According to the New York Times, if you purchased an iPhone 16 or some iPhone 15 between June 2024 and March 2025, you may soon be eligible to receive a check of up to $95 per device as part of a class action lawsuit related to Apple Intelligence and Siri. The allegedly flawed Apple Intelligence features that were part of the suit originally shipped on the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max in June 2024. The Apple Intelligence-native iPhone 16 line shipped later that year.
On Tuesday, Apple settled claims over alleged false advertising in U.S. District Court in San Jose, California. The lawsuit argued that Apple led consumers to believe that the Apple Intelligence Suite was more capable than it actually was. The total settlement amount, which is still awaiting a judge’s approval, is $250 million.
Apple says it has done nothing wrong. Apple spokeswoman Marnie Goldberg provided a statement to the Times, claiming that beginning with “the launch of Apple Intelligence,” Apple has “introduced dozens of features in multiple languages that are integrated across Apple’s platforms,” and that the company “has resolved this matter by continuing to focus on what we do best, providing our users with the most innovative products and services.”
According to Axios, the lawsuit was “the fallout” from Apple’s admission last year that AI upgrades to Siri would not be released on schedule. A statement provided to Daring Fireball at the time said that Apple is “working on a more personalized Siri, which will give it greater awareness of your personal context, as well as the ability to take actions for you within your apps and for you,” but added, “Delivering these features will take longer than we thought and we expect to implement them in the coming year.”
The next day, it was reported that Apple had pulled an infamous ad starring Bella Ramsey:
The ad is a good summary of the “more personal” Siri concept that still hasn’t been realized. We see that Ramsey notices a man whose name he knows and should know, so he immediately asks Siri “What’s the name of the man I met with at Café Grenelle a few months ago?” It’s up to the viewer to assume that this advanced version of Siri is capable of using this prompt to, say, extract emails and respond correctly. It immediately replies, “You met Zach Wingate at Café Grenelle a few months ago.”
To put this class action settlement into context, Apple has been vigorously contending with Siri ever since — whether deservedly so or not — ChatGPIT created new consumer expectations for the AI-powered assistant. A portfolio manager named Brian Mulberry told the Wall Street Journal in February 2024, “AI is the thing that most investors are really excited about. Almost all the momentum in the market is being fueled by AI.”
So it was thought that the Apple Intelligence rollout would be late, but it seems it was too early – considering it was sued over it and settled for $250 million. In an interview with TechRadar after the smoke cleared about Siri’s poor performance last year, Apple software chief Craig Federighi explained that the company was working on a “version 2” of the new Siri, which would work in all the personalized ways consumers have come to expect, but Apple was no longer publicly offering a speculative release schedule for that version.
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