Apple’s massive iPhone 17 event is talk of the town at the moment, with major updates to so many products from Airpods, Apple Watches and more being confirmed earlier this week. The brand new iPhone 17 was showcased, with multiple models, and even an all new iPhone Air being announced too.
However, the main thing I noticed was the lack of mention of most other tech company’s yearly buzzword – AI. Despite all of the upgrades featured in the all new iPhone 17, whether its the iPhone 17 Pro or the all new iPhone Air – somehow the mention of artificial intelligence was scarce. Apple instead decided to focus on the advancements in Apple silicon, hardware and software.
This is majorly different from the AI filled presentation of the iPhone 16 this time last year, where Apple Intelligence was seemingly even more of a focal point than the phone itself. WWDC was no different, with visual intelligence features and live translation in iMessage and FaceTime being showcased.
It feels like Apple was missing what is seemingly the main feature of its latest phone from the event – a brand new and smarter Siri powered by artificial intelligence. We saw this being shown off at WWDC and it seemed extremely promising but is still yet to have a confirmed release date.
With no live demonstration of any Apple Intelligence features and not even a mention of new Siri – it feels like Apple has truly taking its pedal off of the gas when it comes to AI.
Apple did still mention AI, focusing more on how it’s helping power features in the background rather than how its the main driving factor behind the all new iPhone 17, unlike the competition. It got a brief shoutout as Tim Cook, Apple CEO, spoke about the new iPhone 17 front camera – called Center Stage – which uses AI to automatically expand the field of view.
Compare this to the launch of the new Google Pixel 10 from last month, where AI was front and center and it seems like Apple is being demolished when it comes to the AI category – so much so, that I’m considering abandoning the Apple ecosystem after a decade of loyalty.
Right now it feels like the only AI features that Apple has been willing to implement are very simple, baseline features such as Genmoji and AI writing tools. These simply aren’t good enough to compete in the current market.
Unless you install an external app, like ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot – you don’t have access to an AI companion on an iPhone the way you do with every single other mainstream mobile device. The Google Pixel comes with Gemini built in, Samsung’s phone feature Galaxy AI – Apple is lagging so far behind.
Even when this new AI powered Siri does finally come to market, it’ll seemingly be powered by ChatGPT rather than Apple’s own artificial intelligence software.
The iPhone 17 event was Apple’s chance to claw its way back when it comes to AI and it has completely missed the mark. I’m worried about the future of Apple Intelligence and whether or not we’ll actually see any of the key features – like an AI powered Siri – ever actually release.
For as long as they don’t, Apple is falling further and further behind the competition.
