No pressure, Apple.
The iPhone maker’s WWDC conference starting on Monday will be pivotal to the company’s future. CEO Tim Cook must reassure customers, developers, and investors that Apple can narrow the gap with its rivals in the only thing that seems to matter in the tech industry these days: artificial intelligence.
He has his work cut out for him.
Over the past year, the parent companies of Google and Facebook, along with Microsoft its upstart ally OpenAI, have unleashed a torrent of large language models and AI-infused products. Sure, some of those products have been buggy and occasionally spouted nonsense, but they showed that the companies behind them are at least striving, and, in some cases, sprinting ahead.
Meanwhile, Apple has been mired in the AI mud. The company has made relatively few AI-related upgrades to its products, leaving its executives to repeatedly—and not so convincingly—promise big things to come.
Absent something soon, Apple’s lineup of devices and services risks becoming obsolete. Customers, after all, could easily switch to buying lower-priced electronics from rivals that can do significantly more.
If the news leaks are to be believed, Apple will use WWDC—described by Wedbush tech analyst Dan Ives in a recent research note as “the most important event for Apple in over a decade”—to sprinkle AI magic across its portfolio. If you’re allergic to hearing the term AI, well, avoid the event’s livestream.
Voice assistant Siri, once an AI trailblazer, but now only marginally useful because it can handle a limited number of tasks, is expected to get a high-profile update. For the first time, users will be able to tell Siri to access any feature within other apps, such as opening documents or sending an email, vastly increasing Siri’s utility.
You can count on Apple to also brag about more minor AI upgrades. Voice memo transcriptions, automated replies to messages, and AI-generated emojis are just some of what’s on tap, according to Bloomberg.
Apple will likely power some of the updates through a new partnership with OpenAI. The deal would let Apple integrate OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot into various Apple products, thereby supercharging Apple devices with additional AI capabilities. Using such outsourced technology could help Apple catch up to the competition. But it would also hammer home that Apple, embarrassingly, lacks an in-house equivalent, while also adding to OpenAI’s already considerable momentum.
Apple investors are already lapping up the idea of a would-be AI renaissance, to be marketed under the brand name “AI Intelligence,” according to Bloomberg. Apple’s shares have risen 15% since May 1, and are near an all-time high.
But before everyone gets overly giddy, here’s a few words of caution. Apple’s revenue has declined in five of the six most recent quarters, partly because of falling iPhone sales in China. Apple can add all the AI it wants, but it won’t necessarily solve the China problem, which is mostly about politics and Chinese customers switching to lower-priced Chinese-made smartphones—and not about AI.
Furthermore, despite all the whiz-bang on stage on Monday, many of Apple’s major AI upgrades aren’t expected to be available until much later this year, when iOS 18 is released—and only as beta-stage products. Any boost in sales from shoppers rushing to buy Apple devices that are powerful enough to handle all the AI will therefore be delayed.
And even after cramming AI into everything it produces, Apple will still face serious competitive challenges. Rivals have added or will soon add many similar AI features to their own devices, which means Apple’s efforts will merely help it keep pace rather than gain an advantage.
So, as I said earlier, facetiously, no pressure, Apple.
Verne Kopytoff
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Today's edition of Data Sheet was curated by David Meyer.
