Apple’s software chief Craig Federighi, who emceed the keynote, went out of his way to take a shot at other tech companies’ aggressive approach to AI. “Some appear to be racing forward, seemingly pursuing AI for the sake of AI, without clear regard for the people—all of us—that it’s ultimately meant to serve,” he said (who could he be talking about?). That’s not Apple’s way, he added. Federighi was long a skeptic of AI. While he has supposedly found religion regarding the technology, his continuing caution is somewhat refreshing.
Aside from the unproven nature of many new AI services, there’s plenty of evidence that ordinary people are wary about its benefits and risks. Other big tech firms, such as Google and Amazon, have moved carefully to overhaul their core services for AI, presumably not wanting to upset their hundreds of millions of users with too-rapid shifts. Still, for all of Apple’s caution, it’s following a familiar playbook—ensuring that those customers who do want AI will have to spend money to get it.
The new Siri AI features will require the iPhone 15 Pro or later, so that shuts out anyone with a phone more than three years old. More egregiously, buried in the footnotes of one of Apple’s press releases was the revelation that the iPhone 17 Pro or iPhone Air or later will be needed for “Apple’s most powerful on-device model and the features it enables, like expressive voices and more advanced dictation.” (Hat tip to 9to5Mac for pointing that out.) Some AI features also will have “daily usage limits” that will require iCloud subscriptions to get past.
You might think Apple is banking on these features to drive an upgrade cycle. But given how tentatively it is dipping its toes into the AI waters, it’s doubtful the company expects AI to do anything for it in the near term. #Gadgets
https://9to5mac.com/2026/..
