Apple Calls Its Ai Delays Ugly And Embarrassing

Robby Walker , who serves as a senior director at Apple, delivered the stark comments during an all-hands meeting for the Siri division, saying that the team was facing a bad period. Walker also said that it's unclear when the enhancements will actually launch, according to people with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified because the gathering was private.

The frank discussion shows the extent of Apple's crisis in the field of artificial intelligence, where it's struggling to catch up with peers. Siri - less advanced than rival systems - has become a symbol of Apple's AI challenges. And the company's woes boiled over last week, when it acknowledged publicly that critical features would be delayed indefinitely.

During the all-hands gathering, Walker suggested that employees on his team may be feeling angry, disappointed, burned out and embarrassed after the features were postponed. The company had been racing to get the technology ready for this northern hemisphere spring, but now the features aren't expected until next year at the earliest, people familiar with the matter have said.

Still, he praised the team for developing "incredibly impressive" features and vowed to deliver an industry-leading virtual assistant to consumers.

A spokesman for Apple declined to comment on the meeting, which was put on the schedule last week.