MC.77: Is Apple really losing the AI war?

Hey everyone,

Next Monday marks Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2025, and this year's event carries unprecedented weight for the tech giant's AI ambitions.

Unlike previous years focused on hardware announcements like new iPhones or Vision Pro, WWDC 2025 is positioned as a software-centric showcase that could determine Apple's fate in the AI revolution.

Apple Intelligence: The Stumbling Block

Apple's AI journey has been rocky. Last year's much-hyped Apple Intelligence announcement has delivered disappointing results, revealing significant internal dysfunction around resource allocation, politics, and inter-departmental conflicts. This led to a major reorganization just months ago.

The criticism has been so intense that Apple recently announced it won't participate in the annual John Gruber show, a tradition since 2015. The narrative has crystallized around a simple question: Has Apple lost the AI war?

Reframing the AI Battle

But what does "winning" the AI war actually mean in 2025? The metrics are unclear:

• Market valuation?

• Model performance?

• AI application adoption?

• Technical benchmarks?

The reality is that the technological gap between different models—especially between proprietary and open-source versions—has never been narrower.

Today's AI competition is increasingly about token pricing and external perception rather than pure AI quality. All models are essentially neck-and-neck.

Apple's Hidden Advantage

While Apple Intelligence appears catastrophic from the outside, and Siri has failed to reinvent itself, there's a compelling counter-narrative: Apple's platforms represent the perfect ecosystem for AI development.

The combination of computational power, specifications, frameworks, and available libraries makes Apple's ecosystem exceptional for creating AI-powered experiences.

Companies like us demonstrate that revolutionary human-machine interactions are possible on Apple platforms—interactions that would be significantly degraded on Windows or Unix systems.

The Real Test: State of the Union

This year's most crucial presentation won't be the opening keynote but the State of the Union session on Monday afternoon (California time).

Industry observers expect Apple to unveil not just local AI models but comprehensive libraries that further reduce barriers for creating magical AI experiences that leverage local processing.

Looking Ahead

WWDC 2025 will reveal whether Apple can transform its AI narrative from defensive to offensive. Rather than competing on consumer AI features, Apple may be positioning itself as the premier platform for AI innovation—enabling third parties to create experiences impossible on other systems.

The question isn't whether Apple has lost the AI war, but whether they're fighting a different battle entirely: one focused on developer enablement, privacy-conscious AI, and platform superiority rather than headline-grabbing AI assistants.

Cheers,
Olivier

Modern Chaos explores the intersection of technology, business, and society in an age of rapid transformation. Subscribe for weekly insights on how AI and other emerging technologies are reshaping our world.

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