Apple is a company that stands for control, perfectionism, and long-term planning. That's precisely why it's surprising when it becomes clear internally that many things aren't going according to plan—especially in an area that will be crucial in the coming years: artificial intelligence. A New York Times report shows how Apple is struggling with internal power struggles, a lack of resources, and technological backwardness. The problems surrounding Siri and Apple Intelligence have concrete causes that you should know if you want to understand where Apple really stands.
Artificial intelligence is considered the next big thing in the tech world – and Apple naturally wants to play a central role in it. But compared to competitors like Google, Microsoft, or Meta, Apple's AI strategy currently seems cautious, even haphazard in some cases. The problems didn't just start yesterday. As early as 2023, it became apparent that things weren't going well internally at Apple. The attempt to improve Siri and create a new AI experience under the name Apple Intelligence was fraught with obstacles from the very beginning. The New York Times report details exactly what went wrong.
Dispute over the chip budget
In early 2023, John Giannandrea, Apple's then head of artificial intelligence, asked CEO Tim Cook for a significantly increased budget for AI chips. The chips are needed to train AI models – without them, nothing works. Cook initially approved a doubling of the budget. Shortly thereafter, however, Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri intervened and reduced the increase to less than half. He suggested that the team instead use the available resources more efficiently. The big problem: At the time, Apple had around 50,000 GPUs in use in its data centers, all of which were more than five years old. By comparison, competitors such as Microsoft, Google, and Meta had purchased hundreds of thousands of new GPUs to train their AI systems. Apple therefore had to lease computing power from third-party providers such as Google and Amazon, which is not only expensive but also comes with disadvantages in terms of data protection and control.
Internal power struggle over Siri
In addition to the resource problem, there was also an internal leadership dispute. Robby Walker, responsible for Siri, and Sebastien Marineau-Mes from the software team argued over who should take over the further development of Siri. Both partially prevailed - in the end, the project was split up, which did not exactly help with clarity. According to internal tests, the state of Siri was anything but convincing. Siri provided inaccurate or incorrect answers to about a third of all queries. This led to the launch of the new Siri experience being significantly postponed. Apple openly admitted that the features would take longer than planned. The new, personalized Siri experience was originally supposed to be released in 2025 - now the official statement is only that the features will be introduced "in the coming year."
Management reorganized
Following the setbacks, Apple took action. Software chief Craig Federighi changed the leadership structure within the Siri team. Responsibility for the new Siri was removed from Giannandrea and given to Mike Rockwell. Rockwell is known as the head of the Vision Pro department, the unit that deals with augmented reality. The change is intended to ensure more structure and progress. Despite the internal problems, Apple plans to release the redesigned Siri experience in fall 2025. The new features are expected to include personal context recognition, onscreen awareness, and better collaboration with apps. According to the report, some Apple managers appear relaxed because their competitors have not yet presented a truly mature AI solution either. They say they are not under pressure to deliver immediately, but can take their time to develop a stable system.
Apple fights with itself and the competition
The New York Times describes a company that has more work to do than progress in AI. Internal conflicts, outdated hardware, a reduced budget, and a Siri that still doesn't work reliably – none of this fits with Apple's self-image as a technology leader. At the same time, however, the report also shows that Apple has recognized the problems and is taking corrective action. Whether this is enough to catch up in the AI race remains to be seen. (Photo by Unsplash+ / Getty Images)
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