Apple's Siri Secrets Revealed Execs Spill the Beans on Delayed AI

Apple Defends Personalized Siri Features: "Real" and "Working" at WWDC 2024

Following the whirlwind of WWDC 2024 announcements, Apple's top brass are making the rounds, addressing key questions and clarifying lingering doubts. This week, software engineering chief Craig Federighi and marketing head Greg Joswiak sat down with Joanna Stern of The Wall Street Journal to discuss the highly anticipated, yet delayed, personalized Siri features.

One of the most pressing questions Stern posed was whether the personalized Siri showcased at WWDC 2024 was a genuine, working product or simply a polished demo. The response from Apple was emphatic.

"We were filming real working software, with a real large language model, with real semantic search, that's what you saw," Federighi stated, setting the record straight.

Joswiak echoed this sentiment, directly addressing skepticism surrounding the demonstration. "There's this narrative out there that it was demoware only," he said. "No."

The conversation then shifted to the reasons behind the delay in rolling out these groundbreaking features. As Federighi explained, the decision stemmed from Apple's unwavering commitment to quality.

In essence, the delay is attributed to:

• Quality Concerns: Apple identified areas where the performance and reliability of the personalized Siri needed improvement.
• Architectural Shift: To address these concerns, Apple is transitioning Siri to a newer, more robust underlying architecture.

The personalized Siri features, first unveiled at WWDC 2024, promise a significantly enhanced user experience, including:

• Improved Understanding of Personal Context: Siri will be able to better understand your relationships, habits, and preferences.
• On-Screen Awareness: Siri will be able to analyze what's currently displayed on your screen to provide more relevant assistance.
• Deeper Per-App Controls: Expect more granular control over how Siri interacts with individual applications.

The demo showcased at WWDC provided a tantalizing glimpse of what's to come. For example, the demonstration highlighted an iPhone user seamlessly inquiring about their mother's flight and lunch reservation plans, with Siri intelligently drawing information from the Mail and Messages apps.

While the initial plan was to release these features sooner, Apple has revised its timeline. Currently, the company anticipates launching the personalized Siri capabilities in 2026.

The delay, while disappointing to some, underscores Apple's dedication to delivering a polished and reliable user experience. By investing in a more robust architecture and prioritizing quality, Apple is setting the stage for a truly transformative Siri experience in the years to come. It's clear that Apple is not just aiming for incremental improvements but rather a fundamental leap forward in the capabilities of its digital assistant.

Tags: Apple Siri, WWDC 2024, Craig Federighi, Greg Joswiak, AI, Apple, Personalized Siri, Wall Street Journal, Software, Apple news

Source: https://www.macrumors.com/2025/06/10/apple-says-personalized-siri-was-working/