Apple's AI has reached a "critical moment"

On March 2, Bloomberg's senior reporter and chief correspondent Mark Gurman published an article stating that Apple is falling behind in the AI race—the tech giant, which once led the industry with innovative products like the Mac, iPhone, and iPad, has seen the adoption rate of its AI feature suite "Apple Intelligence," released in June 2023, to be "extremely low" in practical use.

Gurman noted that according to internal sources, a truly modernized, conversational Siri may not be available to consumers until the release of iOS 20 in 2027, which would put Apple five years behind its competitors in the AI race.

Gurman added that there are five main reasons for Apple's slow AI development:

1. Limitations of foundational models: Apple's self-developed foundational and large language models have reached their capability limits;
2. Talent drain: Key AI talents have been poached by competitors;
3. Chip supply challenges: Difficulty in obtaining sufficient chips, primarily from NVIDIA;
4. Development speed issues: The rapid pace of development in the AI field has left Apple's research results lagging behind;
5. Leadership issues: Apple employees question the capabilities of the current leadership in the AI department.

In response, Apple has also taken a series of measures, including leadership adjustments, increasing the production of self-developed AI servers, launching a new Siri architecture, and reaching a deal with the Trump administration to invest $500 billion in the U.S. to mitigate tariff risks, among others.

Gap with Competitors

Gurman stated that Apple's current AI capabilities are far inferior to those of its main competitors, with Apple's collaboration with OpenAI being limited to superficial integration, where ChatGPT serves only as a backup option when Siri cannot answer questions, rather than being the core driving force of Apple Intelligence.

Specifically, here’s how Apple's competitors are developing:

1. Amazon Alexa+: Offers features similar to ChatGPT Voice Mode but adds perception of user identity, interpersonal relationships, and environment;
2. Microsoft Copilot: Deeply integrated into the Windows system and Office applications;
3. Google Gemini: Provides powerful large language model capabilities;
4. OpenAI ChatGPT: Continues to lead the development of generative AI