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> I do think the challenge for Apple going forwards (but also for Android) is going to be how to best take advantage of AI. IMO one of their great advantages s
by ryandrake 7mo ago
> I do think the challenge for Apple going forwards (but also for Android) is going to be how to best take advantage of AI.
IMO one of their great advantages so far is that they have not blindly bought into the AI hysteria and wasted $billions on it. They've shown you can still have a great company without chanting the "AI is the future" mantra day in and day out. It would be pretty disappointing for a new CEO to drag them into the cargo cult and declare "We, too, must find something that we can do with AI."
- samsolomon 7mo agoHonestly, I'm pretty bullish on Apple and AI. I think there move is in local, open source models. These are getting better and better for generic ChatGPT—type tasks. I'm kind of waiting for Apple to ship their own Ollama. And it's going to be a huge win for both them and consumers.
- ryandrake 7mo agoI just think the concept of an LLM is counter to how Apple treats content on their products. See [1] for more of my thoughts here. I think the only chance Apple embraces AI is if they manage to research a 1. local model that 2. is purely deterministic, whose output can be reliably constrained and controlled by Apple. 1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47849737 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47849737
- jnwatson 7mo agoApple is letting the market "commoditize its complements" without lifting a finger.
- HarHarVeryFunny 7mo agoI don't see selling local LLM servers/software, as such, being something that makes sense for Apple, but selling an "Apple Intelligence" appliance that works with your Apple devices and/or provides home automation might do.
- raw_anon_1111 7mo agoYou can’t compare Apple to any other company. Apple is the only successful consumer hardware company (with Samsung being a distant second). They can afford to sit out the AI arms race. You can’t be a software company without an AI story to tell.
- MaysonL 7mo agoApple _is_ a software company: everything it sells is based on a Mac OS X foundation.
- raw_anon_1111 7mo agoI would buy Mac hardware running Windows long before I would buy x86 hardware running MacOS. In fact Mac OS on x86 was really nothing remarkable. Macs were objectively worse than most Windows PCs during the last few years on x86 at least the laptops were.
- layer8 7mo agoThat must be a very restrictive definition of “successful consumer hardware company”.
- raw_anon_1111 7mo agoName one other successfully computer hardware company? PC makers are barely profitable commodities, other phone companies aside from Samsung are making pennies, the Microsoft XBox division is on life support, Sony sold off its TV division. The PS5 is going okay but doesn’t sell in near the numbers of iPhones. Who is left?
- layer8 7mo agoYou didn’t say “computer”. And I would count the likes of Dell, Lenovo, Acer, Asus as successful. Without “computer”, Nintendo, Sony, LG, and so on. I don’t think it’s reasonable to restrict “successful” to iPhone-level unit sales and Apple profit margins.
- troupo 7mo ago> IMO one of their great advantages so far is that they have not blindly bought into the AI hysteria and wasted $billions on it. They both bought into hysteria and they've likely already wasted billions on it. Are you forgetting the interminable ads and announcements of "Apple Intelligence" from two years ago when even iPhones were marketed as AI-ready?