"AI" is Apple's "Voldemort"
Devindra HardawarThis is very Apple:
"How do you shorten Apple Intelligence?" That’s the question I’ve asked several Apple employees at WWDC 2024, and their practiced responses have become comically absurd.
“We just say Apple Intelligence,” they tell me. “Yah, but do you say that every time? The AI acronym is right there!” I’d retort. The usual response is a stiff smile and clenched teeth, like a human programming error in real-time. (Yes, I'm aware it's just overly aggressive media training in action.) One person suggested they also say "personal intelligence" — yes, a phrase that's longer than Apple Intelligence.
Back in my reporting days, I used to do something similar: try to get a random Apple employee at an event to say something – anything – outside of the talking points. It's like trying to get a Beefeater to laugh here in the UK. Doesn't happen. Anyone selected to be forward-facing at these events is going to stick to the script.1
And that script is "Apple Intelligence" through and through. Even though, as Hardawar notes, it's just begging to be shortened from the six syllable mouthful that it is. But going down to "AI" is far too generic. So I like his suggestion of "Apple AI", which is also in line of what I thought Microsoft should have gone with instead of the comically Microsoftian "Copilot+ PC" – how about just "Windows AI"? or "Microsoft AI"? Sometimes you don't have to overthink or overdo it.
One more thing: there's also seemingly some confusion of whether or not "Siri" can be synonymous with "Apple Intelligence". The answer, of course, is no. Siri is a product/service that is a part of the Apple Intelligence picture. Yes, the most forward-facing of the bunch, but not the whole enchilada.
1 Apple, of course, tried to do something similar in rebranding "VR" as "Spatial Computing". That was a bit easier to pull off though because "VR" itself is often vaguely bucketed in with "AR" and "XR" and the like, so Apple had more room to rebrand what they were doing in the space.