Intelligence for hire: will Apple's presentation help it get back in the big game

Apple is leaving AI chief Robbie Walker, sources told Bloomberg on Friday. He was responsible for creating a new Web search engine to compete with Perplexity and ChatGPT. It was scheduled to launch next year - and was expected to close Apple's gap in the AI race. The news of the alleged departure of a key employee came 3 days after the traditional iPhone presentation. Journalist Roman Mighty wrote why Apple decided not to catch up with competitors, but to use their developments - as it was already under Steve Jobs.

The Siri voice assistant was the first smart assistant on mass-market mobile devices. The corporation unveiled it in 2011, a few months after the appointment of a new CEO, Tim Cook. At the same presentation were shown iPhone 4S with the slogan "so far the best iPhone in the world", updates for mp3 players iPod Nano - with dials for those who liked to wear the player as a watch, and an exclusive game for iPhone was shown by Mike Capps, president of Epic Games - this company, after 9 years through the court will force Apple to allow installing applications through third-party stores.

The Siri presentation was led by Apple's director of development Phil Schiller.

"For decades, engineers have teased us with the dream that you can just talk to your device and it will follow your commands," he said. - Haven't we heard that over and over again? But it was never true." Siri has solved that problem, he said. There was applause from the audience when the assistant answered questions like "what's the weather like now," "should I wear a raincoat," and "set my alarm for six in the morning" - it really did seem like a miracle at the time. Analysts said that the voice assistant was a "wow factor" for the presentation and noted that it affects the company's business "more than the new iPhones".

What was a breakthrough in 2011 is an object of ridicule in 2025. In 14 years, Apple's voice assistant has barely advanced technologically. The assistant often doesn't understand simple commands, and its ability to dialog looks prehistoric against the background of ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, and Gemini voice modes.

"If you're buying a new phone because of a feature that's coming soon, but it should have been available a year ago, you might want to change the way you think about the concept of 'soon'. Or just... change your phone," an ad for Google's Pixel 10 smartphone teased shoppers this summer. From Google, Apple is likely to take what it lacks - AI.

Apple is likely to offer users another option to solve the problem by simply refusing to independently develop the core AI for Siri, at least temporarily. The company, judging by leaks to the press, is actively seeking partnerships in the market with developers of the largest Western generative language models, although it has previously allowed the use of extraneous models only for comparisons with its own, The Information wrote. According to a recent MIT study, only 5% of companies get visible returns from developing their own generative AI, and maybe this plan will work.

Last June, Apple announced that it would build a chatbot from Open AI into Siri. This year, the company's management, according to The Information's sources, discussed the possibility of acquiring French AI model developer Mistral.

Bloomberg's sources say Apple could integrate AI search into Siri voice assistant, browsers and the operating systems built-in Spotlight internal search.

According to the agency, Apple is rebuilding Siri around three main components: a scheduler, a search engine, and a "summarizer" that compiles a short squeeze of collected information. The scheduler will interpret voice or text input and decide whether to search for an answer, the search engine will search the web or user data for an answer, and the summarizer will combine that into a single answer.

The latter function is exactly what could be handed over to the Google Gemini model running on Apple's own servers. The scheduler could use Gemini or Anthropic's Claude technology, and user data search could remain on Apple's internal Foundation model. Meanwhile, the company continues to develop a version of Siri on its own model, although the main developers have left for Meta.

The scheme when Apple used someone else's work for a while is quite workable. Who will now remember that the processors for Macs were produced by IBM, and until 2020 by Intel? Perhaps investors: against the background of Bloomberg's publication about negotiations with Google, Apple's shares rose by 3.8% during the day. The company promises to introduce all AI updates in the spring of 2026, now the bet is on the good old iPhone.

On September 9, the ultra-thin iPhone model will be presented to the public - the smallest possible phones were in vogue at the beginning of the century. It is possible that Apple will once again be a trendsetter, bringing such models back to the market.

This time, simultaneously with the new iPhone to the public will be presented to the updated operating system for iOS phones, from which in advance do not expect a breakthrough.

"Without its own deep competence in language models, the development of AI search is unlikely to lead to any results," says Radio Free Mobile analyst Richard Windsor. He doesn't believe in the prospects of working with Google to finalize Siri, calling the situation a lose-lose situation with any choice on Apple's part.

Leaving Siri as it is will preserve its brand value, but it won't be able to compete with Google's Android smartphones in a situation where AI agents on phones will become commonplace, Windsor believes. But by getting a model for Siri from Google, the company is putting itself in a situation where its model will always lag behind the flagship model, taking time to refine.

Leading analyst of PP Foresight Paolo Pescatore in a conversation with Oninvest has already noted that AI functions in phones are not yet in demand among users. In his opinion, the company was in a hurry to announce AI functions. Today's presentation of new products may distract users and the market from AI failures, he says.

"In hindsight, Apple could have waited at least another year before introducing Apple Intelligence [in 2024]. The recent developer conference was pivotal because it allowed the company to go back to its roots and focus on software," the expert said.

Pescatore believes that with AI features not being utilized, this is what users will find themselves wanting. "It will create pressure on competitors by making their software a bit outdated, he says. - People will feel they're getting something new for free."

JPMorgan and Evercore believe that phones, not AI features, will be the highlight of Apple's annual presentation. The debut of the ultra-thin iPhone Air could revitalize demand, expand the audience and strengthen the company's position in China. In India, where Apple has moved production, they are already beating sales.

Apple has a definite advantage: "Apple's ability to raise prices is an underappreciated driver of [stock] growth," wrote Morgan Stanley's Eric Woodring. For now, the market is pretty skeptical: as of early September 2025, Apple remains the worst-performing company in the "Magnificent Seven" after Tesla. Less than 60% of analysts tracked by Bloomberg recommend buying Apple stock. Warren Buffett cut his position in Apple in the second and third quarters of 2025. Starting in the third quarter of 2023, his Berkshire sold more than two-thirds of its stake in the Cupertino-based company.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor