Siri in crisis: Insights into Apple's internal problems

Siri has been a household name for many iPhone users for years – both as a practical helper in everyday life and as a source of frustration. While other voice assistants like Alexa or Google Assistant can now handle complex tasks, Siri often seems like a dying breed. A recent report from The Information now reveals why. And the reasons aren't a lack of technology, but primarily chaos, poor leadership, and internal problems at Apple.

Apple actually wanted to set standards with Siri. A smart assistant, embedded in the Apple world, with a focus on data protection. The idea was good, but the implementation faltered for years. Now it's clear: A lot was going wrong behind the scenes. A lack of clarity regarding the technical direction, internal tensions, and a lack of drive for innovation have turned Siri into what it is today – a voice assistant that has lost its way.

Internal disagreement slows development

Apple originally worked on two language models. The smaller model, called "Mini Mouse," was intended to run locally on the iPhone, while the larger "Mighty Mouse" was designed to run in the cloud. Later, the decision was made to build a single, large cloud model instead. These constant changes in direction caused frustration within the development team. Some engineers left the company because they couldn't see a clear direction. The technical strategy was repeatedly overturned, repeatedly setting product development back.

Problems in corporate culture

The report also describes a corporate culture that stifles innovation rather than promotes it. Several former employees from Apple's AI and Machine Learning department report an overly relaxed work style, a lack of ambition, and a reluctance to take risks. Internally, Siri was referred to as a "hot potato"—a project that no one wanted to support long-term. The entire AI department was nicknamed "AIMLess" internally, a reference to aimlessness. In addition, tensions over salary, vacation time, and working conditions further hampered teamwork.

Misjudgments at management level

John Giannandrea, Apple's AI chief, was convinced that Siri could be improved with better training data and optimized web scraping. He reacted calmly to ChatGPT's breakthrough in 2022, stating internally that he didn't believe chatbots like it would be of much use to users. A real rethink initially failed to materialize. It wasn't until 2023 that Apple developers were banned from incorporating other companies' language models into Siri products—they were only allowed to use them for comparison purposes. According to the report, the results of Apple's own models were significantly worse than those of OpenAI.

Focus on small improvements instead of innovation

While other companies were making major leaps in AI, Siri CEO Robby Walker focused on the details. His main project: removing the "Hey" from the "Hey Siri" command. This took over two years. Walker rejected a proposal from development teams to make Siri more empathetic using large language models. The idea: Siri should be able to recognize emotional distress and respond appropriately. This project was not pursued further.

Vision Pro: many plans, little implementation

Another project, codenamed "Link," was intended to enable voice control for the Vision Pro. Users would be able to navigate the internet, move windows, and control apps using voice alone. However, many of these features were dropped, reportedly because the Siri team was unable to implement them technically (via The Information ).

Fictional demo at WWDC 2024

The big Siri demo at the WWDC 2024 developer conference showed off some seemingly impressive features: Siri accesses your emails, finds flight information, sends you a lunchtime reminder, and plots a route in the Maps app. According to The Information, however, this demo wasn't real. The features shown only existed as concepts at the time of the presentation. Even the Siri team wasn't familiar with a working version. The only demo feature that actually worked on test devices was the colorful, pulsating Siri ribbon on the edge of the display. For Apple, this marks a break with its previous practice of only showing market-ready technology at presentations.

New hope through leadership change

Some at Apple are now relying on Craig Federighi and Mike Rockwell. According to the report, Federighi has given the Siri team free rein: They should "do whatever it takes" to make Siri competitive. The use of open source models from other providers is also permitted—a clear sign that Apple has recognized its lag and wants to explore new paths.

Apple redesigns Siri – Vision Pro boss takes the lead

Apple recognizes the extent of the Siri problem

Siri has become a problem child in recent years. Instead of innovation, there have been internal disputes, poor communication, and technical detours. While other AI tools have set new standards, Siri has stagnated. The Information report shows that Apple recognized many things too late and underestimated important trends. Now a change of course is needed. Whether this succeeds depends on whether Apple is willing to correct its past mistakes—and whether Siri finally receives the support the project needed from the start. (Photo by SashaMagic / Bigstockphoto)