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Apple just needs to do SOMETHING exciting with AI. Vision Pro looks great, but it's only a small piece of a much larger puzzle. I'm not sure if they're just too

Apple just needs to do SOMETHING exciting with AI. Vision Pro looks great, but it's only a small piece of a much larger puzzle. I'm not sure if they're just too big to move at the speed they need to move or if it's something more damning about their internal culture but they need to do something in this space faster than I think most people realize.

iwontberude 3y ago
Or maybe they just need to survive long enough to see what is actually valuable in AI and not going to damn their company.
al_borland 3y ago
Apple is rarely first to release new tech. They watch and develop quietly in the lab, then release an implementation that everyone else seems to copy. So far their approach has been different, but their last keynote mentioned ML countless times. We can only assume they have more in the pipeline, and it will run locally on-device, which seems preferable to all the data collection being done with most companies working on AI.
- Eric_WVGG 3y ago
  Funny how we’re at the eve of Vision Pro coming to consumers, twelve years after the Oculus Rift. blah blah those who don't study history something whatever
- riley333 3y ago
  That's true, and Apple has the capital to do pretty much whatever they want. I just think as we've seen with Google/Gemini it doesn't seem that easy to beat what OpenAI has going even with a lot of money to throw behind it. And I don't think Tim Cook is that much of a visionary but that's just my personal opinion. I hope Apple does succeed though because I love their hardware and their silicon is great for AI applications.
  - al_borland 3y ago
    They don’t need to beat OpenAI if they plan to play a different game. The biggest question mark, like you mention, is how innovative can Apple be under Tim Cook? Are there systems and people in place to serve as those visionaries when the CEO is an operator at heart? I often wonder how much of what we’ve seen was in the pipeline when Jobs was still around, or is simply taken from what is popular in the moment vs having a vision for the future.
    - yunwal 3y ago
      Apple Pencil is an example of a nicely designed product that Steve Jobs almost certainly did not contribute to (he hated styluses).
      - al_borland 3y ago
        The 2nd gen Apple Pencil, which charged wirelessly, yes. The first one was an abomination and the latest release doesn’t seem much better.
      - ShadowBanThis01 3y ago
        That's sarcasm, right? Surely you're not lauding this asinine peripheral that is supposed to be jammed into a fragile port to recharge while sticking out like a chopstick waiting to be snapped off. Surely you're not lauding a near-useless gimmick that inexplicably doesn't work on the (defectively) giant trackpads of Apple's own computers... or most of their iPads.
        yunwal 3y ago
        Im referring to the 2nd gen, never really saw the first gen until now but the charging method now is quite nice. First gen still is no worse than first-gen Magic Mouse, which launched under jobs though. Which is my main point, I don’t think Jobs was solely responsible for apple’s focus on design > Near-useless gimmick Man, millions of procreate enthusiasts would beg to disagree > doesn’t work on the giant trackpads Does anyone who stops to think about this for more than 2 seconds actually want this? What would you use it for besides digital signatures? Writing-to-text is just barely usable on tablets, I can’t see it being viable when you can’t see what you’re writing.
vrc 3y ago
I'm just waiting for Siri to reliably set timers when I'm cooking. Between my watch and my phone, it's a damn nightmare to actually do the most basic thing with what should be a ubiquitous AI platform. They've had ages to make it better and some great minds in their employ, and yet they've really not done much. That said, if and when they do, they have immediate distribution and proof points to sell oodles more of their AI-enabled products and wearables...
- mft_ 3y ago
  Funny you raise that, as this is one of the very few tasks that Siri does do reliably for me :) (Along with just-about-good-enough speech-to-text, if I speak clearly, and checking on the weather outside.) -- But yes, totally agree with your underlying point about the huge opportunity that Apple is leaving on the table with their lackluster approach to Siri.
- dartharva 3y ago
  "A nightmare" really? For something as trivial as that? Why not just buy a physical timer then?
  - vrc 3y ago
    Well, when I’m doing something and I need a timer, especially cooking and my hands are occupied or dirty, rummaging for a timer to manually set makes no sense when I should have a voice assistant on my wrist/in earshot.
mr_toad 3y ago
They do lots of things with AI, it’s just that most of it is transparent to the user. Voice recognition, OCR, image classification, recommendation algorithms, FaceID etc. It’s all baked into the hardware or some other service. Apple is also mostly a consumer oriented business. I can’t see them selling AI as a stand alone service.
ShadowBanThis01 3y ago
The fact that you can't say WHAT Apple should do with AI is exactly the reason they shouldn't do shit. When you can state something concrete about Apple's products or services that can be improved with so-called "AI," let us know.

iwontberude 3y ago

Or maybe they just need to survive long enough to see what is actually valuable in AI and not going to damn their company.

al_borland 3y ago

Apple is rarely first to release new tech. They watch and develop quietly in the lab, then release an implementation that everyone else seems to copy. So far their approach has been different, but their last keynote mentioned ML countless times. We can only assume they have more in the pipeline, and it will run locally on-device, which seems preferable to all the data collection being done with most companies working on AI.

Eric_WVGG 3y ago
Funny how we’re at the eve of Vision Pro coming to consumers, twelve years after the Oculus Rift. blah blah those who don't study history something whatever
riley333 3y ago
That's true, and Apple has the capital to do pretty much whatever they want. I just think as we've seen with Google/Gemini it doesn't seem that easy to beat what OpenAI has going even with a lot of money to throw behind it. And I don't think Tim Cook is that much of a visionary but that's just my personal opinion. I hope Apple does succeed though because I love their hardware and their silicon is great for AI applications.
- al_borland 3y ago
  They don’t need to beat OpenAI if they plan to play a different game. The biggest question mark, like you mention, is how innovative can Apple be under Tim Cook? Are there systems and people in place to serve as those visionaries when the CEO is an operator at heart? I often wonder how much of what we’ve seen was in the pipeline when Jobs was still around, or is simply taken from what is popular in the moment vs having a vision for the future.
  - yunwal 3y ago
    Apple Pencil is an example of a nicely designed product that Steve Jobs almost certainly did not contribute to (he hated styluses).
    - al_borland 3y ago
      The 2nd gen Apple Pencil, which charged wirelessly, yes. The first one was an abomination and the latest release doesn’t seem much better.
    - ShadowBanThis01 3y ago
      That's sarcasm, right? Surely you're not lauding this asinine peripheral that is supposed to be jammed into a fragile port to recharge while sticking out like a chopstick waiting to be snapped off. Surely you're not lauding a near-useless gimmick that inexplicably doesn't work on the (defectively) giant trackpads of Apple's own computers... or most of their iPads.
      - yunwal 3y ago
        Im referring to the 2nd gen, never really saw the first gen until now but the charging method now is quite nice. First gen still is no worse than first-gen Magic Mouse, which launched under jobs though. Which is my main point, I don’t think Jobs was solely responsible for apple’s focus on design > Near-useless gimmick Man, millions of procreate enthusiasts would beg to disagree > doesn’t work on the giant trackpads Does anyone who stops to think about this for more than 2 seconds actually want this? What would you use it for besides digital signatures? Writing-to-text is just barely usable on tablets, I can’t see it being viable when you can’t see what you’re writing.

vrc 3y ago

I'm just waiting for Siri to reliably set timers when I'm cooking. Between my watch and my phone, it's a damn nightmare to actually do the most basic thing with what should be a ubiquitous AI platform. They've had ages to make it better and some great minds in their employ, and yet they've really not done much. That said, if and when they do, they have immediate distribution and proof points to sell oodles more of their AI-enabled products and wearables...

mft_ 3y ago
Funny you raise that, as this is one of the very few tasks that Siri does do reliably for me :) (Along with just-about-good-enough speech-to-text, if I speak clearly, and checking on the weather outside.) -- But yes, totally agree with your underlying point about the huge opportunity that Apple is leaving on the table with their lackluster approach to Siri.
dartharva 3y ago
"A nightmare" really? For something as trivial as that? Why not just buy a physical timer then?
- vrc 3y ago
  Well, when I’m doing something and I need a timer, especially cooking and my hands are occupied or dirty, rummaging for a timer to manually set makes no sense when I should have a voice assistant on my wrist/in earshot.

mr_toad 3y ago

They do lots of things with AI, it’s just that most of it is transparent to the user. Voice recognition, OCR, image classification, recommendation algorithms, FaceID etc. It’s all baked into the hardware or some other service. Apple is also mostly a consumer oriented business. I can’t see them selling AI as a stand alone service.

ShadowBanThis01 3y ago

The fact that you can't say WHAT Apple should do with AI is exactly the reason they shouldn't do shit. When you can state something concrete about Apple's products or services that can be improved with so-called "AI," let us know.