Apple Reassures Siri Team Members Feeling Disappointed and Embarrassed by Apple Intelligence Delay

[spazzcat]

Wow sounds like what every company in the history of the world goes through when bringing products to market. Taking time to develop the best product out there. It’s really 100% no news here lol but the media needs to fabricate something to get those clicks!

And it will not help, if anything it will hurt things more becuase Apple will release it before it ready.

 

[michaelsaxon]

From what I've read, Steve Jobs would've had a different approach.

 

[huanbrother]

Can't praise oneself for having done a ****** job.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

From what I've read, Steve Jobs would've had a different approach.

He would also be in his 70s.
Apple doesn’t even let board members stay on after 75, it’s very likely that even if he were alive, he would have nothing to do with this.

 

[hagjohn]

Apple has failed to make the investments in Siri since its creation. Now it is coming back to bite them.

 

[bob24]

People are behaving like spoiled children who didn’t get a pony for their birthday. Apple will release it when it is up to their standards. It will be outstanding. Apple is rarely first. Apple is very often best.

Everyone go outside and touch some grass and settle down.

Internal delays are sometimes fine, this isn’t the problem.

The problem is that they marketed it as a core feature of their new iPhones and iPads and actively told customers to renew their devices because this would be delivered to them within a certain timeframe. And then they quietly tried to pretend they never made this promise.

 

[macmac30]

The should be embarrassed based on the state of Siri for the last many years. Who’s speaking???

 

[TechWhisperer]

Siri is dead. Boohoo and R.I.P.

Now it’s time to build a brand new next-level AI assistant and bring back the good ol’ Golden Age of Apple.

 

[Apple$]

Thats what they get for not making it a web app any device could use instead of tying it to hardware to spur product sales. Nobody who actually has to spend money on this stuff is rooting for that to succeed.

They could’ve just given the improved Siri to at least the iPhone 12 and up. In this economy, almost nobody wants to shell out for the latest iPhone with empty promises.

 

[I7guy]

It’s was a management decision to release Apple AI before it was ready. Blame Tim Cook not the software developers. It was Tim Cook’s decision to continue with Siri rather than scrapping it and starting again. He must take responsibility for this failure.

Probably will get a bigger bonus than last year. While Apple takes some heat imo the buying public cares less about it than Macrumors critics and the pundits who stand to make a dime off of click bait headlines.

But yeah at this point there is no going back, they need to make it happen.

 

[JTK Awesome]

From DF (bold face is my addition) - 💯 IMO - and why, if for no other reason, Tim needs to take full ownership of this fiasco and leave the company.

Something Is Rotten in the State of Cupertino

Who decided these personalized Siri features should go in the WWDC keynote, with a promise they’d arrive in the coming year, when, at the time, they were in such an unfinished state they could not be demoed to the media even in a controlled environment? Three months later, who decided Apple...

daringfireball.net

The Apple of the Jobs exile years — the Sculley / Spindler / Amelio Apple of 1987–1997 — promoted all sorts of amazing concepts that were no more real than the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park, and promised all sorts of hardware and (especially) software that never saw the light of day. Promoting what you hope to be able to someday ship is way easier and more exciting than promoting what you know is actually ready to ship. However close to financial bankruptcy Apple was when Steve Jobs returned as CEO after the NeXT reunification, the company was already completely bankrupt of credibility. Apple today is the most profitable and financially successful company in the history of the world. Everyone notices such success, and the corresponding accumulation of great wealth. Less noticed, but to my mind the more impressive achievement, is that over the last three decades, the company also accumulated an abundant reserve of credibility. When Apple showed a feature, you could bank on that feature being real. When they said something was set to ship in the coming year, it would ship in the coming year. In the worst case, maybe that “year” would have to be stretched to 13 or 14 months. You can stretch the truth and maintain credibility, but you can’t maintain credibility with ********. And the “more personalized Siri” features, it turns out, were ********.

Keynote by keynote, product by product, feature by feature, year after year after year, Apple went from a company that you couldn’t believe would even remain solvent, to, by far, the most credible company in tech. Apple remains at no risk of financial bankruptcy (and in fact remains the most profitable company in the world). But their credibility is now damaged. Careers will end before Apple might ever return to the level of “if they say it, you can believe it” credibility the company had earned at the start of June 2024.

 

[Abazigal]

False advertising. You might be OK with a company breaking US federal law to steal money from unwitting consumers but I’m not.

Apple showed commercials they have now had to pull to sell the iPhone 16 using features that didn’t exist and will not be out until after the iPhone 16 is no longer their flagship product. In fact, it’s even worse than that as there is no guarantee from Apple that we’ll see these features in iOS 19 at all either. All Apple is now saying is that it’ll likely be next year.

If I bought an iPhone, especially a Pro or Max that cost north of $1,000, based on false advertising I’d be upset. So enough with this “I don’t see what they did wrong” or “they don’t owe anybody anything” garbage. If you bought a phone based on these features being publicly advertised and touted by Apple or decided to pass on a phone from another vendor in favor of keeping your iPhone 15 Pro or Max based on Apple’s false advertising then Apple does owe you something. Period. End of discussion.

If Apple hadn’t actively advertised and promised these features other than to say they are on the roadmap and won’t ship until they are ready then you’d have a point but they didn’t do that. They used these non-existent features as a selling point for a product that wouldn’t have sold as many units had they been honest. That’s illegal.

Delaying features because they are not ready is not the disaster of epic proportions this thread is making it out to be. And I can understand Apple management wanting to tell customers that phones purchased after a certain cutoff date would be eligible for Apple Intelligence. The alternative is to stay mum, while quietly shipping devices with 8gb ram, but then you run into the problem of customers possibly buying older devices (like the iPhone 14) to save a buck, and then complaining a year later when they realise it won't support Apple Intelligence.

Certain products like the 16e also make more sense when viewed through the lens that Apple is moving quickly to update their entire product lineup to support AI (with perhaps the exception of the iPad 11, but now that AI is an open secret, nobody can complain that Apple hoodwinked them into purchasing a product that won't support a marquee feature down the road).

In addition, the delay of improved Siri should also be put in context with what Apple has done in the previous year. They released the vision pro, added hearing aid to their AirPods Pro, just announced their in-house modem, while continuing to update their entire product line.

Tim Cook remains the best all-around CEO in Big Tech. A hiccup here or there does not change anything.

 

[aknabi]

Why is Apple tolerating mediocrity? Siri is 10 years behind Android. We all know what Steve would have done.....

This... sure during Steve's reign there was always the fear of being torn a new one by him if you bozo'd it up (and one reason I didn't join Apple decades ago as I don't respond well to that sort of interaction, though would have strived more to do the best... a mistake in hindsight).

My friends who did live through it did awesome stuff and actually have left as they've gotten tired of "bozo infiltration" and acceptance of mediocrity (both in design and engineering)... it's a reality that works when you dominate the mature market you're in (e.g. mobile) and just need incremental iterations... but it utterly fails you on both knowing where the new markets are and executing to deliver to them (e.g. AI)... and we're arguably seeing just that now.

 

[JTK Awesome]

Same DF article about what happened after the Charlie Foxtrot of MobileMe in 2011:

Steve Jobs doesn’t tolerate duds. Shortly after the launch event, he summoned the MobileMe team, gathering them in the Town Hall auditorium in Building 4 of Apple’s campus, the venue the company uses for intimate product unveilings for journalists. According to a participant in the meeting, Jobs walked in, clad in his trademark black mock turtleneck and blue jeans, clasped his hands together, and asked a simple question:

“Can anyone tell me what MobileMe is supposed to do?” Having received a satisfactory answer, he continued, “So why the **** doesn’t it do that?”

For the next half-hour Jobs berated the group. “You’ve tarnished Apple’s reputation,” he told them. “You should hate each other for having let each other down.” The public humiliation particularly infuriated Jobs. Walt Mossberg, the influential Wall Street Journal gadget columnist, had panned MobileMe. “Mossberg, our friend, is no longer writing good things about us,” Jobs said. On the spot, Jobs named a new executive to run the group.

 

[citysnaps]

Probably will get a bigger bonus than last year. While Apple takes some heat imo the buying public cares less about it than Macrumors critics and the pundits who stand to make a dime off of click bait headlines.

But yeah at this point there is no going back, they need to make it happen.

Yes... and are the same people who claim they don't want AI on their phone and will immediately turn it off if it's there.

 

[karnac]

They need to just release it. You can't contain AI inside pandora's box. It is either truthful and helpful, or untruthful and useless. This is part of the human experience. If the founders of the internet decided not to build it because it could be used for "hurtful things" then we'd still be mailing letters to each other.

Apple needs to be fearless. Potential criticism of the dregs of society should not hold back human progress.

 

[Delivered]

Boy that sounds productive

In a Siri team meeting the Robby walker informed the Siri team they needed to unlock their iPhone to hear his remarks when they did their iPhones opened up to a Google search page for how to fix Siri and not feel bad with the first 1/3 of the page taken up with Gemini explaining to them what they needed to do to fix Siri.

 

[Delivered]

I queried Siri and Gemini with the following:

If you were responsible for Siri what steps would you take to make Siri more competitive in the current market?

Siri offered to search the web or query chatgpt. I don’t think that is horrible as a response. However This the Gemini response:

1. Enhanced AI Integration:

• Generative AI:
• Move beyond simple command execution to provide more nuanced and comprehensive answers. Integrate large language models to enable Siri to understand and respond to complex queries in a more natural, conversational way.
• Focus on providing direct answers rather than solely relying on web searches. This would significantly improve user experience and efficiency.

• Contextual Understanding:
• Improve Siri's ability to understand and retain context across conversations. This includes remembering previous queries, user preferences, and relevant information from other apps.
• Develop a deeper understanding of user's personal context, by using on device processing of information, this would add a very high degree of personal utility.

• Improved Natural Language Processing (NLP):
• Continue to refine Siri's NLP to handle variations in speech, accents, and phrasing more accurately.
• Focus on improving its ability to understand ambiguous or complex requests.

2. Functionality and Reliability:

• Increased Accuracy and Reliability:
• Address Siri's historical issues with misinterpreting commands and providing inaccurate information.
• Rigorous testing and continuous improvement are crucial to build user trust.
• Expanded App Integration:
  • Deepen Siri's integration with both Apple's own apps and third-party apps. This would allow users to control a wider range of functions using voice commands.
  • Allow for more complex, cross-app workflows. For example, being able to take information from a message, and then use that information to create a calender event.
• • Offline Functionality:
• • Expand Siri's capabilities to function effectively even without an internet connection. This is particularly important for basic tasks and privacy concerns.

3. User Experience:

• More Natural and Human-like Interactions:
• • Continue to refine Siri's voice and tone to sound more natural and engaging.
  • Incorporate more expressive and nuanced responses.
• • Personalization:
• • Allow users to customize Siri's voice, tone, and behavior to better suit their preferences.
  • Develop more personalized recommendations and suggestions based on user habits and interests.
• • Privacy Focus:
• • Continue to emphasize Apple's focus on user privacy by processing as much data as possible on-device.
  • Clearly communicate how user data is being used and provide users with control over their privacy settings.

4. Future Development:

• Proactive Assistance:
  • Develop Siri's ability to anticipate user needs and provide proactive assistance.
  • For example, providing reminders about upcoming appointments or suggesting relevant information based on location and time.
  • Cross-Device Integration:
  • Seamlessly integrate Siri across all Apple devices, allowing users to start a task on one device and continue it on another.
  • Accessibility Improvements:
  • continue to improve accessibility options, so that all users can effectively use Siri.
• By focusing on these areas, Siri can become a more powerful, reliable, and user-friendly voice assistant, capable of competing effectively in the current market.

 

[I7guy]

From DF (bold face is my addition) - 💯 IMO - and why, if for no other reason, Tim needs to take full ownership of this fiasco and leave the company.

Something Is Rotten in the State of Cupertino

Who decided these personalized Siri features should go in the WWDC keynote, with a promise they’d arrive in the coming year, when, at the time, they were in such an unfinished state they could not be demoed to the media even in a controlled environment? Three months later, who decided Apple...

daringfireball.net

As abazigal said, he’s the best all around tech ceo. No matter if some MR posters or pundits who make their money through clickbait headlines criticize his performance.

 

[Delivered]

They need to just release it. You can't contain AI inside pandora's box. It is either truthful and helpful, or untruthful and useless. This is part of the human experience. If the founders of the internet decided not to build it because it could be used for "hurtful things" then we'd still be mailing letters to each other.

Apple needs to be fearless. Potential criticism of the dregs of society should not hold back human progress.

Apple is judged harshly bc they operate exclusively in premium segment with expensive products. Google is budget to expensive. Google has always been goofy but even then they ARE doing damage to their search brand with Gemini but feel they have to before people start abandoning them to perplexity and OpenAI. Just like video is more how people get information than reading. Verbal search/ even text to LLMs is thought to replace search so they want to help lead it.

I think Apple can win by having the best hardware for llm and just letting ppl use which ever one. That way they don’t take the heat. Siri only needs to be marginally better.

Personally I prefer the old ways rather than this loose association with the truth llm system but I’ll admit it’s great for tasks like programming.

 

[paulovsouza]

Is it wrong that I don't see this as negative or a failure? They should apologize and make a public statement about using it in ads and making it a promised feature for iPhone 16. But I would rather them take their time and make it useful than just release random AI features no one cares about or needs. A private AI that processes on device only and is integrated into the OS, no one is doing that. The only company that's really got a leg up on them is OpenAI. Until they make their own hardware, there's still time for Apple to innovate.

 

[Apple$]

SO basically, entire iphone line teams have been doing nothing for years and just providing incremental hardware update... let's face it there is ZERO innovation at apple and only their hope is to buy into 3rd party company in hope that it will give them new revolution features. Even that, they cannot do it correctly w/ all that money.. I don't know.. But yet, apple stocks are doing fine(which I am happy w/)...

Yup, I got the same result. I then asked Siri: "I recently read that you were given a database of all of Apple’s products, enabling you to answer questions about them right from my iPhone, so that you wouldn’t have to direct people to the Internet for answers to questions about Apple’s product lines. Is this true?" Siri answered: "I didn’t get that. Could you try again?"

In other words, either what we've read about this isn't accurate, or this database of Apple products that Siri now supposedly contains is actually very limited, possibly only to current models, so that asking about the iPhone 6 threw it for a loop. Meaning it's not a replacement for the Mactracker utility.

I just asked Siri the question “when did the iPhone 6 release”and it came up with a completely different answer:

Now I finally understand why Siri is dumb as rocks.

 

[I7guy]

Is it wrong that I don't see this as negative or a failure? They should apologize and make a public statement about using it in ads and making it a promised feature for iPhone 16. But I would rather them take their time and make it useful than just release random AI features no one cares about or needs. A private AI that processes on device only and is integrated into the OS, no one is doing that. The only company that's really got a leg up on them is OpenAI. Until they make their own hardware, there's still time for Apple to innovate.

Would you buy OpenAI hardware? I wouldn’t. Selling cohesive system such as what Apple developed through the years is I think harder than it looks.

 

[buckwheet]

Maybe im too optimistic but 60 - 80% sounds a lot better than i thought. This will situation sounds better than i thought this was. (Situation is still ****ed up nevertheless)

I can't say I thought it would be particularly good or bad, but 60-80% isn't that outrageous. Honestly, I only get around 80% from ChatGPT for some of my work, and often times it falls into infuriating repetitions of exactly the same error (this is code generation I'm talking about). A huge waste of time. When you really dig down, AI just isn't that reliable, period. And it isn't super encouraging that "leaders" like OpenAI seem to be pretending that scaling alone is going to fix it.

All that said, I haven't used Siri for years and I see no reason for starting any time soon.

 

[MacBH928]

"A late game is only late until it ships. A bad game is bad until the end of time." - Shigeru Miyamoto

that being said, what makes a trillion dollar company unable to create AI like their comeptitors with Alexa and Google Assistant not to mention start up LLMs like DeepSeek and Mistral