Apple insiders are tempering expectations for the company’s upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), with some employees saying the event could be underwhelming from an AI perspective, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.
People familiar with Apple’s internal thinking worry that the company’s planned AI announcements could actually highlight how far behind it is compared to competitors like OpenAI and Google, says Gurman.
OpenAI continues to roll out new features to ChatGPT at a furious pace, while the most recent Google I/O showed how powerful Gemini is becoming. Apple Intelligence is no where close to becoming an AI juggernaut yet.
While Apple does have a wide range of internal AI models — including a 150-billion parameter system said to rival recent versions of ChatGPT—there are currently no public plans to release a full-fledged Apple chatbot.
The biggest AI news expected at WWDC will be Apple opening up its on-device “Foundation Models” to third-party developers. These smaller AI models, capable of handling tasks like text summaries, have around 3 billion parameters. Developers will be able to use these models to build custom app features — a meaningful, but modest step forward in Apple’s AI plans.
Apple is also expected to rebrand several existing tools in apps like Safari and Photos as “AI-powered,” introduce a revamped Translate app with Siri and AirPods integration (because that’s what we’ve been asking for, right?), and unveil a new power management mode tied to AI features.
Internally, Apple has been testing a wide range of AI models — from lightweight on-device versions to the more advanced 150-billion parameter system used in the cloud. Employees can compare their outputs to those of ChatGPT and Gemini through an internal tool called “Playground,” but Apple has so far held off on offering its own chatbot to the public due to accuracy concerns and executive-level disagreements over generative AI.
What about hardware announcements at WWDC? Gurman says fans should also brace for a quiet show. No major product reveals are expected this year at WWDC, with the next round of hardware launches — including new iPhones and Apple Watches— not scheduled until the fall.
So instead of any mind-blowing Apple Intelligence breakthroughs at WWDC, Apple fans will likely see new redesigned and renamed operating systems, only to keep us distracted, until WWDC 2026. That sounds about par for Apple nowadays.
Apple’s WWDC keynote will kick off on Monday, June 9, at 10am PT/1pm ET.
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It’s only a ‘problem’ for investor weirdos and CEO brained freaks. Most people don’t care about AI features on their phone