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Steve Jobs introduced Siri with the iPhone 4S on October 4, 2011; Jobs died two…

2026-05-12 · 13:59 UTC ·@girdley ·1 min read

Brief

Siri was unveiled October 4, 2011 as a flagship iPhone 4S feature—two days before Steve Jobs’s death—and, according to the author, has become a 2026 punchline many users disable. The new video argues Apple deliberately underinvested in AI while rivals (Microsoft, Google, Meta, OpenAI) pour $30–$50 billion annually into AI, explaining Siri’s decline.

Why it matters

Steve Jobs introduced Siri with the iPhone 4S on October 4, 2011; Jobs died two days later on October 6, 2011.

Key details

  • By 2026 the author says Siri is widely seen as a punchline and many users (including the author) disable it because it “works so poorly.”
  • The author argues Apple deliberately underinvested in AI—while Microsoft, Google, Meta and OpenAI are spending roughly $30–$50 billion per year on AI, Apple has spent relatively little, causing Siri to fall behind.
Source evidence

NEW LONG FORM VIDEO: Siri was terrible, and Apple wanted it that way

So back on October 4, 2011, Steve Jobs took the stage for Apple one final time and introduced the iPhone 4S. Alongside it came a new feature that he described as the future of computing: Siri.

The idea was revolutionary. You would talk to your phone naturally. It would learn your preferences, answer questions, and act as a personal assistant living inside your device.
Two days later, Steve Jobs died.

Fast forward 13 years to 2026, and Siri has become something of a punchline. Many people, myself included, have turned it off entirely because it works so poorly.

Meanwhile, every major tech company is spending tens of billions of dollars trying to win the AI race that Apple arguably started back in 2011. Companies like Microsoft, Google, Meta, and OpenAI are pouring $30, $40, even $50 billion a year into artificial intelligence.

But here’s the strange part: while everyone else is racing ahead, Apple has spent relatively little on AI. So how did the company that introduced the world to mainstream voice assistants end up falling so far behind?

This is the rise and fall of Siri.

Video