Apple CEO Ternus demands bold AI push, driving Siri's transformation into autonomous agents

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After entering the foldable track, John Ternus lit the "second fire" since taking over as Apple CEO. Under pressure from falling behind in the AI race, he is pressing software chief Craig Federighi to adopt a bolder AI strategy and to make Siri an AI agent capable of executing tasks autonomously.

According to media reports, Ternus recently held a closed-door meeting with Federighi, in which the former expressed dissatisfaction with the pace of Apple's AI projects and urged the latter to "quickly move beyond the stage of merely making necessary improvements to Siri."

This sense of urgency stems from Apple's current lag in the AI race. At this stage, Siri AI has capabilities such as answering questions, writing emails, setting reminders, searching for information online, and performing basic in-app operations, but tech journalist Mark Gurman points out that these capabilities still lag significantly behind mature AI agents on the market.

At last week's earnings call, Ternus also admitted that Siri currently remains primarily focused on responding to user requests, but its modern orchestrator-driven architecture leaves room for expanding agentic capabilities in the future.

Gurman said Apple could launch a new version of Siri with agentic capabilities as early as next year to compete with rivals such as ChatGPT Dots, Meta Muse, and Grok. The goal is no longer merely to passively respond to commands, but to build an AI assistant that can proactively manage tasks and get things done for users.

It is worth noting that Ternus had previously always maintained a cautious stance on artificial intelligence. In an interview with Wired magazine on October 30, he said, "We don't want to ship AI for AI's sake." Apple will embrace AI, but it does not believe in putting it into products simply because the technology is trending.

As the senior head of Apple's AI and Siri business, Federighi is accustomed to deep involvement in meetings and major decisions, relying on his grasp of technical details and debating skills to rebut proposals he disagrees with. Gurman analyzes that the roadmaps he sets typically cover only the next 12 to 18 months, while Apple's hardware division is accustomed to planning years in advance. This mismatch in software and hardware rhythms drags down overall development progress on the one hand, and on the other tends to make first-generation products more conservative in features and design.

Personnel uncertainty is also intensifying. According to reports, Mike Rockwell, head of Apple Vision Pro and head of Siri AI development, is still seriously considering resigning, or may step down next year from the position of vice president of Siri engineering, or even leave Apple. If he ultimately departs, it would be a major loss for Apple's AI strategy.

(Source: Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily) Body middle Embedded ad