Apple Intelligence isn’t even available to the public yet, but a new report claims it’s “at least […] two years behind the industry leaders.”
In his most recent Power On newsletter, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman wrote he’d been told about internal studies at Apple that show just how much ground Apple Intelligence needs to make up to get to ChatGPT’s level. He wrote, “The research found that OpenAI’s ChatGPT was 25% more accurate than Apple’s Siri, and able to answer 30% more questions.”
That means according to the studies, ChatGPT is quite a bit better than Apple Intelligence’s current form but considering Apple’s delayed start it might not be too long until the company catches up. Gurman added, “In fact, some at Apple believe that its generative AI technology — at least, so far — is more than two years behind the industry leaders.”
Two years might sound like a long time, but if Apple’s first-party AI tools are up to ChatGPT’s standard by 2026, Apple devices will have incredibly competent AI capabilities. Considering how fast the AI industry is evolving, who knows what AI will be capable of in just two years, and will Apple continue to lag behind?
Just a matter of time
It’s not all doom and gloom for Apple, however, Gurman states “It’s hard to count Apple out.” After all, Apple is renowned for not doing things first, but doing them best and Gurman believes “At some point, Apple will either develop, hire or acquire its way into the top tier of AI companies.”
There’s also Apple’s huge user base that plays a determining factor in its AI development. After all, the company can simply roll out AI features to millions of devices and make AI accessible to all. In the iPhone 16 marketing, Apple claims Apple Intelligence is “AI for the rest of us” and the company hopes to build on that mantra by making Apple Intelligence available on as many devices as possible.
Gurman claims, “By 2026, nearly every Apple device with a screen will run it: The iPhone SE will gain the features in March, and the entry-level iPad will probably get updated later in the year.” That’s a huge step in making Apple Intelligence the core of the Apple experience, and with a big chunk of development to catch up on, that strategy of making Apple Intelligence the center of the Apple ecosystem is probably Apple’s best bet.
Once Apple does catch up, companies like Google and Samsung will struggle to keep up as Apple Intelligence can be upgraded and new features rolled out at an unmatchable speed. “They have more fragmented operating systems, and their hardware, software and services aren’t as tightly integrated.”
With Apple Intelligence expected to launch on October 28, we’ve only got a week or so to go until Apple’s AI tools become available to the world – time will tell just how big an impact the company can have in the AI industry.