Jonny Evans@Apple Must
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Apple is making significant changes to its AI strategy by replacing John Giannandrea with Mike Rockwell as the head of Siri development. CEO Tim Cook reportedly lost confidence in Giannandrea’s execution regarding product development. This decision highlights Apple’s urgent need to enhance Siri’s capabilities and improve its integration across Apple devices and services. The move was described by one insider as a measure to "sort Siri out," reflecting internal pressure to boost the AI assistant's performance.
Rockwell, celebrated for his role in developing the Vision Pro, is expected to bring a fresh perspective to Siri’s development. Two of Rockwell's top lieutenants, Kim Vorrath and Aimee Nugent, have already been moved into the Siri team. While Rockwell will oversee Siri and report to Craig Federighi, Giannandrea will remain at Apple, focusing on broader AI and robotics research and technologies. This reorganization, announced internally, signifies a strategic shift following discussions at Apple's annual leadership summit about the company’s AI future.
Recommended read:
References :
- jonnyevans: Apple’s CEO Tim Cook has parachuted in a crack team led by Vision Pro creator, Mike Rockwell to sort Siri out. Rockwell replaces former leader, John Giannandrea in the task. Cook has apparently lost confidence in Giannandrea to execute on product development.
- Mark Gurman: BREAKING: Apple Vision Pro Chief Mike Rockwell will take over Siri, which is being removed from AI Chief John Giannandrea, I’m told. Rockwell & Siri will report to Craig Federighi. Giannandrea is staying in larger AI role.
- Apple Must: Heads are rolling as Apple CEO Tim Cook shifts Siri chief John Giannandrea to make way for a new team leader, 'genius' Mike Rockwell.
- The Register - Software: Apple hallucinated Siri's future AI features, lawsuit claims
- PCMag Middle East ai: Amid Delays, Tim Cook Hands Control of Siri to Vision Pro Creator
- THE DECODER: Apple shifts Siri development to Vision Pro chief in major AI restructuring
- Pivot to AI: Apple Intelligence: AI Siri crashes and burns, takes exec with it
- iThinkDifferent: Article discussing Apple's executive team changes in charge of Siri after disappointing AI roll-out.
Asma Hussain@iThinkDifferent
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Apple is facing significant difficulties with its AI assistant, Siri, leading to feature delays and internal frustration. According to reports, Apple's top Siri executive admitted in a meeting that the AI upgrade has been problematic, calling the delays "ugly and embarrassing." The executive also acknowledged that promoting features before they were ready worsened the situation. Despite these challenges, Apple aims to improve Siri and make it the "world's greatest" assistant.
The issues with Siri's AI upgrade have resulted in key enhancements being postponed, with some features possibly not appearing until the iOS 19 cycle or later. The premature showcasing of these capabilities at events like WWDC 2024 and in marketing campaigns for the iPhone 16 has added to the pressure. Although Apple is committed to enhancing Siri, quality issues remain a critical hurdle, raising concerns about the company's ability to compete in the rapidly evolving AI landscape.
Recommended read:
References :
- Mark Gurman: Apple's top Siri exec called AI delays embarrassing & ugly in meeting, while saying a decision to promote features before they were ready worsened the situation. Still, he praised the team & vowed to make Siri the "world's greatest" assistant.
- iThinkDifferent: Apple admits Siri’s AI upgrade is a mess, delays features due to “ugly� issues
- MacSparky: Apple’s AI Woes
- THE DECODER: Internal testing shows Apple struggling to scale its next-generation AI features, highlighting the tension between rapid deployment and maintaining quality standards across millions of devices.
- www.tomsguide.com: Apple analysts sound alarm on Siri delay — here’s why
- Shelly Palmer: Apple’s AI Struggles: Why Siri Is Falling Behind
- Mark Gurman: BREAKING: Apple Vision Pro Chief Mike Rockwell will take over Siri, which is being removed from AI Chief John Giannandrea, I’m told.
- jonnyevans: Apple’s CEO Tim Cook has parachuted in a crack team led by Vision Pro creator, Mike Rockwell to sort Siri out. Rockwell replaces former leader, John Giannandrea in the task. Cook has apparently lost confidence in Giannandrea to execute on product development.
- Apple Must: Heads are rolling as Apple CEO Tim Cook shifts Siri chief John Giannandrea to make way for a new team leader, 'genius' Mike Rockwell.
- MacSparky: In this week’s episode of The Lab Report: Day One makes its entrance on Windows, the growing discontent with Siri, and an overhaul is likely for iOS 19.
- Changelog: This podcast episode discusses Apple's Intelligence blunder and the overall discontent with Siri.
@Simon Willison's Weblog
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Apple is facing setbacks in its AI development, leading to delays in key features for Siri and Apple Intelligence. The enhanced version of Siri, promising a more personalized AI assistant experience, won't arrive until 2026, a pushback from its originally slated release with iOS 18. These delayed features are focused on enhancing Siri's context-awareness and capabilities, including scanning emails, messages, files, and photos to perform tasks across multiple apps, and understanding on-screen actions.
Apple's plan to replace Qualcomm modems with its in-house C1 chips is also facing hurdles, postponing the release of the mmWave-compatible C1 modem until 2026, potentially impacting the iPhone 17 lineup. This delay means the iPhone 17 series will continue using Qualcomm modems, as Apple grapples with technical challenges in perfecting mmWave integration. While the first-generation C1 modem offered improved power management, it faced inadequacy in supporting mmWave 5G. This setback impacts Apple's 5G independence and delays modem upgrades for iPhone users.
Recommended read:
References :
- Simon Willison's Weblog: Apple told John Gruber (and other Apple press) this about the new "personalized" Siri: It’s going to take us longer than we thought to deliver on these features and we anticipate rolling them out in the coming year.
- THE DECODER: Apple has pushed back several key features of its Apple Intelligence initiative for Siri that were originally slated for iOS 18.
- Shelly Palmer: I like to think, "Siri can't suck forever," but apparently Apple's AI assistant is planning to test my patience. Apple's much-anticipated Agentic Siri update, initially set to roll out alongside iOS 18.4, has hit a snag. Citing "engineering hurdles," Apple pushed the release to later this year—or perhaps even beyond, depending on who you ask. Beta testers described inconsistencies, glitches, and a general sense of "not quite ready for prime time." Translation: Siri still sucks, at least for now.
- David Phelan: If you’ve been waiting for the new, improved Siri to arrive in the next few weeks, you need to practice patience. Apple just made a rare statement on the subject.
- Maginative: Apple's latest iOS update will use AI to distill user reviews into quick-read summaries, potentially changing how users discover and evaluate apps.
- bsky.app: Are you waiting for Apple to fix Siri? Keep at it. Apple confirmed that it's delaying its Apple Intelligence feature for a "more personalized Siri" and now anticipates rolling it out "in the coming year." This isn't surprising: Siri has always been a joke, and Apple Intelligence is somehow worse.
- MacStories: Simon Willison, one of the more authoritative independent voices in the LLM space right now, published a good theory on what may have happened with Apple’s delay of Apple Intelligence’s Siri personalization features: I have a hunch that this delay might relate to security. These new Apple Intelligence features involve Siri responding to requests to […]
- Simon Willison's Weblog: Mark Gurman reports on some leaked details from internal Apple meetings concerning the delays in shipping personalized Siri. This note in particular stood out to me: Walker said the decision to delay the features was made because of quality issues and that the company has found the technology only works properly up to two-thirds to 80% of the time. He said the group “can make more progress to get those percentages up, so that users get something they can really count on.� [...] But Apple wants to maintain a high bar and only deliver the features when they’re polished, he said. “These are not quite ready to go to the general public, even though our competitors might have launched them in this state or worse.� I imagine it's a lot harder to get reliable results out of small, local LLMs that run on an iPhone. Features that fail 1/3 to 1/5 of the time are unacceptable for a consumer product like this.
- www.techradar.com: Apple's failure to deliver the full Apple Intelligence Siri experience has us all reevaluating the company's vaunted status.
- iThinkDifferent: Apple admits Siri’s AI upgrade is a mess, delays features due to “ugly� issues
- www.tomsguide.com: We're still waiting for a smarter Siri in Apple Intelligence — and that's a problem. Here's a closer look at the challenges facing Apple ahead of this year's iOS 19 update.
- Mark Gurman: BREAKING: Apple's top Siri exec called AI delays embarrassing & ugly in meeting, while saying a decision to promote features before they were ready worsened the situation. Still, he praised the team & vowed to make Siri the "world's greatest" assistant.
- THE DECODER: This article discusses the broader challenges of scaling generative AI, focusing on Apple's Siri delays as an example. It highlights the tension between rapid deployment and maintaining quality standards across millions of devices.
- MacSparky: Apple’s AI Woes
Michal Langmajer@Fello AI
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Apple's plans to revamp Siri with advanced AI capabilities have been delayed, with a truly modernized version not expected until iOS 20 in 2027. This upgrade, known as "LLM Siri," was initially planned for iOS 19 but has encountered roadblocks, raising concerns about Apple's competitiveness in the AI field. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple is struggling to rebuild Siri for the age of generative AI, and the company might not release "a true modernized, conversational version of Siri” until 2027.
This delay means that Apple's AI team believes a fully conversational Siri isn’t in the cards now until 2027. While Apple Intelligence aims to integrate AI across its devices with improved language models and contextual awareness, Siri, the centerpiece of Apple's assistant technology, lags behind competitors. Apple has cautioned investors that upcoming products may not achieve the same level of success as the iPhone, which remains a primary source of income for the company.
Recommended read:
References :
- Fello AI: Apple’s plans to revamp Siri with cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities have hit another roadblock. Initially expected to be part of iOS 19, the much-anticipated upgrade—often referred to as “LLM Siri�—has now been pushed back to iOS 20, set for release in 2027.
- TechCrunch: Apple is struggling to rebuild Siri for the age of generative AI, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who says the company might not release “a true modernized, conversational version of Siri� until iOS 20 comes out in 2027.
- The Verge: Apple Intelligence was supposed to finally deliver a more natural version of Siri, but now, people who work in Apple’s AI department believe the company won’t release a �true modernized, conversational version of Siri … until iOS 20 at best in 2027,“
- bsky.app: Mark Gurman describes an “AI crisis� at Apple because an LLM-powered Siri won’t be ready until 2027. I think this only matters if you believe people will buy Android devices because of Gemini which sounds far fetched.
- Dataconomy: Apple is reportedly struggling to rebuild Siri for the generative AI era, with Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman indicating that a truly modernized, conversational version of Siri may not be released until the launch of iOS 20 in 2027.
- 9to5Mac: Reports that Apple is facing multiple major hiccups in its AI rollout.
- Digital Information World: Apple's Siri Upgrade Delayed to 2027 Amid Technical Setbacks and Leadership Struggles
- The Tech Basic: Siri’s Major Upgrade Delayed as Apple Struggles With AI Tech
- Quartz: Apple is delaying Siri’s AI upgrade
- Simon Willison's Weblog: Apple Is Delaying the ‘More Personalized Siri’ Apple Intelligence Features
- THE DECODER: Apple delays major Siri AI upgrades to 2026
- www.techradar.com: Apple officially delays the AI-infused Siri and admits, ‘It’s going to take us longer than we thought’
- The Verge: Apple delays upgraded Siri: it’s taking ‘longer than we thought’
- TechCrunch: AI-powered ‘more personalized Siri’ is delayed
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DeeperML - #siri