Developers Can't Get Excited About Apple's AI Efforts

Imagine if Microsoft had this event - "A brand new visual system that is translucent, a tiny on-device model, and a desktop mode to tablet" people would have been writing them off.

Apple gets a ton of slack here, but it is amazing to see the mental gymnastics some of the enthusiasts are going through. They truly want to believe, when there's nothing to see or believe.

I'd guess Apple purposely didn't make a big deal about it at WWDC because they know their stuff isn't that exceptional compared to cutting-edge models.

Today's WWDC proves they are still way behind.

Some developers feel ambivalent about the artificial-intelligence releases coming out of Apple’s annual developer gathering—a far cry from when WWDC was tech’s main event. Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference Monday showcased a range of new offerings related to artificial intelligence. But the feeling among some third-party app developers is tepid at best.

As the tech industry chases AI-driven innovations at breakneck speed, Apple’s AI moves have been slow and underwhelming, especially compared with the vision it promised. And developers don’t feel that this year’s WWDC releases, which include access to Apple’s small, on-device AI models, will meaningfully change that.

“As an app developer, I’ve not really felt the intensity of excitement around what Apple is releasing,” said Atul Kakkar, chief product officer of AI-powered personal finance app Origin.

The annual WWDC event was once, arguably, tech’s buzziest affair—in its heyday selling out in about 71 seconds. Now it’s shrouded in skepticism that Apple can keep pace with the AI giants.

The company is under pressure to both continually update its AI tools for developers as well as build out the consumer experience encapsulated in Apple Intelligence, still a work in progress.

“What Apple is doing is interesting; it’s just not interesting enough to break through the noise,” said Grant McDonald, chief executive and co-founder of AI-powered parenting advice app Bobo. Time for a reboot? Apple has time to catch up. The iPhone remains a key distribution platform for users to interact with popular AI chatbots such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude. But it is unclear how much time—especially since OpenAI itself is making moves to enter the hardware market.

Apple is also contending with an increasingly tenuous relationship with its app developers. That came to a head in a recent ruling in a lawsuit filed by Epic Games that determined app makers will now be able to take users outside of Apple’s App Store to collect payments, avoiding Apple’s standard commission fees for in-app transactions.

In a statement, Apple noted: “As we’ve said before, we strongly disagree with the district court’s opinion. Our goal is to ensure the App Store remains an incredible opportunity for developers and a safe and trusted experience for our users.”

Developers say they have no alternative that offers the same kind of reach as the App Store, but that may not be the case forever. There is growing sentiment in the U.S. to implement a regulation similar to the one in Europe, which requires Apple and Google to support third-party app stores. If that comes to fruition, it could be a threat to the App Store, said Ian Tang, an analyst at policy-risk advisory firm Capstone.

“There is certainly pressure for Apple to prove the value they offer,” said Tang.