Intelligence not included | Riccardo Mori

Intelligence not included - Riccardo Mori

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Apple’s WWDC26 keynote last Monday felt… weird.

There are many flavours of weird, some with positive connotations. Quirky, for example. Quirky can be charming. It can be interesting. The flavour of weird I felt as I watched the keynote unfold, was inching more towards gross — sometimes subtly, sometimes not so subtly. Let me try to explain.

Especially in Cook’s era, and especially since Apple stopped presenting events live before an audience, with live demos of products and product functionalities, we’ve had to watch videos with either pre-recorded demos or with simulated ‘slice of life’ situations where you could see a certain feature or set of features in action. Such videos have always felt particularly artificial to me, always leaving me with the impression that people at Apple — both due to their social status and the Apple Park ‘ivory tower’ creative environment — don’t really have a clue as to how regular people go on about their lives.

During the WWDC keynote, this kind of detachment was (to me) painfully obvious both in the initial segment about children safety, and especially throughout the excruciatingly long segment about Apple Intelligence and Siri AI.

Children safety

I’m not an educator. I’m not a parent. I’m not in a position to tell people how they should properly educate their children or protect them from today’s dangers. However, based on observed behaviours, and having a certain knowledge and expertise when it comes to technology, I am of the opinion that children should not be given a smartphone in the first place. Of course, big tech companies such as Apple will present the smartphone as an inevitability to then offer you ‘solutions’ to mitigate the impact of this inevitability and develop ‘healthy digital habits’.

Just because we’ve all become obsessed with our smartphones doesn’t mean the next generations have to develop the same kind of behaviours. The smartphone isn’t an inevitability in a child’s life — its physical presence can be delayed and introduced when it’s necessary and safe to do so. This of course doesn’t mean keeping Internet and the online world a secret until your son or daughter turns 13, or 15, or 18, or whatever age you consider safe. But using a smartphone or tablet as a tool to keep your child entertained and pacified and as a shortcut to a lot of parental work is just as misguided.

But Apple prefers the inevitability scenario because it involves — you know — buying an extra iPhone or iPad for your household.

Apple guy, during the keynote:

On one hand, there’s so many benefits to your child having their own device. You rest easier, since you can stay in touch, know where they are, and provide them with great apps that help them learn and grow.

Note that, as the guy says “great apps that help them learn and grow”, the icons appearing on screen are for the apps Books, Notes, and Freeform. If you really want to put devices in the hands of your young children, you can stay in touch by giving them a dumbphone. And for reading, regular books or a simple ebook reader is enough and even provides fewer distractions. Deep focus is essential from a young age, and you can’t do that by shoving the digital equivalent of an amusement park in children’s faces.

To be clear, I’m not saying that these new ‘trust and safety’ features Apple touted are bad. But the whole discourse rings a bit hollow to me. It all sounds like a sales pitch to parents, as in, Feel free to get an iPhone and leave it in the hands of your children: we have put a lot of safeguards in place, so you don’t have to worry. And I’m sitting here, shaking my head, thinking about all the children I see when out and about, literally left to their own devices while their parents are doing other stuff, arguing among themselves, or doomscrolling on their own smartphones. I’ll reiterate: The first step to children’s safety is not giving a smartphone to a child. They won’t miss out on anything. You don’t need special skills to master the use of a smartphone that is essential you start using such device from a very young age. But it’s much better if a child starts learning another language or how to play an instrument if they’re musically inclined. Both these activities are highly beneficial the sooner you start them. Countless studies demonstrate this.

Apple Intelligence and Siri AI

This is how the segment on Apple Intelligence begins, with Craig Federighi saying:

AI is incredibly powerful technology, with the potential to shape society in profound ways and, with proper care, unlock meaningful benefits for people everywhere. Still, some appear to be racing forward, seemingly pursuing AI for the sake of AI, without clear regard for the people, all of us, that it’s ultimately meant to serve.

Keep these words in mind. He continues:

At Apple, our mission has always been to turn the potential of advanced...