Apple Intelligence Feels Like a Rush Job Because It Probably Is ⇥ macworld.com

Jason Snell, Macworld:

Apple doesn’t have to end up with the best large language model around to win the AI wars. It can be in the ballpark of the best or partner with the leaders to get what it needs. But it can’t fail at the part that is uniquely Apple: Making those features a pleasure to use, in the way we all expect from Apple. Right now, that’s where Apple is failing.

I get why Apple wanted to rush these things out. I disagree with it since it betrays a lack of confidence in the time it takes to thoughtful and polished software — but I get it. Yet we can only judge the products that have shipped, and what we can use right now is disappointing because it feels sloppy.

As Snell writes, Apple has a chance to move A.I. features beyond a blinking cursor in a chat bot — like a plain language command line. Very little of what is out today is a thoughtful implementation of these features. Cleanup in Photos is pretty good. Most of the other stuff — summaries of phone calls, Notification Summaries, Writing Tools, Memory Movies in Photos, and response suggestions in Mail and Messages — are more cumbersome than they are elegant.