The real, conversational Siri with Apple Intelligence not expected until 2027, at the earliest

Apple CEO Tim Cook
Apple’s long-promised overhaul of its long-neglected Siri digital assistant is beset with engineering problems and software bugs that threatening to delay or significantly limit its release. Mark Gurman reports for Bloomberg News that “people within Apple’s AI division now believe that a true modernized, conversational version of Siri won’t reach consumers until iOS 20 at best in 2027.”:
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Apple Inc., the company behind the Mac, iPhone, iPad and other groundbreaking products, has typically beaten rivals by following the hockey approach: skate to where the puck is going to be, rather than where it is right now. But we’re currently in the middle of the biggest technology revolution since the debut of the internet, and Apple is barely even on the ice.
Welcome to Apple’s AI crisis. The company has been scrambling to catch up in generative artificial intelligence — the technology behind ChatGPT and other cutting-edge chatbots — but its rivals only seem to be getting further ahead. And now the unveiling of Amazon.com Inc.’s Alexa+ has made Apple’s shortcomings more apparent.
It didn’t have to be this way. Apple got a head start on chatbots when it first unveiled the Siri digital assistant in 2011. But the company soon fell behind, and its efforts to beef up the software have taken longer than expected.
When Apple unveiled an AI-infused version of Siri last June, the system looked great in computer-generated video. The new Siri could tap into your personal data to better answer questions, analyze what was on your screen, and more precisely control features and apps. In reality, though, the company barely had a functional prototype…
That brings us to a startling moment: One of the most innovative companies in the history of the world has, at least so far, flopped in AI.
Even Apple’s attempt to integrate OpenAI’s ChatGPT into its software — a bid to make up for its own failings — hasn’t been well executed. The feature feels like an afterthought and lacks conversational abilities. And the Visual Intelligence capability, which provides users with information on items in the real world, feels like a more basic version of Google Lens. Apple’s notification summaries (one of the most basic AI concepts) have been disabled for some apps after falsifying breaking news alerts.
Before Apple can go full-throttle on development of that Siri, which is supposed to finally work more like ChatGPT and the new Alexa, Apple will need to get the underlying system fixed. And that won’t be easy. That’s why people within Apple’s AI division now believe that a true modernized, conversational version of Siri won’t reach consumers until iOS 20 at best in 2027.
That would mean Apple is a half-decade late to the game — an even bleaker timeline than many of us imagined.

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MacDailyNews Take: Apple is suffering a crisis of leadership and the company is paying the price for having Tim Cook at the helm for far too long.
Apple pays and has been paying John Giannandrea, Senior Vice President of Machine Learning and AI Strategy, millions upon millions of dollars for years. WTF of any import does he really do? WTF of any import has he really delivered? Have you used Siri lately? Yup, it’s still a steaming pile of dogshit.
Where’s Apple’s generative AI, John? “Too hard; too late; look for partners; gimme my paycheck and stock options.”
AAPL shareholders need to start asking real questions of these executives, especially those who are supposedly in charge of Apple’s “AI Strategy,” when the company clearly has none. How about some accountability for once? – MacDailyNews, March 18, 2024
Apple was caught flat-footed, due to a lack of vision on the part of leadership… So, the only solution is to partner with a [Google, OpenAI, Baidu, etc.] for the real GenAI stuff while pretending (marketing) really hard that some on-device AI Apple has whipped up in a few months is “insanely great Apple innovation” that’s at the heart of Apple’s 2024’s AI announcements when it’s really just an adjunct… Watch Apple make a big show of its on-device AI at WWDC and run many ads touting it from June onwards.
Apple hopes to buy time for the data center buildouts and investments that will be required for them to someday own their own AI technology and not have to license it from the likes of [Google, OpenAI, Baidu, etc.].
This is what happens after a decade plus with a caretaker CEO at the helm after he hits the last page of his iteration playbook, yet attempts to stay in the game for too long. – MacDailyNews, April 1, 2024
Clearly, Apple is not as innovative as it was under Steve Jobs who even started the company’s work on Apple Silicon, Apple Watch, and Apple Vision Pro, but, thanks to Jobs and Cook’s subsequent management of iterations of products and services conceived during Jobs’ tenure, including the retail store buildout which is responsible for a significant portion of Apple’s growth, the company now has more than enough money to make up for Cook’s lack of vision. – MacDailyNews, April 23, 2024
The new “AI features” for iOS, iPadOS, and MacOS to be revealed at WWDC is mainly a marketing exercise. The pressure is on Apple’s marketing team to position the company as an innovator in the space (“only Apple does so much on-device AI which enhances users’ privacy to ‘stunning’ effect,” etc.) that also makes “smart partnerships” with other AI companies (OpenAI, for example; even though it’s currently forced to partner if they want to offer any real GenAI features). Now, more than ever, finding themselves so far behind, Apple needs to sell, sell, sell! – MacDailyNews, May 28, 2024
When you’re caught flat-footed like Tim Cook’s Apple, you pop into scramble mode to try to catch up. Early on, you hit it with a big marketing flourish (WWDC24) in order to buy some more time. Then you dribble out features as they get finished and actually exist. Classic vaporware. – MadDailyNews, July 31, 2024
Executing a vaporware strategy is an unfortunate necessity without a visionary CEO and it takes time to actually realize (code, test, build out datacenter infrastructure, etc.) a grand marketing vision. – MacDailyNews, September 10, 2024
You know, some people get upset when we point out that Tim Cook is a boring, reactive caretaker who’s not really the best person to be running Apple today or for at least the past several years.
Operations manager Cook should have been a 3-5 year stopgap after Steve Jobs’ untimely passing, running the iteration playbook, providing continuity for the company while it found a real CEO. Instead, he hung on — and keeps hanging on — well past his sell-by date.
Sigh.
You can be upset with us for having the temerity to call it like we see it, but the fact remains that Apple would be doing significantly better today with a visionary who’d have seen AI on the horizon, who’d have recognized the intrinsic importance of Siri and therefore invested in it instead of criminally neglecting it, and who wouldn’t have squandered the company’s gigantic leads in things like personal assistants and podcasting. – MacDailyNews, August 22, 2024
Until it gets another visionary leader (fingers crossed; Apple’s history has shown – cough, Sculley, Spindler, cough – that the next CEO could be far, far worse than the very competent caretaker Cook), Apple can afford to miss things like generative AI – which they clearly did – and then use its huge war chest to catch up – which they’re doing right now (fun times and 80-hour weeks inside Apple Park!) – and, hopefully, [someday] surpass rivals (or at least be as good). Apple will very likely unveil their catch-up work within months (this June at WWDC 2024) in iPhones (and iPads, Apple Watches, etc.) with built-in on-device generative AI and other new AI-driven features. – MacDailyNews, February 14, 2024
Apple needed new blood years ago, but the old blood simply won’t let go. – MacDailyNews, January 22, 2025

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