LLM Siri is Apple’s major, next-generation overhaul of Siri that shifts the assistant to a foundation built on large language models (LLMs), similar to the technology powering Grok, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and other modern AI chatbots. Unfortunately, due to myopic “leadership,” Apple missed the Generative AI (GenAI) revolution and has been struggling to catch up every since. Apple’ future home automation and other products depend on a Siri that actually works, so the LLM Siri delays are causing rippling product delays.
Mark Gurman for Bloomberg News:
For more than a year, Apple has been trying to break into the smart home market and create its next big moneymaker. But repeatedly now, the company has struggled to do so because of its shortcomings in AI.
Apple has built an impressive new smart home device dubbed J490 that is still under wraps. As I’ve reported a number of times, it looks like a square 7-inch iPad that can be affixed to a half-dome-shaped speaker or onto a wall. It features a watchOS-like interface with apps, but the highlight is a personalized Siri experience. The idea is to have the device recognize your face when you walk up to it and then show personalized content. It was originally planned for release in March 2025 but was delayed when the new Siri overhaul slipped last year.
Apple then aimed to bring the device to market this month, when the personalized version of Siri was supposed to launch as part of iOS 26.4. Unfortunately, the new Siri is now running behind again and probably isn’t launching until closer to the end of the year. With the latest delay, the new hardware is getting postponed again.
The current plan is for a September debut, but given the ongoing struggles in AI, should anyone be completely confident it will arrive in six months? Probably not.
MacDailyNews Take: Going from the visionary Steve Jobs to Tim Cook was, for stability, smart for the first five years or so. But, having glorified operations manager Cook sit there iterating Job’s products for fifteen years? Well, the chickens have been roosting at Apple Park for quite some time now.
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