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How Apple Fell Behind in the AI Arms Race
- airstrike 2y agohttps://archive.is/KFhWD https://archive.is/KFhWD
- bookofjoe 2y agohttps://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/apple-ai-siri-development-behind-9ea65ee8?st=whg7z4ch9380wju&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/apple-ai-siri-development-behind...
- threeseed 2y ago6% of smartphone buyers said AI was the key reason behind their choice: https://www.kantar.com/inspiration/technology/consumers-embrace-artificial-intelligence-in-the-smartphone-market https://www.kantar.com/inspiration/technology/consumers-embr... Even when AI is expected to be littered through the next OS update previewed in 3 days I imagine it's going to be interesting but largely inconsequential in the long term.
- Legend2440 2y agoThis comment has “no one wants a phone with a touchscreen” vibes.
- threeseed 2y agoNo it's simply reinforcing that the hype with AI is not matching reality on the ground. It may offer better photos, better Siri, better translation etc but not enough to move product. At some point there needs to be compelling, innovative use cases.
- Legend2440 2y agoI'm having a ton of fun with midjourney, this magic box that makes whatever image you want is pretty compelling to me.
- jonplackett 2y agoYeah I’m so confused by people saying there are no use cases for AI. I use AI so much every single day for research, making code, helping generate ideas, helping to plan, extracting data from messy sources, honestly I could think of hundreds of uses for AI that I would pay for. The one thing is though - does this need to be something Apple sells? I like my iPhone for the hardware. I don’t care if they don’t make all the software.
- threeseed 2y agoNo one has ever said there are no use cases for AI. And it's unquestionably been useful in certain niches e.g. research, image generation. But that's very different from it transforming everyone's lives like the hype suggests.
- Legend2440 2y agoWhat hype? All I see is cynicism - in the news, on reddit, on here, etc
- jonplackett 2y agoThe future is already here, it’s just not widely distributed. People will catch on to the useful things it can do for them soon enough.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- basil-rash 2y agoI ask Siri to skip the current track sometimes, because my $600 airpods max couldn’t be bothered to make their buttons configurable. That’s about the only time I use or want to use “AI” on my phone ever – and I wish I didn’t have to do even that. Edit: hot damn I just learned double clicking the crown skips the track, later Siri!
- daseiner1 2y agoDouble click the digital crown, no?
- basil-rash 2y agoAh! Coulda sworn I tried that… thanks! Weird that its not listed in the settings menu with all the other shortcuts.
- recursive 2y agoLadies and gentlemen, behold the famous Apple user experience.
- daseiner1 2y agoDouble click to skip, triple click to track back on a primary button has been the standard headphone input for at least 15 years…
- recursive 2y agoAnd we're only finding out now...
- lurking_swe 2y agoIt explains this to the user (with graphics!) the first time you connect them to your phone, in a large modal pop-up. Some people just can’t be bothered read.
- 23B1 2y agoSiri is absolute trash and I wonder how much brand equity they've burned. My homepod is collecting dust.
- DenisM 2y agoIt could be like Maps - very rudimentary at first, much better later. I’m sure they are working on it around the clock.
- yreg 2y agoSiri is 12 years old now and it never caught up, so I wouldn't give it much benefit of the doubt. Except: With LLMs the race has recently basically restarted. I hope Apple does better in this round.
- wtallis 2y agoSiri has been out longer than Apple Maps. It can at best follow a very stretched-out version of the timeline Apple Maps followed.
- darby_nine 2y agoTbf all the other voice assistants are equally useless and it's not because any of them are incapable of taking advantage of a smartphone's functionality (like, say, editing text).
- jonplackett 2y agoI think they must be working on something good just because Siri is still so bad. It hasn’t had a proper update in years and even whatever update that was didn’t change anything. There’s no way they’d leave it to get this bad unless they’re working on a complete replacement. I hope they don’t even call it Siri. Siri should be left to die like it deserves.
- Legend2440 2y agoReally nothing interesting in this article, just what everyone already knew - Apple didn’t invent LLMs, but the next version of Siri will be powered by one.
- menacingly 2y agoApple isn't behind on AI any more than they were behind on cloud storage. It doesn't matter when, it doesn't matter if it isn't SOTA, I don't know how many different ways I can word that they have your data. Google has your data. model-as-service companies can have all the features they want, their models can't do anything meaningful without the data Apple, MS, Google have. Apple is at zero risk that someone else will have your notes, entire app library with data, mail, calendar, messages. They hold so much leverage. Even if you use some other (so far nonexistent) secret all-model, what are you going to access it with?
- candiddevmike 2y agoApple doesn't have an answer for creating GenAI content, yet makes most of their money selling products for creatives. You could argue they're "doing it for the little guy" by not adding it, but their creative software needs GenAI features to stay competitive.
- thfuran 2y ago>yet makes most of their money selling products for creatives Do they actually?
- menacingly 2y agoif you frame "a creative" as people who select an emoji
- menacingly 2y agoThat's certainly one of the available takes. Mine is that I'd need something other than some exuberant posts to think that's market essential at this point. Either it becomes an essential part of workflows, in which case it becomes commoditized and we're worried about whether or not they'll someday support the mouse, or it's hype and it doesn't matter if/when they implement it
- rglover 2y ago> their creative software needs GenAI features to stay competitive. They're not interested in staying competitive. It's not in their blood. They define markets and dominate them. If there's even a whiff of Jobs-era thinking left at the company, they're working on something that will make all of the "competition" irrelevant. Even if it takes them a few years. Do I expect it? No, but the last thing they'll do is chase the crowd/tulip mania.
- rebolek 2y agoAI is corporate circle jerk and aknowledgement to how much they are disconnected with their customers.
- gleenn 2y agoHow did Apple fall behind exactly? This article is very negative and yet very sparse on details particularly given Apple hasn't even had the event in only a few days. Seems like you would reserve judgement. If you look at Google Home amd Alexa, they may do some things better but they also do many things very poorly. I hardly think Apple has fallen behind in a substantive way and this article adds zero color to say otherwise.
- thefourthchime 2y agoI think it’s somewhat antithetical for Apple to develop a state-of-the-art AI because it requires so much data. One of the pillars of Apple marketing is that they don’t collect or sell your data. I consider Apple to be a hardware company first—they give me a thing, I give them money. That’s it. Yes, the software makes up the ecosystem and features, but I’m paying for a tangible product, and they’re not selling me. I think this ethos is a significant part of why they have become as successful as they are.
- Tagbert 2y agoWeb answerbots require massive amounts of data. An LLM that handles useful tasks on device mainly needs a language model and data about apps, APIs, and services on device. I want the latter, not the former.
- yreg 2y agoA bit trigger-happy to publish this just a few days ahead of Apple's annual developer conference. The article would have more merit after WWDC. Anyway, Apple is rarely the first mover in a given technology space, so I wouldn't be too concerned yet.
- passwordoops 2y agoI believe this is what they call a plant. Could be someone wants AAPL to drop a tad more to gain a few more points after the inevitable WWDC bump, or they want to push NVDIA/MSFT further up
- jjtheblunt 2y agoPerhaps published before WWDC because expected to be a stale article within days?
- dylan604 2y agoIt seems to be all the rage. On June 2, Space.com released an article talking about Boeing's Starliner's successful launch and a link to the live stream of the docking with the ISS. After the launch was scrubbed, someone forgot to check their pre-scheduled releases. It's all just examples of how poor the publishing industry has become
- darby_nine 2y ago[flagged]
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- whalesalad 2y agoFor years folks have been vocalizing fears that Toyota is behind on the EV transition ... but it turns out they made this decision intentionally and it is paying off. EV is overhyped and underdeveloped, and hybrids are all around better. Same could likely be said for Apple. They might be just where they want to be.
- GaggiX 2y agoWhat's the hydrid in this case? Also isn't Apple going big on AI next week?
- whalesalad 2y agoI just wouldn't be surprised to see Apple react as Apple tends to do - slow and steady. They are not bandwagoners like everyone else who go 100% in the direction of the new shiny hotness as soon as it appears. That is what we are seeing everywhere else - and I think a lot of the integrations and candy we're seeing layered on top with LLM's is just noise and novelty. tl;dr just because everyone is running in the same direction doesn't mean it is the correct direction.
- threeseed 2y agoThe hybrid case is that AI is a side player not the main attraction. For example it's expected there will be better text summarisation in the existing Notes app rather than replacing it entirely with some LLM chat bot centric UI.
- kenjackson 2y ago> EV is overhyped and underdeveloped, and hybrids are all around better. I thought EVs were on track to outsell hybrids this coming year for the first time.
- LeoPanthera 2y ago> EV is overhyped and underdeveloped, and hybrids are all around better. Gosh. This is an enormous claim that's going to need more than a simple citation. On the surface it seems very obviously wrong, and sounds more like propaganda.
- andrethegiant 2y agoLet's talk after WWDC
- DenisM 2y agoTLDR: they fell behind because of low tolerance for hallucinations and privacy focus (meaning preference for locally-run models).
- jonplackett 2y agoIn a few generations locally run models will be as good as gpt4 is now. Having on device ai that good will be amazing for so much stuff
- elorant 2y agoApple has a chip, and the devices, but they don't have an LLM. Google has a chip and the LLM but they don't have a way to monetize it. MS has the best LLM so far and access to enterprise clients. NVidia has the metal but nothing else. It's unclear at this stage if there will be a single winner in this game. Maybe they will all find a way to somehow benefit from the AI craze.
- yreg 2y agoAll should benefit, it's not a zero sum game.
- quitit 2y agoSome people in the 80s thought innovation looked like squeezing a quartz digital clock into every conceivable object. Some people today think that squeezing an AI image generator into Bing and Facebook is what innovation looks like.