WWDC 2026: Apple arrives very late to the AI party - limping, on a crutch

What Happened

After spending much of the past two years being criticized for falling behind OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and Microsoft, Apple used this year’s Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2026 (June 8, 2026) keynote to unveil a completely rebuilt AI strategy centered around a new generation of Apple Intelligence and an overhauled Siri. The headline announcement was “Siri AI,” a dramatically upgraded version of Siri that moves beyond simple voice commands into a conversational assistant capable of understanding context, interacting across applications, remembering prior conversations, and performing complex tasks throughout Apple’s ecosystem. Apple also introduced a dedicated Siri AI app that functions more like ChatGPT or Claude than the Siri users have known for the last decade.

Beyond AI, Apple continued its push into digital safety by announcing expanded child-protection features, giving parents more control over who children can communicate with, what content they can access, and which websites and applications they can use. The company emphasized that many of these protections operate directly on-device rather than requiring extensive data collection in the cloud.

Key Announcements

Siri AI

The biggest reveal was Apple’s complete redesign of Siri. The new assistant can maintain context across conversations, understand what’s happening on-screen, interact with apps, retrieve personal information without requiring users to navigate multiple menus, and provide a far more natural conversational experience. Apple says the system combines its own foundation models with technology developed through its partnership with Google.

Next-Generation Apple Intelligence

Apple expanded Apple Intelligence across iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Vision Pro. New capabilities include AI-powered writing assistance, smarter automation through Shortcuts, improved image generation, intelligent organization tools, and deeper integration throughout the operating system.

AI Photo Editing

The Photos app received major AI upgrades, including object removal, image expansion, reframing tools, and other generative editing capabilities that bring Apple closer to features already available in products from Google and Adobe.

Child Safety Controls

Apple introduced expanded parental controls, enhanced communication safety protections, website restrictions, age-appropriate app recommendations, and more granular controls over who children can contact online. Notably, Apple is emphasizing device-level controls rather than relying entirely on centralized monitoring.

Recommended by LinkedIn

Apple’s WWDC Was More Meh Than Magic Jason Michael Perry 1 year ago Exploring OpenAI’s latest hardware vision, Google’s… Thomas Steinmetz 1 year ago 🤖 Try OpenAI’s new device today Dino Gane-Palmer 7 months ago

Privacy-Centric AI

Apple repeatedly stressed that many AI operations will occur directly on-device or through its Private Cloud Compute architecture. Privacy remains Apple’s primary differentiator in a market increasingly driven by massive cloud-based AI systems.

What Others Are Saying

You be the judge on whether these are enthusiastic endorsements or big yawns. Here are some notable quotes:

As I expected, Apple is going to punt the 'on-device' story for Apple Intelligence and push towards the 'private cloud compute' story for the models that you'll actually want to use...We will probably reach the point in the future where you could do good-enough on-device processing for certain tasks, but that day isn't today - Christina Warren (GitHub)

My Skeptical Takeaway

OK - Fine, I get it. Apple rarely wins by being first. The iPod wasn’t the first MP3 player. The iPhone wasn’t the first smartphone. The Apple Watch wasn’t the first smartwatch. Apple’s historical pattern is to enter late, simplify the experience, and leverage its ecosystem advantages. WWDC 2026 wasn't groundbreaking at all - the once cool kid who used to arrive at the party fashionably late but with the biggest surprises, is now showing up late like an old man walking on crutches. A crutch called Gemini.

 Sources:

https://www.apple.com/apple-events/

https://www.businessinsider.com/what-smart-people-are-saying-about-apple-ai-announcements-wwdc-2026-6?utm_source=chatgpt.com#ben-bajarin-ceo-creative-strategies-3

https://www.theverge.com/tech/942416/apple-siri-ai-update-wwdc?utm_source=chatgpt.com