Amazon’s new Alexa has exposed the AI shortcomings of Apple, which is now at a make-or-break point. Also: An inside look at Tim Cook’s trade with President Donald Trump, the iPad Air sees shortages ahead of a pending refresh, and the M4 MacBook Air is about to launch. Plus, don’t expect Apple to drop its DEI effort anytime soon. Apple Inc., the company behind the Mac, iPhone, iPad and other groundbreaking products, has typically beaten rivals by following the hockey approach: skate to where the puck is going to be, rather than where it is right now. But we’re currently in the middle of the biggest technology revolution since the debut of the internet, and Apple is barely even on the ice. Welcome to Apple’s AI crisis. The company has been scrambling to catch up in generative artificial intelligence — the technology behind ChatGPT and other cutting-edge chatbots — but its rivals only seem to be getting further ahead. And now the unveiling of Amazon.com Inc.’s Alexa+ has made Apple’s shortcomings more apparent. It didn’t have to be this way. Apple got a head start on chatbots when it first unveiled the Siri digital assistant in 2011. But the company soon fell behind, and its efforts to beef up the software have taken longer than expected.

Full in-depth : A look at Apple’s AI crisis, as some in Apple’s AI division believe that a true conversational “LLM Siri” won’t be ready until iOS 20 at best in 2027