Apple plans to rename its entire software lineup as it moves away from the order-based approach and towards a year-based scheme that will eradicate confusion for customers and developers. It was also recently reported that macOS will be named after Lake Tahoe in California to signify the major UI redesign. This brings us to the question of whether the update will bring any Apple Intelligence upgrades to the table, and as per Mark Gurman, AI will take a back seat this year.
Apple’s WWDC 2025 will emphasize design changes while AI developments take a backseat this year
Mark Gurman writes in his latest Power On newsletter that the upcoming WWDC event on June 9 will be a letdown as far as the AI features are concerned. The report says that Apple insiders “believe that the conference may be a letdown from an AI standpoint,” despite the fact that the company is aggressively losing the AI race against Google and OpenAI. Apple's arch-rival in smartphone sales, Samsung, is also gearing up its game by partnering with Perplexity, which would enhance the list of features it will have to show until the Galaxy S26 Ultra is released.
Apple's primary focus this year appears to be a visual design overhaul, shifting from a plain, simple layout to more glass-like effects that users will find in visionOS. However, this does not mean that AI announcements will be non-existent. The company will have something in store for developers as it opens its on-device foundation. These ~3B parameters are the same that the company uses for summarization and autocorrect purposes, but it remains to be seen what good features can be derived from them in the long run.
From what we can expect, Apple opening up its foundation models to third-party developers will allow them to integrate the technology into their own apps. This could end up being a useful addition in terms of what you can do within apps. Despite these additions, Apple is still miles behind OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini-based features for smartphones.
Apple Intelligence is under a lot of scrutiny, as the company delayed its most-hyped Personalized Siri feature until next year. Moreover, instead of introducing more AI-focused features, the company has taken a backseat and is gearing up to introduce visual changes to the platforms, possibly as compensation. Additionally, the company's on-device models are far less capable than cloud-based systems used by OpenAI and Google, which gives room to accommodate ground-breaking features.
Apple needs to ramp up its AI development, even if it requires cross-hiring and initiating further teams that work together for the same goal – making Apple Intelligence a proper platform for which users would pay. We will share more details on the subject as soon as further information is available. Do you think Apple will surprise users with major Apple Intelligence upgrades at its WWDC 2025 event?
Follow Wccftech on Google to get more of our news coverage in your feeds.
