4 ms·

> I’ve watched that little animation several times, and they tell a better story in a minute twenty-five than all of Apple’s AI commercials combined. If I show

by thrwaway1985882 2y ago

> I’ve watched that little animation several times, and they tell a better story in a minute twenty-five than all of Apple’s AI commercials combined. If I showed that video to someone who isn't steeped in decades of Linux, I suspect they'd ask me what an Ubuntu is. As compared to the "schlub writes an email" video, which was compelling, funny, and actually shows the product they're marketing.

Zanfa 2y ago
It was exactly like every other enterprise animated product video. Random words with some electronic music. I was actually expecting "synergy" to pop up.
- amatecha 2y ago
  At least they got one noteworthy "hit" on the jargon bingo card: "performant" -_-
foobarian 2y ago
Heh. That "little animation" is so generic, you could have substituted Ubuntu with Windows or MacOS and everything they showed would have been valid.
- vundercind 2y ago
  Right—what "story"? "The appearance of desktop computers has changed over the period of time that Ubuntu has existed"? What does this thing do for me? Especially, what does it do for me that other platforms don't, or that I might not expect it would do for me?
repelsteeltje 2y ago
Is there somewhere I can watch the Apple ad(s)? I don't understand what or who this schlub is.
- ceejayoz 2y ago
  They're linked in the article. That video specifically: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m0MoYKwVTM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m0MoYKwVTM
  - repelsteeltje 2y ago
    My bad, it seems YouTube guides me towards other ads. Might be because I'm in eu or not using their app. I managed to find the ad elsewhere
- nicoco 2y ago
  The post contains hyperlinks.
- KTibow 2y ago
  Ads are linked in the article, I believe the "schlub" is shown in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m0MoYKwVTM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m0MoYKwVTM
  - repelsteeltje 2y ago
    Yeah. Somehow I get a different ad
- jangxx 2y ago
  The article has links to all the mentioned videos.
mateus1 2y ago
The most annoying part when I worked in marketing was explaining to people that it’s not about the their opinion, it’s about profit. One person’s take is worthless.
ellisv 2y ago
I agree. If I showed that video to anyone I don't work with, they'd have no idea what they were watching.
- briandear 2y ago
  I have no idea what they were selling. Are they selling a free operating system?
jasonlotito 2y ago
> If I showed that video to someone who isn't ...the target audience, it wouldn't work. Same with the AI stuff. Show that to someone with no understanding of Apple and it's products, or AI, and you'll have someone equally confused. The understanding here is that in both cases the marketing is targeted at a certain group. More interestingly, you admit that one story promotes interest in the product, while the other promotes the viewer being, as you put it, a schlub. Maybe you can explain why you being a schlub is better than wanting to learn more about a product (or how quickly you try to pretend like that's not what you mean/said and move the goal post, lol)?
- thrwaway1985882 2y ago
  > Show that to someone with no understanding of Apple and it's products, or AI, and you'll have someone equally confused. Apple is selling a magical button that unprofessional idiots can press to be perceived as professional. Who in the world is going to be confused by that?
windexh8er 2y ago
I think the write up seems to bring the indirect point that AI has limited use cases currently. So instead of taking the traditional Apple approach with showcasing the technical aspects of the product (an example being Apple has highlighted photography and video a lot in the last few generations of iPhone), instead Apple falls back on cheeky ads, which to be fair, are also not new to Apple marketing. I do think that Apple's "white lies" series of ads are awkward, however. Apple has seemingly paused ads around privacy and security and are now targeting Apple Intelligence - they seem to be somewhat at opposite ends of the target market in a way. It does feel as though Apple is conflicted here and I'm curious to see how it plays out for them. I'm, personally not a fan of the current generation or implementation of AI and do not want to use it. If AI could hook apps for more hands free operations at a deeper level I could see usability improvements for hands free environments which might be nice. Beyond that I really don't want it.
- Alex3917 2y ago
  > I'm, personally not a fan of the current generation or implementation of AI and do not want to use it. Why not? It gives vastly better than human performance across a wide range of problems. Just this morning I asked Chat GPT to find me the smallest set of positive integers whose median is 2 and whose average is 3.75, and it just spit out the correct answer instantly. That would have been an enormous pain in the ass to figure out how to do manually, but instead I got it done while in the middle of packing my kids' lunches for school.
  - windexh8er 2y ago
    Because, ultimately, I'd like to continue to think and solve on my own. If I want to leverage a chat model, which I do, I can do that very easily on my own hardware. I don't want it so far shoved down my phones innards that I'm paying for hardware that is useless outside that use case. Imagine the next 30 years when the majority of the population has no clue on how to function without cloud connected models answering questions on the daily. Very Black Mirror. I also don't trust any of the frontier model vendors at this point so there's also that. Especially Sam Altman / OpenAI.
hbn 2y ago
It's funny the video is celebrating 20 years of Ubuntu yet the editing style and music choice feels like it should have been for the 10 year anniversary. Real early-2010s chic.
BugsJustFindMe 2y ago
> As compared to the "schlub writes an email" video, which was compelling, funny OP is right, though. What you're calling "compelling" and "funny" seems very much also like messages telling you to that it's ok to lie to everyone around you including your family and friends. That's not a funny message to me. It's an appalling one.
- stackghost 2y ago
  Absolutely nobody is going to see these ads and to "Ah, well, now that I have seen this ad I will start lying". That person is already lying about stuff. We've all done it. I think the real indictment against Apple (and AI more broadly) is that this is the best use case for their supposedly revolutionary technology that they could come up with.
  - addicted 2y ago
    > Absolutely nobody is going to see these ads and to "Ah, well, now that I have seen this ad I will start lying". I don’t think anyone is claiming these ads will get people to start lying. The claim is that lying to your loved ones is good and makes you smart is indeed the message these ads are sending. People do lie. But they don’t usually feel good about it. These ads send the message that not only is that good, but Apple Intelligence will make you even better at lying. It’s just a bad message.
  - Thorrez 2y ago
    I don't want to interact with people who lie. I don't want to interact with people who say lying is a good thing. Apple is saying lying is a good thing ("genius") in some of these ads.
- InDubioProRubio 2y ago
  Loneliness is the product that creates more markets to fill the void.
- michaelt 2y ago
  > What you're calling "compelling" and "funny" seems very much also like messages telling you to that it's ok to lie to everyone around you including your family and friends. Eh, "lovable but lazy dumbass forgot something and has to lie their way out of it" is a pretty standard trope of boomer sitcom humour. Just imagine these ads, but the person using AI was Homer Simpson.
boringg 2y ago
Can I just point out the self gazing nature of this post? Short form: I made an Advertisement in AI, I promote it by making shitting all over Apple (get more viewership using Apple) and then finish off to say I watched my own video in amazement 5 times. What a beautiful self promotional world we live in.
- digitalPhonix 2y ago
  I can't tell who you're saying is self promoting? Apple/the team that made the Apple ads or Ubuntu/the team that made the Ubuntu ad?
  - CaptainFever 2y ago
    I think: Ubuntu/the team that made the Ubuntu ad.
epcoa 2y ago
Forget about lying, this is just amorally stupid and pandering. I find the hypothetical universe where that guy is going to get anywhere good suggesting what his boss should “undertake” unbelievable. (Also not a good demo). And we’ve been in this GPT world nearly 2 years. The boss is obviously supposed to be smart, he’s a black guy in a suit after all. Is this the first time he’s ever received something that was obviously from an AI. What’s he confused about?
- ceejayoz 2y ago
  > The boss is obviously supposed to be smart, he’s a black guy in a suit after all. Is this the first time he’s ever received something that was obviously from an AI. What’s he confused about? Ironically, you're doing the same thing as the actor in the skit - pretending to be confused, for effect. Obviously, the boss is used to receiving unprofessional responses from the employee in question. Obviously, the boss is thrown as a result. Obviously, this is a contrived situation for the purpose of humor that in real life wouldn't go like this.
  - epcoa 2y ago
    The idea that a shlub like this would only just now for the first time be using an LLM like this is what is unbelievable. And as a joke it is simply stale. I get it, Apple has to at least pretend to themselves like they are groundbreaking in these things that are now years old. It's cringe because Apple thinks this is a novel premise for humor.
    - ceejayoz 2y ago
      > The idea that a shlub like this would only just now for the first time be using an LLM like this is what is unbelievable. It's unbelievable that someone would use a brand-new feature on their device for the first time?
      - epcoa 2y ago
        Again: It's unbelievable that someone (like this) would be using an LLM to compose an email to their boss for the first time. He's a lazy fuck office stiff (yet still manages to warrant an iMac desktop), you're telling me he's just now starting to use an LLM to compose emails? Sure, whatever. If you think this ad is clever and funny you are entitled to that, you're not going to convince me it isn't idiotic and the joke is old. Unless the message was Apple AI: the new thing for oblivious dipshits or the recently recovered comatose. Their ad agency should know better too: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/08/02/google-pulls-ai-ad-for-olympics-following-backlash.html https://www.cnbc.com/2024/08/02/google-pulls-ai-ad-for-olymp... Even the bastion of pretentious journalism Fast Company has this headline: "In Apple’s new ads for AI tools, we’re all total idiots" > Ironically, you're doing the same thing as the actor in the skit - pretending to be confused, for effect. If you're intuitive enough to conclude that an otherwise inarticulate douchebag probably used an LLM to compose an email, why would you "pretend" to be confused? Makes no sense. There's nothing remarkable about using an LLM to write an email.
kraig911 2y ago
I just get a sense from all this AI marketing hype is that AI is yet another grifter tool. The Ubuntu video was meh and I dont think it worked well to describe the story. A better video would be to show perhaps someone getting their kid an ubuntu laptop and how it shaped their mindset and future. Or Ubuntu on your grandma's computer and now we can enjoy coffee instead of fixing computers... etc etc.
tr3ntg 2y ago
Agreed. The Ubuntu ad feels like it's written with Apple Intelligence. "Secure, Certified, Everywhere, For You"

Zanfa 2y ago

It was exactly like every other enterprise animated product video. Random words with some electronic music. I was actually expecting "synergy" to pop up.

amatecha 2y ago
At least they got one noteworthy "hit" on the jargon bingo card: "performant" -_-

foobarian 2y ago

Heh. That "little animation" is so generic, you could have substituted Ubuntu with Windows or MacOS and everything they showed would have been valid.

vundercind 2y ago
Right—what "story"? "The appearance of desktop computers has changed over the period of time that Ubuntu has existed"? What does this thing do for me? Especially, what does it do for me that other platforms don't, or that I might not expect it would do for me?

repelsteeltje 2y ago

Is there somewhere I can watch the Apple ad(s)? I don't understand what or who this schlub is.

ceejayoz 2y ago
They're linked in the article. That video specifically: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m0MoYKwVTM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m0MoYKwVTM
- repelsteeltje 2y ago
  My bad, it seems YouTube guides me towards other ads. Might be because I'm in eu or not using their app. I managed to find the ad elsewhere
nicoco 2y ago
The post contains hyperlinks.
KTibow 2y ago
Ads are linked in the article, I believe the "schlub" is shown in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m0MoYKwVTM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m0MoYKwVTM
- repelsteeltje 2y ago
  Yeah. Somehow I get a different ad
jangxx 2y ago
The article has links to all the mentioned videos.

mateus1 2y ago

The most annoying part when I worked in marketing was explaining to people that it’s not about the their opinion, it’s about profit. One person’s take is worthless.

ellisv 2y ago

I agree. If I showed that video to anyone I don't work with, they'd have no idea what they were watching.

briandear 2y ago
I have no idea what they were selling. Are they selling a free operating system?

jasonlotito 2y ago

> If I showed that video to someone who isn't ...the target audience, it wouldn't work. Same with the AI stuff. Show that to someone with no understanding of Apple and it's products, or AI, and you'll have someone equally confused. The understanding here is that in both cases the marketing is targeted at a certain group. More interestingly, you admit that one story promotes interest in the product, while the other promotes the viewer being, as you put it, a schlub. Maybe you can explain why you being a schlub is better than wanting to learn more about a product (or how quickly you try to pretend like that's not what you mean/said and move the goal post, lol)?

thrwaway1985882 2y ago
> Show that to someone with no understanding of Apple and it's products, or AI, and you'll have someone equally confused. Apple is selling a magical button that unprofessional idiots can press to be perceived as professional. Who in the world is going to be confused by that?

windexh8er 2y ago

I think the write up seems to bring the indirect point that AI has limited use cases currently. So instead of taking the traditional Apple approach with showcasing the technical aspects of the product (an example being Apple has highlighted photography and video a lot in the last few generations of iPhone), instead Apple falls back on cheeky ads, which to be fair, are also not new to Apple marketing. I do think that Apple's "white lies" series of ads are awkward, however. Apple has seemingly paused ads around privacy and security and are now targeting Apple Intelligence - they seem to be somewhat at opposite ends of the target market in a way. It does feel as though Apple is conflicted here and I'm curious to see how it plays out for them. I'm, personally not a fan of the current generation or implementation of AI and do not want to use it. If AI could hook apps for more hands free operations at a deeper level I could see usability improvements for hands free environments which might be nice. Beyond that I really don't want it.

Alex3917 2y ago
> I'm, personally not a fan of the current generation or implementation of AI and do not want to use it. Why not? It gives vastly better than human performance across a wide range of problems. Just this morning I asked Chat GPT to find me the smallest set of positive integers whose median is 2 and whose average is 3.75, and it just spit out the correct answer instantly. That would have been an enormous pain in the ass to figure out how to do manually, but instead I got it done while in the middle of packing my kids' lunches for school.
- windexh8er 2y ago
  Because, ultimately, I'd like to continue to think and solve on my own. If I want to leverage a chat model, which I do, I can do that very easily on my own hardware. I don't want it so far shoved down my phones innards that I'm paying for hardware that is useless outside that use case. Imagine the next 30 years when the majority of the population has no clue on how to function without cloud connected models answering questions on the daily. Very Black Mirror. I also don't trust any of the frontier model vendors at this point so there's also that. Especially Sam Altman / OpenAI.

hbn 2y ago

It's funny the video is celebrating 20 years of Ubuntu yet the editing style and music choice feels like it should have been for the 10 year anniversary. Real early-2010s chic.

BugsJustFindMe 2y ago

> As compared to the "schlub writes an email" video, which was compelling, funny OP is right, though. What you're calling "compelling" and "funny" seems very much also like messages telling you to that it's ok to lie to everyone around you including your family and friends. That's not a funny message to me. It's an appalling one.

stackghost 2y ago
Absolutely nobody is going to see these ads and to "Ah, well, now that I have seen this ad I will start lying". That person is already lying about stuff. We've all done it. I think the real indictment against Apple (and AI more broadly) is that this is the best use case for their supposedly revolutionary technology that they could come up with.
- addicted 2y ago
  > Absolutely nobody is going to see these ads and to "Ah, well, now that I have seen this ad I will start lying". I don’t think anyone is claiming these ads will get people to start lying. The claim is that lying to your loved ones is good and makes you smart is indeed the message these ads are sending. People do lie. But they don’t usually feel good about it. These ads send the message that not only is that good, but Apple Intelligence will make you even better at lying. It’s just a bad message.
- Thorrez 2y ago
  I don't want to interact with people who lie. I don't want to interact with people who say lying is a good thing. Apple is saying lying is a good thing ("genius") in some of these ads.
InDubioProRubio 2y ago
Loneliness is the product that creates more markets to fill the void.
michaelt 2y ago
> What you're calling "compelling" and "funny" seems very much also like messages telling you to that it's ok to lie to everyone around you including your family and friends. Eh, "lovable but lazy dumbass forgot something and has to lie their way out of it" is a pretty standard trope of boomer sitcom humour. Just imagine these ads, but the person using AI was Homer Simpson.

boringg 2y ago

Can I just point out the self gazing nature of this post? Short form: I made an Advertisement in AI, I promote it by making shitting all over Apple (get more viewership using Apple) and then finish off to say I watched my own video in amazement 5 times. What a beautiful self promotional world we live in.

digitalPhonix 2y ago
I can't tell who you're saying is self promoting? Apple/the team that made the Apple ads or Ubuntu/the team that made the Ubuntu ad?
- CaptainFever 2y ago
  I think: Ubuntu/the team that made the Ubuntu ad.

epcoa 2y ago

Forget about lying, this is just amorally stupid and pandering. I find the hypothetical universe where that guy is going to get anywhere good suggesting what his boss should “undertake” unbelievable. (Also not a good demo). And we’ve been in this GPT world nearly 2 years. The boss is obviously supposed to be smart, he’s a black guy in a suit after all. Is this the first time he’s ever received something that was obviously from an AI. What’s he confused about?

ceejayoz 2y ago
> The boss is obviously supposed to be smart, he’s a black guy in a suit after all. Is this the first time he’s ever received something that was obviously from an AI. What’s he confused about? Ironically, you're doing the same thing as the actor in the skit - pretending to be confused, for effect. Obviously, the boss is used to receiving unprofessional responses from the employee in question. Obviously, the boss is thrown as a result. Obviously, this is a contrived situation for the purpose of humor that in real life wouldn't go like this.
- epcoa 2y ago
  The idea that a shlub like this would only just now for the first time be using an LLM like this is what is unbelievable. And as a joke it is simply stale. I get it, Apple has to at least pretend to themselves like they are groundbreaking in these things that are now years old. It's cringe because Apple thinks this is a novel premise for humor.
  - ceejayoz 2y ago
    > The idea that a shlub like this would only just now for the first time be using an LLM like this is what is unbelievable. It's unbelievable that someone would use a brand-new feature on their device for the first time?
    - epcoa 2y ago
      Again: It's unbelievable that someone (like this) would be using an LLM to compose an email to their boss for the first time. He's a lazy fuck office stiff (yet still manages to warrant an iMac desktop), you're telling me he's just now starting to use an LLM to compose emails? Sure, whatever. If you think this ad is clever and funny you are entitled to that, you're not going to convince me it isn't idiotic and the joke is old. Unless the message was Apple AI: the new thing for oblivious dipshits or the recently recovered comatose. Their ad agency should know better too: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/08/02/google-pulls-ai-ad-for-olympics-following-backlash.html https://www.cnbc.com/2024/08/02/google-pulls-ai-ad-for-olymp... Even the bastion of pretentious journalism Fast Company has this headline: "In Apple’s new ads for AI tools, we’re all total idiots" > Ironically, you're doing the same thing as the actor in the skit - pretending to be confused, for effect. If you're intuitive enough to conclude that an otherwise inarticulate douchebag probably used an LLM to compose an email, why would you "pretend" to be confused? Makes no sense. There's nothing remarkable about using an LLM to write an email.

kraig911 2y ago

I just get a sense from all this AI marketing hype is that AI is yet another grifter tool. The Ubuntu video was meh and I dont think it worked well to describe the story. A better video would be to show perhaps someone getting their kid an ubuntu laptop and how it shaped their mindset and future. Or Ubuntu on your grandma's computer and now we can enjoy coffee instead of fixing computers... etc etc.

tr3ntg 2y ago

Agreed. The Ubuntu ad feels like it's written with Apple Intelligence. "Secure, Certified, Everywhere, For You"