At the WWDC 2025 event today, Apple announced new Apple Intelligence features that “elevate the user experience” across iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple Vision Pro. And that is pretty much the theme throughout the event. AI was not the centre stage, but a powerful accessory – as has been the case for 75 years!

I get two reactions when I say this:

From The General Public

Complete surprise that AI has been around for this long.
Well, as someone who has brought AI models to the business world since 2002, AI has been part of your life for over 20 years through the digital tech you’ve been using throughout this time.

From The Techbros

Complete and utter meltdown. Because, in their fantasy world, AI is R2-D2, AGI, Ex Machina, Her, or whatever other Hollywood fantasy they may have. Sorry, chumps 👀

Is This The Beginning of The Post Generative AI Era?

In today’s episode of the podcast: “Is Apple Running Away from AI?”, I discussed the above points, again, in preparation for the WWDC, highlighting why I think Apple have decided to walk away from the AI hype, apparently. I discuss whether this decision flies in the face of the tech industry’s current obsession with generative AI. While competitors tout their latest breakthroughs in large language models (LLMs) and reasoning systems, often with dazzling fanfare, Apple’s approach feels almost defiant.

It’s a move that prompts an important question: Is Apple “falling behind” in the AI race, as some critics suggest, or is it rejecting the race altogether in favour of something more meaningful?

Not to mention, of course, the bombshell research paper they released just before the WWDC, throwing LLMs under the bus, stating what many of us have been saying for years. The research paper serves as a scathing critique of Large Reasoning Models (LRMs), the next evolution of generative AI. These models, designed to simulate complex reasoning processes, have been celebrated as groundbreaking. But according to Apple’s research, they’re anything but reliable.

The paper points out that while these models perform well on curated benchmarks, they collapse under the weight of real-world complexity. Their reasoning abilities degrade as tasks become more intricate, and they exhibit a “counterintuitive scaling limit,” where their performance declines despite having sufficient computational resources. In other words, the very systems that have tech enthusiasts buzzing are ill-suited for critical applications.

This isn’t just an academic critique, it’s a cultural one. Generative AI, hailed as “revolutionary”, is increasingly viewed with suspicion. Hallucinations, misinformation, and ethically dubious outputs have eroded public trust.

As I mentioned in the above episode, according to recent data, only 46% of people globally trust AI systems, and a staggering 88% of AI projects fail to scale. Apple’s decision to avoid the generative AI bandwagon isn’t a hesitation. Maybe it’s prudence. Why chase a technology that’s proving to be as problematic as it is promising?

According to Apple’s post-event press release, “Apple Intelligence unlocks new ways for users to communicate with features like Live Translation; do more with what’s on their screen with updates to visual intelligence; and express themselves with enhancements to Image Playground and Genmoji.”

Additionally, they state that “Shortcuts can now tap into Apple Intelligence directly, and developers will be able to access the on-device large language model at the core of Apple Intelligence, giving them direct access to intelligence that is powerful, fast, built with privacy, and available even when users are offline.

In other words, stick AI in the background where it belongs and let it do its best job that AI has done brilliantly for decades. Enough of the Hollywood nonsense.

Now let’s wait for the techbros and media meltdown about “Apple’s AI failure” or whatever else they’ll come up with. 🙈

As for the new UI/UX, I kinda like it. I expected more, though. That’s it 🤣