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Apple is lying about Apple Intelligence, John Gruber says — and he's right

John Gruber (far right) with Greg Joswiak (left) and Craig Federighi (center) after WWDC 2024 -- image credit: John Gruber

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Long-time Apple pundit John Gruber has launched an uncharacteristically strident attack against what he says are Apple's lies over the Apple Intelligence roll-out. And, he's spot-on with his arguments and conclusions.

For years, John Gruber has hosted "The Talk Show," an extended post-WWDC conversation with Apple executives such as Craig Federighi. He's also written about Apple extensively, and in recent months has been increasingly critical of Siri — as have others, including AppleInsider, but now he's gone further about what he calls the AI fiasco.

"The fiasco here is not that Apple is late on AI," he writes. "The fiasco is that Apple pitched a story that wasn't true, one that some people within the company surely understood wasn't true, and they set a course based on that."

"In the two decades I've been in this racket, I've never been angrier at myself for missing a story than I am about Apple's announcement on Friday that the 'more personalized Siri' features of Apple Intelligence, scheduled to appear between now and WWDC, would be delayed until 'the coming year,'" he continued. "I should have my head examined."

Gruber's argument is that he, and everyone, should not have believed Apple's promises of Apple Intelligence when they were unveiled at WWDC 2024. "I am embarrassed and sorry that I didn't see what should have been very clear to me from the start," he said.

Specifically, despite Apple having "overpromised (if not outright lied about)," Apple Intelligence, the company was only able to demonstrate what Gruber calls "the more trivial features." Those included the Writing Tools and the Image Playground, while everything more substantial was talked about, yet never demonstrated in even a rough form.

Gruber describes those more substantial features as vaporware, and Apple's presentation of a more personalized Siri as being nothing more than a concept video. AppleInsider pointed out the same thing when Apple released an ad promoting Genmoji, but using images that could not possibly be generated by that feature.

"Who said 'Sure, let's promise this" and then "Sure, let's advertise it'? And who said 'Are you crazy, this isn't ready, this doesn't work, we can't promote this now?'" continues Gruber. " And most important, who made the call which side to listen to? Presumably, that person was Tim Cook."

Apple's bad old days are back

In his piece, Gruber compares this situation of Tim Cook and Apple Intelligence to Steve Jobs and MobileMe, the to iCloud. Jobs was reportedly furious over how poorly MobileMe was done, and Gruber says Cook should be the same over Apple Intelligence.

Part of Jobs's tirade at that time, back in 2008, included him replacing the executives in charge of the project. And it also saw him say point out that a prominent Apple journalist had turned against the company over this failure.

"[Walt] Mossberg, our friend, is no longer writing good things about us," said Jobs.

Some 17 years later, Cook may be pointing out that Gruber is now writing bad things about Apple. But as to replacing executives, Apple has already moved "fixer" Kim Vorrath to oversee Apple Intelligence and Siri.

And we are too. AppleInsider has already examined how users are losing in the current AI race.

Still, the presumption that Apple follows through on its promises has made everyone assume great Apple Intelligence features are coming. Just when they're coming is now anybody's guess.

The phrase 'Available Today' is long gone

Gruber believes that despite all of the claims that Apple is behind the industry on AI, everyone gave Apple Intelligence far too much credit — because it was from Apple.

With leaks and complex manufacturing, Apple can no longer make surprise launches of devices and then with a flourish reveal it is "available today." But the company still has a reputation of not announcing products until they were ready.

Various Apple products including a laptop, tablet, phone, watch, AirPods, HomePod, and a mixed reality headset, with the text 'Available Today' above them. Apple still says "Available Today" in presentations, but they only apply to beta releases

It's just that perhaps that reputation is no longer deserved. Apple now gives sneak peeks of devices ranging from the Mac Pro, to the ultimately failed AirPower charging mat, even if they are still rare.

Apple Intelligence is also not the first Apple software that was announced early and subsequently missed its deadlines. But if the long delays over the new CarPlay are embarrassing, they're also understandable because it involves Apple working with dozens of car manufacturers.

In comparison, aside from its partnership deals with OpenAI and ultimately Google, Apple Intelligence is down to Apple.

That doesn't make the work easy, even if it does make it easier. Apple has only its own timescales to work to, only its own resources to use.

Creating a personalized Siri, amongst the other remaining Apple Intelligence features, and preserving user privacy at the same time, is an immensely difficult software engineering problem.

Yet even though that means delays are practically certain, Apple as a whole should know day to day what it is doing and how the project looks.

So there is no one person to blame for Apple launching its ads promoting Apple Intelligence features that do not exist.

And there is no one person to blame for how Apple chose to make Apple Intelligence the focus of its launch of the iPhone 16 range. There is no one person to blame for how, after months of Apple Intelligence effort, Apple still made it the centerpiece of the launch of the iPhone 16e.

The buck has to stop somewhere, though. The company does have a CEO, after all.

50 Comments

KalMadda 2 Years · 6 comments

I think people are being way too hard on Apple over this.  For all we know, it sounds like they actually did have these features most of the way completed, but ran into issues later in the process, and so now have to spend time repairing and reworking elements.  And the ads they ran were very clear that those features weren’t available yet.  Sometimes things come up and happen, I’d rather they spend the time to fix whatever issues they ran into with it then them rushing it out for release…

9 Likes · 8 Dislikes
DAalseth 7 Years · 3207 comments

He’s not wrong. This has been a fiasco.

And most important, who made the call which side to listen to? Presumably, that person was Tim Cook
."

Tim Cook was the steady hand that kept Apple going when Steve Jobs left. He did good work, but that is in the past. What have we had in recent years? The CarPlay fumble. The AppleCar fiasco. The Siri fiasco which is a part of Apple Intelligence being mostly a half baked “us too’ project and not something well thought out. AppleVision becoming this decades Lisa. Software shipped with obvious bugs. On and on and on. 


It is time for Tim Cook to step aside. He made Apple into the most profitable company in the world, but it’s become clear that he isn’t able to lead it anymore. There are little fiefdoms, and pet projects, and a loss of focus on what is most important. That takes a firm hand from the top, and Cook isn’t providing that anymore. I’m of the same cohort as Cook and I know how hard it is to step back and let younger people take the reins. But it is time. For the good of Apple it is time for Cook to leave the stage

6 Likes · 13 Dislikes
gatorguy 14 Years · 24693 comments

KalMadda said:
I think people are being way too hard on Apple over this.  For all we know, it sounds like they actually did have these features most of the way completed, but ran into issues later in the process, and so now have to spend time repairing and reworking elements.  And the ads they ran were very clear that those features weren’t available yet.  Sometimes things come up and happen, I’d rather they spend the time to fix whatever issues they ran into with it then them rushing it out for release…
"If these features exist in any sort of working state at all, no one outside Apple has vouched for their existence, let alone for their quality....
 Why did Apple show these personalized Siri features at WWDC last year, and promise their arrival during the first year of Apple Intelligence? Why, for that matter, do they now claim to “anticipate rolling them out in the coming year” if they still currently do not exist in demonstratable form? And now they look so out of their depth, so in over their heads, that not only are they years behind the state-of-the-art in AI, but they don’t even know what they can ship or when.

Their headline features from nine months ago not only haven’t shipped but still haven’t even been demonstrated, which I, for one, now presume means they can’t be demonstrated because they don’t work."

5 Likes · 3 Dislikes
jagrahax 2 Years · 14 comments

I have to say that one statement in this article is incorrect.

 “Apple released an ad promoting Genmoji, but using images that 
could not possibly
 be generated by that feature.”  I looked back at that article and tried to create those Genmoji images myself.  I created three of them with very little difficulty, and then stopped. 

Admittedly, I am using the latest beta version of iOS, but this contradiction leaves me wondering if Gruber, et. al. are being a little shrill. 

11 Likes · 2 Dislikes
gatorguy 14 Years · 24693 comments

jagrahax said:
I have to say that one statement in this article is incorrect. “Apple released an ad promoting Genmoji, but using images that could not possibly be generated by that feature.”  I looked back at that article and tried to create those Genmoji images myself.  I created three of them with very little difficulty, and then stopped. 
Admittedly, I am using the latest beta version of iOS, but this contradiction leaves me wondering if Gruber, et. al. are being a little shrill. 

That statement about Genmoji didn't come from Gruber AFAIK. It was from the AppleInsider editor. I'm fine with Gruber calling Apple out for a high-profile and widely marketed tent pole feature they've never been able to demo, and still can't present any evidence of it existing in any usable form. Everyone believed it was true just because Apple said it. 

3 Likes · 1 Dislike