Apple's AI isn't a letdown. AI is the letdown

Summary

A version of this story appeared in CNN Business’ Nightcap newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here. New York CNN — Apple has been getting hammered in tech and financial media for its uncharacteristically messy foray into artificial intelligence. After a June event heralding a new AI-powered Siri, the company has delayed its release indefinitely. The AI features Apple has rolled out, including text message summaries, are comically unhelpful. The critique of Apple’s halting rollout is not entirely unfair. Though it is, at times, missing the point. Apple, like every other big player in tech, is scrambling to find ways to inject AI into its products. Why? Well, it’s the future! What problems is it solving? Well, so far that’s not clear! Are customers demanding it? LOL, no. In fact, last year the backlash against one of Apple’s early ads for its AI was so hostile the company had to pull the commercial. The real reason companies are doing this is because Wall Street wants them to. Investors have been salivating for an Apple “super cycle” — a tech upgrade so enticing that consumers will rush to get their hands on the new model. In a rush to please shareholders, Apple made a rare stumble. The company is owning its error, it seems, and has said the delayed features would roll out “in the coming year.” Of course, the cryptic delay has only given oxygen to the narrative that Apple has become a laggard in the Most Important Tech Advancement in decades. And that is where the Apple-AI narrative goes off the rails. There’s a popular adage in policy circles: “The party can never fail, it can only be failed.” It is meant as a critique of the ideological gatekeepers who may, for example, blame voters for their party’s failings rather than the party itself. That same fallacy is taking root among AI’s biggest backers. AI can never fail, it can only be failed. Failed by you and me, the smooth-brained Luddites who just don’t get it. (To be sure, even AI proponents will...