‘An Ugly Situation’: Apple Leak Shows How Bad the New Siri Is

Recently, the media has been regularly writing about Apple facing a number of difficulties in the process of developing a new version of its proprietary assistant Siri, which should be based on algorithms based on artificial intelligence. The company has postponed the launch of new AI functions Apple Intelligence, and when they will appear is still unknown. It seems that the developers at Apple also do not know when this will happen.

Image Source: Alireza Khoddam / Unsplash.com

This conclusion can be drawn based on information voiced at a recent internal meeting of the Siri development team with the participation of Robby Walker, one of the top managers overseeing this division. During the meeting, he called the delay in the release of AI features “an ugly situation” and expressed sympathy for employees who feel tired and frustrated due to Apple’s decisions and Siri’s negative reputation. He also did not rule out the possibility that new Siri features will not appear in iOS 19 this year, although this is the company’s current goal.

«”We have commitments to other Apple projects that we want to deliver on, and we recognize that they are potentially more urgent than the features that have been delayed,” Walker added.

The meeting also hinted at tensions between the Siri team and Apple’s marketing department. Walker noted that the PR team wanted to highlight Siri’s capabilities around understanding individual context and taking actions based on what’s currently on the device’s screen — even though those features weren’t ready yet. He acknowledged that their announcement at WWDC and the resulting expectations among users only made matters worse. Apple has since pulled the iPhone 16 ads that showcased those capabilities and updated several sections of its website to indicate that the launch of those features has been pushed back.

Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman wrote that the delay is due to quality issues with the new features, which he said “don’t work properly up to a third of the time.” Apple has not publicly commented on the situation, except for a recent statement that developing enhanced Siri capabilities “will take longer than expected.”

At a recent meeting, Walker told employees that Apple’s top executives, including vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi and head of AI John Giannandrea, take “serious personal responsibility” for the situation, according to sources.

«Customers are expecting not only these new features, but also a more advanced Siri system. We will implement them as soon as they are ready. They are not yet ready for the general public, even though our competitors have launched similar ones in the same or even worse condition,” Walker added, noting that the team has already done “impressive” work.