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Become a Six Colors member to read exclusive posts, get our weekly podcast, join our community, and more!For Apple to succeed at AI, it needs to focus on what it does best
Everyone knows that Apple is playing catch-up when it comes to Apple Intelligence. The company’s shipping AI models seem to be way behind the cutting edge, as OpenAI grows, Google pushes forward, and newcomers hit the scene.
I’m sure Apple is pouring everything it can into building better, more modern models, and we’ll hear about that effort in detail in June. But what troubles me most about the Apple Intelligence rollout isn’t that Apple was caught flatfooted by the AI hype train and is struggling to catch up—it’s that Apple’s implementation of AI features also feels slapdash and rushed.
Apple doesn’t have to end up with the best large language model around in order to win the AI wars. It can be in the ballpark of the best or partner with the leaders to get what it needs. But it can’t fail at the part that is uniquely Apple: Making those features a pleasure to use, in the way we all expect from Apple. Right now, that’s where Apple is failing.