A report by the Information describes how Apple's Siri efforts have been impacted by "organizational dysfunction and a lack of ambition," causing Apple to fall behind Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI.
The findings were based on interviews with more than three dozen former Apple employees in AI and machine learning.
- According to the interviews, Apple's Siri team has been derided by employees who are concerned about Apple's ability to build new AI products based on generative AI.
- They specifically cited issues in improving Siri and its backend technology. Retention has been a problem, with some Siri engineers leaving for Google to work on large language models.
- Additionally, the report describes how an Apple team developing its Reality Pro headset was disappointed in demos showing the AI assistant controlling the mixed-reality device.
- Because of Siri's limitations, that team once weighed alternative methods for controlling the headset but ultimately rejected that idea.