Here’s what’s on our plate today:

• 🍏 Apple’s AI flop? The company keeps lagging in the AI race.

• 🗞️ Parental controls, economic gains, and AI vulnerabilities.

• 📊 Friday Poll: Is Apple too late to the AI party? Cast your vote now.

• 🧰 Audit your AI tools, build a podcast bot, and explore LLM bias interactively.

Let’s dive in. No floaties needed…

The Laboratory

Why Apple keeps chasing AI

The successful launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in late 2022 was the beginning of a change that would shake up the tech industry. To compete with the transformative tech companies like Google and Meta fast-forwarded the release of their own chatbots. Others, like Amazon and Microsoft, took to investing, pouring billions of dollars in startups like Anthropic and Inflection AI.

On the surface, big tech and startups looked to be competing for a place in the artificial intelligence marketplace. However, scratch the surface, and the differences were profound. AI startups, after their initial success, were unable to compete with the billions big tech could pour into developing powerful AI systems. This allowed powerful tech giants to acquire promising startups, or gut them for the technical know-how, a process that is still ongoing. This process, however, has led critics to argue that it will result in the consolidation of an otherwise scattered market.

It is in this backdrop that Apple, one of the laggards in the AI race, held internal talks about acquiring French AI startup Mistral as well as Perplexity.

The news surfaced days after the company was sued for a deal with OpenAI that helped Apple bring ChatGPT into experiences within iOS, iPadOS, and macOS.

However, despite its reputation for being slow to roll out features compared to its competitors when it comes to AI, Apple has struggled to meet public expectations. Apple promised AI features within a reasonable timeframe, but was unable to deliver. Its internal roadmap, once leisurely, now feels outpaced by hype.

Apple’s AI misfire

At WWDC 2024, Apple announced Apple Intelligence, hyping a Siri overhaul, writing tools, generative features across Mail, Maps, iMessage, and even an AI that remembers context. The aim was to compete with more powerful AI-assisted features offered by Google on its Pixel and Android devices. Even when these announcements were made, skeptics pointed to limited cloud capabilities and overemphasis on on-device processing as a key differentiator between Apple and the competition.

However, this very differentiator would haunt performance and the successful releases of promised features. Apple has focused on privacy and hardware instead of investing in foundational AI models like OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft. Apple’s insistence on running AI models on the device also slowed down development of its internal models and forced the company to rely on external partnerships, like the one with OpenAI, to satisfy expectations.

However, by 2025, it was evident that Apple would not be able to deliver on earlier promises. Many features never shipped or barely limped out. Internal reports revealed that some demos weren’t even real-time software at all, but simulations.

This could only mean one thing. Apple’s marketing team blasted ahead while engineering lagged. Apple is also facing lawsuits over false advertising, accusing the company of hyping features it didn’t deliver. Even the shareholders have publicly criticised the company, stating that tall promises led them to believe AI would be a key driver of iPhone 16 devices. But they lacked a functional prototype of AI-based Siri features.

Once it was evident that Apple would not be able to deliver on its promises by itself, the company started looking for partners.

Apple’s looks beyond OpenAI

While Apple partnered with OpenAI, it has continued to look for options to diversify its procurement of AI technology.

In March 2024, Apple was reportedly in contact with Google to build Gemini’s AI engine into the iPhone. At the time, the deal would have allowed Google to expand the use of its AI services to more than 2 billion active Apple devices, boosting the search giant's efforts to catch up with Microsoft-backed OpenAI.

However, there were no updates on the deal. In the meantime, in February 2025, Reuters reported that Apple was partnering with Alibaba to support iPhone’s AI services in China. The move was aimed at arresting the rapid fall of iPhone sales in the country due to a lack of AI features.

Now, the company is reportedly looking to acquire Mistral and Perplexity to accelerate its AI strategy.

In the meantime, rivals like Google with its Pixel lineup have surged ahead in terms of AI features. The latest Pixel 10 series devices feature real-time voice cloning translation, proactive suggestions, camera coaching while shooting, and AI‑verified content metadata. Google even ran ads mocking Apple’s “coming soon” trope.

Samsung, too, has surged ahead with foldable devices that boast integrated AI features. However, despite its sluggish and botched approach to AI, Apple continues to be a major hardware provider with a strong focus on privacy.

The silicon edge

Apple’s trump card has always been vertical integration. Even if it lags in flashy AI models, it controls the silicon (A-series and M-series chips) and the OS ecosystem. That means when it does roll out AI features, they can be deeply optimized for performance and energy efficiency in ways Google and Samsung can’t always match.

Apple also has an ecosystem that provides a seamless experience to users and makes switching an expensive affair.

Another factor playing an important role in Apple’s AI development could be its strategy to launch features at a delayed pace. The iPhone-maker is not known to be the first to release features. However, it does mean Apple could be letting others exhaust themselves with half-baked AI and lawsuits that follow.

Whatever the strategy, Apple now has to do the difficult job of catching up to rivals.

Apple is at a crossroads

The smartphone industry is not easy to dominate. In the late 1990s and 2000s, Nokia dominated the mobile market. However, its failure to anticipate the shift to smartphones and software ecosystems left it vulnerable when Apple introduced the iPhone to the world.

The company did try to revive itself with partnerships with Microsoft, but the OS never gained traction against iOS and Android.

Apple, at least on the surface, seems to be headed down a similar path. At present, the risk for Apple is not that of an immediate collapse in sales, but a larger, more profound impact on its prestige and relevance.

If the company can find a reliable partner to execute its AI plans while it works on its internal capabilities, the company stands a chance of once more pulling off what it did with MP3 players and wearables. The company, while late to launch devices and features, can reshape industries.

Currently, Apple’s AI journey reflects a broader truth about innovation cycles: being late is not always fatal, but misjudging timing can be. The company, then, faces the challenge of not just building features but shaping trust, privacy, and utility in a crowded market. Its future depends on whether it can again turn delay into an advantage.

TL;DR

• Apple’s AI delays spark criticism: Promised features from its Apple Intelligence rollout missed deadlines or were just simulations, leading to shareholder lawsuits and public mockery.

• While Google and Samsung race ahead with AI-first devices, Apple is exploring acquisitions (like Mistral and Perplexity) and partnerships to accelerate development.

• Hardware edge still matters. Apple’s vertical integration gives it an advantage in performance and energy efficiency, even if its software lags.

• Can late be great again? Apple’s strategy may hinge on timing. If it nails execution and trust, it could still reshape AI on its terms.

Friday Poll

Headlines You Actually Need

• Anthropic flags AI threat risks: A leaked internal report reveals that Claude may be vulnerable to being manipulated for cyberattacks—raising fresh concerns over AI safety and national security.

• AI might finally boost GDP: After decades of hype, new economic data suggests AI investment is starting to produce real productivity gains in the U.S.

• ChatGPT adds parental controls: OpenAI now allows parents to manage their kids’ access to ChatGPT, following scrutiny after a teen’s suicide was linked to chatbot use.

Weekend To-Do

• Audit your AI usage: Take 30 minutes to map which apps or tools in your workflow rely on third-party AI. Who owns the model? Where does your data go? You might be surprised.

• Make your own podcast summary bot: Try building a bot with OpenAI’s Whisper and GPT-4 to summarize your favorite podcast episodes. Great way to learn prompt chaining and audio transcription.

• Explore AI bias interactively: Run a few queries through Hugging Face’s bias explorer and see how LLMs respond to prompts about gender, race, or politics. It’s both eye-opening and disturbing.

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