Apple faces mounting pressure as it prepares for its Worldwide Developers Conference on June 9, with the company struggling to match competitors like OpenAI and Google in artificial intelligence development. One year after launching Apple Intelligence, the tech giant appears to be falling further behind in the AI race.
According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple Intelligence has failed to deliver the breakthrough innovations initially promised. The system’s features, including Writing Tools and Genmoji, have proven less impressive than competing offerings from OpenAI and Google. The company’s redesigned Siri assistant has been delayed indefinitely due to engineering problems.
Internal sources suggest this year’s WWDC may disappoint from an AI perspective. Apple plans to make more modest announcements compared to previous years when it unveiled the Vision Pro headset and Apple Intelligence platform.
Limited AI announcements expected
The most significant AI-related announcement will be opening Apple’s Foundation Models to third-party developers. These models use approximately 3 billion parameters, significantly less complex than cloud-based systems from competitors. Developers will be able to integrate this technology into their apps for basic tasks like text summarization.
Apple will also introduce a new power management mode, reboot its Translate app with AirPods integration, and rebrand existing features as “AI-powered.”
Advanced models remain internal
Despite public struggles, Apple has made progress internally. The company now tests models with 3 billion, 7 billion, 33 billion, and 150 billion parameters. The largest model approaches ChatGPT’s quality in internal benchmarks but remains unused publicly due to concerns about hallucinations and internal disagreements among executives.
Apple employees can access these advanced models through an internal tool called “Playground” to compare results with ChatGPT and other platforms. The company is also developing a ChatGPT competitor called “Knowledge” that can gather data from the internet, though this project faces similar delays as the Siri overhaul.
Future developments uncertain
Apple continues working on several AI projects for future release. These include a conversational Siri redesign, an AI-powered Shortcuts app, and a health-focused AI service codenamed “Mulberry.” However, the company might have become more cautious about announcing features before they are ready to launch.
The tech giant hopes to present a stronger AI story at WWDC 2026, but this approach risks falling even further behind as competitors accelerate their development. Google recently demonstrated significant advances at its I/O conference, while OpenAI has partnered with Apple’s former design chief Jony Ive on new projects.