Apple appears to be having the development team for its artificial intelligence (AI) voice assistant "Siri" retake coding courses.
The Information, a U.S. information technology (IT) news outlet, reported on the 15th (local time), citing multiple sources, that Apple plans to send hundreds of Siri developers to a weeks-long boot camp for coding with AI.
The Information interpreted the move as stemming from assessments that the Siri development team had fallen behind in coding skills that use AI tools such as Anthropic's Claude Code and OpenAI's Codex.
The Information also said the Siri development team is reputed to be overly large and riven by internal conflict.
Accordingly, the organization is expected to shrink in size. After this personnel reshuffle, only about 60 people will remain on Siri's core development team, with around 60 also staying on the team that evaluates Siri's performance.
This restructuring comes just two months before Apple is set to announce a sweeping revamp of the Siri service at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC).
Apple is currently seen as lagging in the AI race against other major technology corporations.
On 2024, it tried to dispel that perception by releasing an improved version of Siri along with the "Apple Intelligence" service, but there have been no standout results yet. The Siri upgrade released two years ago still has not been implemented as an actual service.
Apple also took personnel actions, effectively dismissing Senior Vice President John Giannandrea, who had overseen the Siri organization, and having Mike Rockwell lead the team.
At this year's WWDC, scheduled for June, Apple is expected to unveil a new Siri powered by Google's AI model "Gemini," instead of its own AI model. The industry also expects Apple to showcase a chatbot-style version of Siri similar to ChatGPT at this WWDC.