely a year later, they’re quietly moving away from ChatGPT to talk with Google about Gemini. It’s offensive.
There Is Dignity in Saying No
Apple could have chosen dignity. They could have said, “We’re not chasing AI—we’ll focus on what we do best.” They could have opted out, as they once did with netbooks, with Flash, even with 5G, until the tech matured. But instead, they sold vapor.
Apple said don’t buy other chargers and never shipped AirPower. Apple said don’t use other AIs and gave us ChatGPT duct-taped into Siri. And now they’re whispering about Google Gemini like it’s the cavalry.
If Apple had simply admitted it wasn’t ready for AI, it would have looked cautious, even principled. Instead, it looks lost.
Apple today feels less like an innovator and more like a business company. It’s optimized for margins, lock-in, and lawsuits, not for daring engineering. AirPower was the canary. Apple Intelligence is the collapse. And Siri—Siri is the punchline.
The company that once redefined personal computing, phones, and tablets is now begging competitors for AI models while hoping its customers won’t notice the bait-and-switch.
We noticed. And we’re disappointed.
