Apple’s Siri Boss Admits AI Delays Are ‘Ugly and Embarrassing’
Apple’s senior director, Robby Walker, recently addressed staff to acknowledge significant delays to key artificial intelligence features for Siri, describing the situation as both “ugly” and “embarrassing.” The internal admission, reported by Bloomberg, sheds light on the challenges Apple faces in advancing its AI capabilities.
Walker explained that the company had promoted these new Siri features before they were fully ready, which has amplified the current difficulties. “This was not one of these situations where we get to show people our plan after it’s done. We showed people before,” Walker stated, as reported by Mark Gurman of Bloomberg. The initial unveiling of these AI enhancements took place at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference last June. The features promise to tap into user data for more responsive and personalized interactions.
However, these advancements, originally slated to be a significant selling point for the upcoming iPhone 16, have been indefinitely postponed, as revealed last week. The technology has been found to work properly only “two-thirds to 80% of the time,” according to Walker. This performance level was deemed unreliable for public release, leading to the delay. He further noted that Apple has “other commitments across Apple to other projects” that are “potentially more timeline-urgent” than the postponed enhancements.
Walker revealed the technology is now targeted for iOS 19, but cautioned that this doesn’t guarantee a release at that time. The internal meeting also highlighted potential tensions between the Siri division and the marketing department. Walker mentioned that “Apple’s marketing communications department wanted to promote the enhancements,” despite their unready status, leading the company to remove an iPhone 16 advertisement showcasing the features from YouTube.
Walker expressed empathy towards team members who are feeling “angry, disappointed, burned out and embarrassed” by the delay, according to Gurman. Nevertheless, he lauded the team’s work as “incredibly impressive” and assured them that Apple will ultimately “ship the world’s greatest virtual assistant.” While no immediate firings are expected, Bloomberg reports that Apple is making management adjustments. These include placing more senior executives under the management of AI head John Giannandrea and engaging veteran executive Kim Vorrath to improve the company’s AI efforts.
