Apple has agreed to pay a collective $250 million to settle a class action lawsuit accusing the company of misleading buyers about its artificial intelligence features. Apple did not admit any wrongdoing as part of the deal, which was filed in California federal court.
The lawsuit, which consolidated multiple claims filed last year, accused Apple of false advertising around Apple Intelligence – the suite of AI features for iPhones that includes an enhanced version of its Siri voice assistant. Lawyers for the plaintiffs said that Apple "promoted AI capabilities that did not exist at the time, do not exist now, and will not exist for two or more years, if ever." The suit also alleged that Apple leaned into AI marketing specifically to keep pace in a race being driven by companies like OpenAI and Anthropic.
An Apple spokesperson said the lawsuit was focused on "the availability of two additional features" out of many released as part of Apple Intelligence. "We resolved this matter to stay focused on doing what we do best, delivering the most innovative products and services to our users," the spokesperson said.
Do you qualify, and how much will you get?
If you bought an iPhone 15 or iPhone 16 in the US between June 2024 and March 2025, you should be eligible for a payout. That window covers the stretch when Apple was heavily marketing Apple Intelligence as a key reason to upgrade.
Individual payouts range from $25 to $95 per qualifying buyer. The exact amount you receive will probably depend on what you bought and when. The specifics of how and when payments will actually go out haven't been fully laid out yet, so keep an eye out for updates from the settlement administrators.
Apple Intelligence has been a mixed bag
I think this settlement says a lot about the gap between AI marketing and AI reality right now. Apple Intelligence has not been particularly great so far. Siri is still pretty limited compared to what Google and Samsung are doing with their assistants, and the enhanced version Apple promised hasn't really arrived in any meaningful way yet.
That said, I actually think Apple is doing the right thing by not going all-in on AI just to keep up with everyone else. Going all out on half-baked features never ends well. The problem here is not that Apple is taking its time with AI. It's that the marketing got way ahead of what the product could actually deliver. Going lighter on the advertising would have probably kept thie lawsuit away from Apple
For iPhone buyers who felt misled by those promises, at least there is some money headed your way.
Read next: Google is paying out $700M to Android app buyers
[Image credit: Palash Volvoikar/Techlicious generated with Gemini]
