Reviews are in for a beta version of Apple’s AI, following its iPhone 16 announcement. And experts are less than impressed. Vox called the tech “magically mediocre” after testing a developer beta. While AI Supremacy described Apple Intelligence as “late, unfinished & clumsy.” Critics point out that many of the touted AI features are not yet available, with Apple promising a gradual rollout “in the months to come.” The Washington Post found early tests showing inaccurate results, including misinterpreting text and incorrectly prioritizing phishing emails. Its article title? “Apple’s iPhone 16 AI is useful so far, except when it’s bonkers.”

Despite Apple’s claims of the iPhone 16 being built for AI “from the ground up,” reviewers suggest the integration feels more like a work in progress than a polished product ready for consumers.

More polished version of Apple’s AI offering to come

A more polished version is likely when the company formally unveils Apple Intelligence in October 2024 for iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia.

The development comes after AI darling Nvidia faced a pronounced stock selloff in early September, when its shares plummeted 9.5% in a single day, wiping out nearly $279 billion in market value – the largest one-day loss for any U.S. company on record. This selloff, part of a broader tech sector dip, comes after Gartner’s 2024 Hype Cycle for Artificial Intelligence indicates that generative AI has moved past the “Peak of Inflated Expectations” and is starting to enter the “Trough of Disillusionment.”

Many consumers have grown frustrated with voice-enabled features such as Apple’s Siri, which debuted in February 2010 and Amazon Alexa, given the emergence of chatbots with considerably greater intelligence that are capable of answering questions more complicated than fare such as “What time is it?” and “Can you set a timer for 10 minutes?” The Intelligencer notes that in 2024, “Siri is still a kitchen timer, a weather app, and a tool for narration and transcription” for many users.

Improved Siri functionality is one of the focus areas of Apple Intelligence, the novel software features that will be part of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia. The tech will also bring NLP functionality to photo and video search as well as AI-enabled photo and video editing tools and AI writing assistance across apps.

Mixed sentiment so far

Across social media and review sites, the sentiment regarding Apple Intelligence is decidedly mixed ahead of formal launch. Many users are not looking for splashy features. One Redditor noted, “I don’t need it to match the marketing hype for Apple Intelligence. At this point, I just need it to match the marketing hype for Siri, when it was released 13 years ago.”

Meanwhile, some tech enthusiasts have expressed disappointment with the limited initial rollout plans, criticizing Apple’s aggressive marketing ahead of launch. A number of users have reported frustration with Siri’s still-limited capabilities in the beta developer release, despite the AI refresh. In the positive column, privacy advocates have cautiously praised Apple’s on-device processing strategy, seeing it as a potential industry standard for responsible AI.

As Apple continues its gradual feature rollout, two realities are emerging — genAI hype may be dissipating, but competition in the landscape remains fierce and the potential to reshape the competitive landscape in tech is significant. Apple is readying a new ecosystem for AI-driven apps. In the works are custom AI-driven writing assistants that summarize emails and group chats with a single tap, and interactive image creation tools like Image Playground, where users can generate new visuals based on text descriptions. Apple is giving developers access to enhanced app integrations with features like Siri’s cross-app awareness.