Apple AI troubles continue, sued by shareholders over Apple Intelligence and Siri delays; here's what lawsuit claims

Apple
is facing a proposed securities fraud class action lawsuit from its shareholders, a report claims. According to a report by the news agency Reuters, the lawsuit claims that the Cupertino-based tech giant understated the time required to integrate advanced artificial intelligence into its Siri voice assistant, which caused a delay in rolling out these features and has allegedly harmed iPhone sales and Apple's stock price. The complaint covers shareholders who experienced significant losses in the year leading up to early June, when Apple introduced new product features but limited AI advancements. The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco federal court, names Apple, CEO
Tim Cook
, CFO Kevan Parekh, and former CFO Luca Maestri as defendants.
What the Apple shareholders' lawsuit against the company claims
As per the Reuters report, a group of shareholders led by Eric Tucker has alleged that Apple misled investors during its June 2024 Worldwide Developers Conference by suggesting that AI would be a key selling point for the upcoming iPhone 16, particularly through its
Apple Intelligence
features aimed at enhancing Siri.
However, the lawsuit claims Apple did not have a working prototype of the AI-based Siri upgrades and had no reasonable basis to believe the features would be ready in time for the iPhone 16 launch.
Apple shareholders have argued that concerns started to surface in March, when the company postponed some Siri improvements to 2026, the Reuters report notes.
The issue continued into Apple's WWDC developer event in June, where the company's update on its AI progress fell short of analyst expectations.
Since its peak in December 2024, Apple's share value has dropped by nearly 25%, resulting in an estimated $900 billion decline in the company's market capitalisation, the report adds.
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Hindustan Times

11 minutes ago

• Hindustan Times

Matter Motor targets mid-segment riders with EV motorcycles and a tiered product strategy

Matter's first offering, the Aera, which was launched in 2025 is the country's first geared electric motorcycle priced between ₹1.83 and ₹1.94 lakh, ex-showroom Check Offers In a market dominated by electric scooters and price-point dynamics, Ahmedabad-based startup Matter is making a different bet. Rather than chase scale through subsidies or simplified platforms, the company is building what it calls a true electric motorcycle, designed not as a scooter in disguise but as a viable alternative to the country's vast 125–180cc ICE segment. The decision to focus on motorcycles is not without risk. This is a segment where electric adoption still hovers below 1 per cent, and where product complexity—from drivetrain demands to thermal management—is considerably higher than that of scooters. But for Matter, that's precisely the opportunity. As Founder and CEO Mohal Lalbhai told HT Auto, 'Motorcycles are the SUVs of the two-wheeler world. They need torque, control, and thermal stability. You can't get away with oversimplification here." Product pipeline Matter's first offering, the Aera, which was launched in 2025 is the country's first geared electric motorcycle priced between ₹ 1.83 and ₹ 1.94 lakh, ex-showroom. But the broader roadmap is more layered. While the Aera is said to be comparable to a 180cc internal combustion motorcycle which is typically priced between ₹ 1.60 lakh to around ₹ 2.10 lakh, ex-showroom, a 150cc ICE-equivalent electric motorcycle is scheduled for launch in late 2026, followed by a 125cc model in 2027. The latter is expected to coincide with BS7 emission norms, which are likely to push ICE prices up and narrow the cost differential with EVs. Also Read : 2024 Matter Aera electric motorcycle first ride review: Game changer? Both new products will retain Matter's key engineering principles: manual gearboxes, liquid-cooled batteries, and segment-specific torque tuning. The aim is to avoid the feature inflation common in the EV market and instead meet core commuter expectations—durability, control, and manageable running costs. In parallel, a second motorcycle platform—based on battery swapping architecture—is also in development. It is aimed at cost-sensitive commuter segments but won't be ready for commercial deployment until 2028 or later. Matter is currently evaluating user safety, pack stability, and mechanical integration before scaling this format. Retail Footprint: Slow rollout by design Matter's retail presence has so far been modest, focused on Ahmedabad. But in 2024, the company began expanding into Delhi, Pune, Bengaluru, and Jaipur, with a target of around 50 outlets by year-end. This includes both sales and service support, an area where many EV startups have lagged. The expansion is phased. West and South India are being prioritised in the current cycle, with North India expected to follow around early 2025, timed around Holi. Rather than aiming for rapid dealership proliferation, the company appears to be validating product-market fit and ensuring aftersales support before chasing wider volume. Also watch: Matter Aera 5000+ review: Can India's first geared electric motorcycle be a gamechanger? Meanwhile on the global scale, by 2026 Matter plans to begin exports to Southern and Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, and select African markets. These regions have varying degrees of EV readiness, but Matter is conducting early feasibility and homologation studies to align with each market's regulatory environment and customer expectations. What's notable is that these export plans are tied to the motorcycle format—Matter does not currently operate in the scooter space and does not appear to have short-term plans to enter it. Capital, profitability and scale questions Since its founding in 2017, Matter has invested ₹ 600 crore—largely in drivetrain engineering, thermal systems, and battery R&D. Over the next three years, an additional ₹ 1,500–1,600 crore is planned to support product expansion, retail growth, and manufacturing scale-up. The company is targeting EBITDA-level profitability within this investment cycle, though much depends on how quickly motorcycle EV adoption grows and whether the upcoming 125cc and 150cc models can hit volume targets without heavy incentive dependency. Matter had originally projected ₹ 1,000 crore (approximately $1 billion) in sales by 2025. That number has now been pushed back by five to six years, a recalibration driven by supply chain challenges, product maturity timelines, and a deliberate decision to launch once the company's internal benchmarks—not market pressure—were met. 'The delay is not because we didn't have a market," said Lalbhai. 'It's because we weren't going to launch a product until it was ready." Check out Upcoming EV Bikes in India. First Published Date: 22 Jun 2025, 10:00 AM IST

Indian Express

16 minutes ago

• Indian Express

Europeans seek ‘digital sovereignty' as US tech firms embrace Trump

At a market stall in Berlin run by charity Topio, volunteers help people who want to purge their phones of the influence of U.S. tech firms. Since Donald Trump's inauguration, the queue for their services has grown. Interest in European-based digital services has jumped in recent months, data from digital market intelligence company Similarweb shows. More people are looking for e-mail, messaging and even search providers outside the United States. The first months of Trump's second presidency have shaken some Europeans' confidence in their long-time ally, after he signalled his country would step back from its role in Europe's security and then launched a trade war. 'It's about the concentration of power in U.S. firms,' said Topio's founder Michael Wirths, as his colleague installed on a customer's phone a version of the Android operating system without hooks into the Google ecosystem. Wirths said the type of people coming to the stall had changed: 'Before, it was people who knew a lot about data privacy. Now it's people who are politically aware and feel exposed.' Tesla chief Elon Musk, who also owns social media company X, was a leading adviser to the U.S. president before the two fell out, while the bosses of Amazon, Meta and Google-owner Alphabet took prominent spots at Trump's inauguration in January. Days before Trump took office, outgoing president Joe Biden had warned of an oligarchic 'tech industrial complex' threatening democracy. Berlin-based search engine Ecosia says it has benefited from some customers' desire to avoid U.S. counterparts like Microsoft's Bing or Google, which dominates web searches and is also the world's biggest email provider. 'The worse it gets, the better it is for us,' founder Christian Kroll said of Ecosia, whose sales pitch is that it spends its profits on environmental projects. Similarweb data shows the number of queries directed to Ecosia from the European Union has risen 27% year-on-year and the company says it has 1% of the German search engine market. But its 122 million visits from the 27 EU countries in February were dwarfed by 10.3 billion visits to Google, whose parent Alphabet made revenues of about $100 billion from Europe, the Middle East and Africa in 2024 – nearly a third of its $350 billion global turnover. Non-profit Ecosia earned 3.2 million euros ($3.65 million) in April, of which 770,000 euros was spent on planting 1.1 million trees. Google declined to comment for this story. Reuters could not determine whether major U.S. tech companies have lost any market share to local rivals in Europe. The search for alternative providers accompanies a debate in Europe about 'digital sovereignty' – the idea that reliance on companies from an increasingly isolationist United States is a threat to Europe's economy and security. 'Ordinary people, the kind of people who would never have thought it was important they were using an American service are saying, 'hang on!',' said UK-based internet regulation expert Maria Farrell. 'My hairdresser was asking me what she should switch to.' Use in Europe of Swiss-based ProtonMail rose 11.7% year-on-year to March compared to a year ago, according to Similarweb, while use of Alphabet's Gmail, which has some 70% of the global email market, slipped 1.9%. ProtonMail, which offers both free and paid-for services, said it had seen an increase in users from Europe since Trump's re-election, though it declined to give a number. 'My household is definitely disengaging,' said British software engineer Ken Tindell, citing weak U.S. data privacy protections as one factor. Trump's vice president JD Vance shocked European leaders in February by accusing them – at a conference usually known for displays of transatlantic unity – of censoring free speech and failing to control immigration. In May, Secretary of State Marco Rubio threatened visa bans for people who 'censor' speech by Americans, including on social media, and suggested the policy could target foreign officials regulating U.S. tech companies. U.S. social media companies like Facebook and Instagram parent Meta have said the European Union's Digital Services Act amounts to censorship of their platforms. EU officials say the Act will make the online environment safer by compelling tech giants to tackle illegal content, including hate speech and child sexual abuse material. Greg Nojeim, director of the Security and Surveillance Project at the Center for Democracy & Technology, said Europeans' concerns about the U.S. government accessing their data, whether stored on devices or in the cloud, were justified. Not only does U.S. law permit the government to search devices of anyone entering the country, it can compel disclosure of data that Europeans outside the U.S. store or transmit through U.S. communications service providers, Nojeim said. Germany's new government is itself making efforts to reduce exposure to U.S. tech, committing in its coalition agreement to make more use of open-source data formats and locally-based cloud infrastructure. Regional governments have gone further – in conservative-run Schleswig-Holstein, on the Danish border, all IT used by the public administration must run on open-source software. Berlin has also paid for Ukraine to access a satellite-internet network operated by France's Eutelsat instead of Musk's Starlink. But with modern life driven by technology, 'completely divorcing U.S. tech in a very fundamental way is, I would say, possibly not possible,' said Bill Budington of U.S. digital rights nonprofit the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Everything from push notifications to the content delivery networks powering many websites and how internet traffic is routed relies largely on U.S. companies and infrastructure, Budington noted. Both Ecosia and French-based search engine Qwant depend in part on search results provided by Google and Microsoft's Bing, while Ecosia runs on cloud platforms, some hosted by the very same tech giants it promises an escape from. Nevertheless, a group on messaging board Reddit called BuyFromEU has 211,000 members. 'Just cancelled my Dropbox and will switch to Proton Drive,' read one post. Mastodon, a decentralised social media service developed by German programmer Eugen Rochko, enjoyed a rush of new users two years ago when Musk bought Twitter, later renamed X. But it remains a niche service. Signal, a messaging app run by a U.S. nonprofit foundation, has also seen a surge in installations from Europe. Similarweb's data showed a 7% month-on-month increase in Signal usage in March, while use of Meta's WhatsApp was static. Meta declined to comment for this story. Signal did not respond to an e-mailed request for comment. But this kind of conscious self-organising is unlikely on its own to make a dent in Silicon Valley's European dominance, digital rights activist Robin Berjon told Reuters. 'The market is too captured,' he said. 'Regulation is needed as well.'

Indian Express

an hour ago

• Indian Express

Can AI quicken the pace of math discovery?

Artificial intelligence can write a poem in the style of Walt Whitman, provide dating advice and suggest the best way to cook an artichoke. But when it comes to mathematics, large language models like OpenAI's immensely popular ChatGPT have sometimes stumbled over basic problems. Some see this as an inherent limitation of the technology, especially when it comes to complex reasoning. A new initiative from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency seeks to account for that shortfall by enlisting researchers in finding ways to conduct high-level mathematics research with an AI 'co-author.' The goal of the new grant-making program, Exponentiating Mathematics, is to speed up the pace of progress in pure (as opposed to applied) math — and, in doing so, to turn AI into a superlative mathematician. 'Mathematics is this great test bed for what is right now the key pain point for AI systems,' said Patrick Shafto, a Rutgers University mathematician and computer scientist who now serves as a program manager in DARPA's information innovation office, known as I20. 'So if we overcome that, potentially, it would unleash much more powerful AI.' He added, 'There's huge potential benefit to the community of mathematicians and to society at large.' Shafto spoke from his office at DARPA's headquarters, an anonymous building in northern Virginia whose facade of bluish glass gives little indication that it houses one of the most unusual agencies in the federal government. Inside the building's airy lobby, visitors surrender their cellphones. Near a bank of chairs, a glass display shows a prosthetic arm that can be controlled by the wearer's brain signals. 'By improving mathematics, we're also understanding how AI works better,' said Alondra Nelson, who served as a top science adviser in President Joe Biden's administration and is a faculty member at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. 'So I think it's kind of a virtuous cycle of understanding.' She suggested that, down the road, math-adept AI could enhance cryptography and aid in space exploration. Started after World War II to compete with the Soviet Union in the space race, DARPA is most famous for fostering the research that led to the creation of ARPANET, the precursor to the internet we use today. At the agency's small gift store, which is not accessible to the public, one can buy replicas of a cocktail napkin on which someone sketched out the rudimentary state of computer networks in 1969. DARPA later funded the research that gave rise to drones and Apple's digital assistant, Siri. But it is also responsible for the development of Agent Orange, the potent defoliant used to devastating effect during the Vietnam War. 'I'm sure this isn't 100% innocent,' Andrew Granville, a mathematician at the University of Montreal, said of DARPA's math initiative, although he emphasized that he was only speculating about eventual outcomes. DARPA is, after all, part of the Pentagon, even if it has traditionally operated with enviable independence. The U.S. military is rapidly incorporating AI into its operations, with the aim of not losing out to China and its People's Liberation Army or to Russia, which has been testing out new technologies on the battlefield in Ukraine. At the same time, Granville praised the endeavor, which comes as the Trump administration is cutting funding for scientific research. 'We are in disastrous times for U.S. science,' Granville said. 'I'm very pleased that DARPA is able to funnel money to academia.' A surfer and skateboarder in his free time, Shafto, 49, sat in a sparse conference room one recent afternoon, imagining a future when AI would be as good at solving multistep problems as it is at trying to glean meaning from huge troves of texts, which it does through the use of probability theory. Despite the unseasonably raw weather, Shafto seemed dressed for the beach in a blue-and-white Hawaiian-style shirt, white flannel trousers and sandals, with a trilby hat on the table before him. His vibe was, on the whole, decidedly closer to that of Santa Cruz than of Capitol Hill, largely in keeping with DARPA's traditional disregard for the capital's slow, bureaucratic pace. (The agency sets priorities and funds outside scientists but does not do research on its own; academics like Shafto spend an average of four years as program managers.) 'There are great mathematicians who work on age-old problems,' Shafto said. 'That's not the kind of thing that I'm particularly interested in.' Instead, he wanted the discipline to move more quickly by using AI to save time. 'Problems in mathematics take decades or centuries, sometimes, to solve,' he said in a recent presentation at DARPA's headquarters on the Exponentiating Mathematics project, which is accepting applications through mid-July. He then shared a slide showing that, in terms of the number of papers published, math had stagnated during the last century while life and technical sciences had exploded. In case the point wasn't clear, the slide's heading drove it home: 'Math is sloooowwww. …' The kind of pure math Shafto wants to accelerate tends to be 'sloooowwww' because it is not seeking numerical solutions to concrete problems, the way applied mathematics does. Instead, pure math is the heady domain of visionary theoreticians who make audacious observations about how the world works, which are promptly scrutinized (and sometimes torn apart) by their peers. 'Proof is king,' Granville said. Math proofs consist of multiple building blocks called lemmas, minor theorems employed to prove bigger ones. Whether each Jenga tower of lemmas can maintain integrity in the face of intense scrutiny is precisely what makes pure math such a 'long and laborious process,' acknowledged Bryna R. Kra, a mathematician at Northwestern University. 'All of math builds on previous math, so you can't really prove new things if you don't understand how to prove the old things,' she said. 'To be a research mathematician, the current practice is that you go through every step, you prove every single detail.' Lean, a software-based proof assistant, can speed up the process, but Granville said it was 'annoying, because it has its own protocols and language,' requiring programming expertise. 'We need to have a much better way of communication,' he added. Could artificial intelligence save the day? That's the hope, according to Shafto. An AI model that could reliably check proofs would save enormous amounts of time, freeing mathematicians to be more creative. 'The constancy of math coincides with the fact that we practice math more or less the same: still people standing at a chalkboard,' Shafto said. 'It's hard not to draw the correlation and say, 'Well, you know, maybe if we had better tools, that would change progress.'' AI would benefit, too, Shafto and others believe. Large language models like ChatGPT can scour the digitized storehouses of human knowledge to produce a half-convincing college essay on the Russian Revolution. But thinking through the many intricate steps of a mathematical problem remains elusive. 'I think we'll learn a lot about what the capabilities of various AI protocols are from how well we can get them to generate material that's of interest,' said Jordan S. Ellenberg, a mathematician at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who is part of a team applying for an Exponentiating Mathematics grant. 'We have no intuition yet about which problems are going to be hard and which problems are easy. We need to learn that.' One of the more disconcerting truths about artificial intelligence is that we do not entirely understand how it works. 'This lack of understanding is essentially unprecedented in the history of technology,' Dario Amodei, CEO of the artificial intelligence company Anthropic, wrote in a recent essay. Ellenberg somewhat downplayed that assertion, pointing out that electricity was widely used before its properties were fully understood. Then again, with some AI experts worrying that artificial intelligence could destroy the world, any clarity into its operations tends to be welcome. Nelson, the former White House adviser, acknowledged 'legitimate' concerns about the rapid pace at which artificial intelligence is being integrated into seemingly every sector of society. All the more reason, she argued, to have DARPA on the case. 'There's a much higher benchmark that needs to be reached than whether or not your chatbot is hallucinating if you ask it a question about Shakespeare,' she said. 'The stakes are much higher.'