On the one hand, I actually thought it was pretty refreshing to see a tech company keynote that wasn't wall-to-wall with just-so futuristic AI demos that will, if they ever arrive, inevitably be unreliable and finicky under real world usage. Apple has a pretty big opportunity to be a company that invests in its core product functionality and to add AI strategically where it makes sense, keeping its products performant and stable while everyone else sloppifies.

But I don't think they are consciously doing that. I assume like every other company they are throwing a lot of resources at the new hype and just failing, and this is the backup plan. I'm not sure what that says about the strategy at the top.