How Apple Intelligence became Apple's biggest humiliation

Alas poor Siri. Apple's AI virtual assistant has had a rough few years. Initially falling behind in the voice assistant race to the likes of Amazon and Google, Siri then becoming the subject of Apple's most botched software rollout ever. An improved Siri was promised to launch with Apple Intelligence in 2024 – but two years later she's still missing in action. And now Apple has agreed to pay a $250M settlement over claims it misled buyers.

Apple Intelligence was touted by Apple as a major reason to upgrade to the iPhone 15 Pro and subsequently the iPhone 16 line up. The tagline "Made for Apple Intelligence" appeared across tons of marketing materials, and ads appeared (then disappeared) promoting the new, more helpful Siri.

iPhone ad thumbnail with the title 'More personal Siri' — Apple launched, then pulled, several ads about the improved Siri (Image credit: Apple)

Plaintiffs accused Apple of "falsely touting" the features throughout 2024 and 2025, and as a result, Apple has agreed to pay the huge settlement covering iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 devices bought in the US from 10 June 2024 to 29 March 2025.

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In a curt statement to Financial Times, Apple said, "We resolved this matter to stay focused on what we do best: delivering the most innovative products and services to our users."

But that focus clearly lapsed when it came to Apple Intelligence, and the settlement marks another blow for Apple in what has become an increasingly ugly and embarrassing debacle for Apple over the last two years, one that has reportedly caused no shortage of discord within the company.

Tim Cook holding an iPhone — The debacle will forever be a stain on the Tim Cook era (Image credit: Getty Images)

Indeed, this was a rare instance of Apple advertising something that quite simple didn't exist. "A rare marketing mistake by Apple. Delays be damned, don’t advertise what’s not ready," one Reddit user commented on the news of the settlement, while another added, "The more I read this, the more I feel like Apple got off easy here. The Siri/AI pitch was THE ENTIRE marketing campaign for a year or two there. They never even got close."

With the unprecedented success of the MacBook Neo, renewed advertising vigour and, of course, a new CEO about to take the reigns, the future's looking pretty bright for Apple. But Siri's failure to launch will always be remembered as one of the darkest blots on the company's copybook in recent years.

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Daniel John is Design Editor at Creative Bloq. He reports on the worlds of design, branding and lifestyle tech, and has covered several industry events including Milan Design Week, OFFF Barcelona and Adobe Max in Los Angeles. He has interviewed leaders and designers at brands including Apple, Microsoft and Adobe. Daniel's debut book of short stories and poems was published in 2018, and his comedy newsletter is a Substack Bestseller.