Story just dropped from Mark Gurman.
(Bloomberg) – Apple Inc. confirmed that it’s delaying the release of a new AI-infused Siri digital assistant, saying the company now expects to roll out the software sometime “in the coming year.”
So what does that mean, March 2026? How can Apple talk about “Apple Intelligence” and not make improvements to the main feature that people use every day, improvements that were demoed back in June 2024?
Dammed it you do and dammed if you don’t.
Apple determines that it isn’t ready, so they delay it. Seems like the right call to me.
And maybe we’d all be better off if we ignore the rumor mongers like Gurman? Especially when you can get the info from Apple:
I still think the story is Apple mitigating their own losses at the expense of the consumer by desperately announcing something they didn’t have and couldn’t deliver. Then they sold a bunch of hardware on the promise.
It doesn’t change my life, but it’s a big fail.
The quote I’m seeing widely reported is: “ The overhaul was once eyed for 2026 but now may not arrive until 2027.”
Whether it’s 2026 or 2027, this suggests that Apple was even further behind in this area than we initially thought. There is a significant gap between the capabilities of Apple Intelligence and those of its competitors. At this pace, Apple has a long road ahead just to catch up—while the competition continues to push forward.
Apple Intelligence on the iPhone 16 didn’t result in a super cycle of upgrades this time. And it looks unlikely to be a reason to purchase new Apple hardware for the next couple of years.
Meanwhile the competition is filling the gap by making their AI available to Apple users. Both OpenAI and Google Gemini have iOS apps and there are now six Gemini lockscreen widgets for the iPhone.
Will those Apple customers who are using AI now want to switch to Apple Intelligence if it isn’t a superior product when it finally arrives?
I have not done this but I’m sure if I asked 10 of my non-nerd contacts if they cared that Apple Intelligence was going to be delayed, 9 out of 10 wouldn’t even know what it was let alone care that it was delayed. Apple has not been the leader in technology creation for cell phones, desktops, laptops, tablets, headphones, or streaming TV devices. They seem to be doing Ok though.
Apple has lost the AI battle. Unlike some other technologies, which were introduced across their platforms and devices once they had matured, Apple is so far behind the curve now with AI that despite all the promises of a private and secure AI implementation, I don’t think they will ever be able to catch up. Even if everything promised in 2024 had been delivered, it would have been a couple of years behind the competition, which is a really bad outlook.
Yes, they should abandon their strategy of creating their own AI and just partner with the companies who are cleaning their clock. Just make the best computers to run AI and they will still benefit from whatever comes from AI. Look at Nvidia, they don’t have AI models, but their chips are the best chips to train models, so they’re killing it.
i’m with you on getting gurman silenced. he keeps throwing shade on the apple mojo. they should just make bloomberg an official partner, or silence him with their usual misinformation gambit that exposes leaks.
OR, do like they have been, and take turns officially leaking info to different publications, giving them the spotlight for specific stories.
my feeling is similar, @MevetS. SO many times, apple is “late” to the game, and then when it releases, it’s better than everything else, and it aligns with their core principles.
i submit that they’ve discovered a new game-changing strategy for the implementation of this, midstream, and they decided to stop, and start on that one. and the new one is going to be WAY better than the older one. Someone else here called it “Hair Club for Men”, and I think that’s it.
This seems like a reasonable theory about the delays (Simon Willison):
Apple Is Delaying the ‘More Personalized Siri’ Apple Intelligence Features
I have a hunch that this delay might relate to security.
These new Apple Intelligence features involve Siri responding to requests to access information in applications and then perform actions on the user’s behalf.
This is the worst possible combination for prompt injection attacks! Any time an LLM-based system has access to private data, tools it can call and exposure to potentially malicious instructions (like emails and text messages from untrusted strangers) there’s a significant risk that an attacker might subvert those tools and use them to damage or exfiltration a user’s data.