Apple CEO Tim Cook said during the company’s annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday that the company plans to disclose more about its plans to put generative artificial intelligence to use later this year.
Chat-GPT launched in November 2022, some fifteen months ago. By January 2023, it had become the fastest-growing consumer software application in history. Apple has been scrambling to catch up ever since. Cook failed to mention that fact.
Cook said that the iPhone maker sees “incredible breakthrough potential for generative AI, which is why we’re currently investing significantly in this area. We believe that will unlock transformative opportunities for users when it comes to productivity, problem solving and more.”
Apple has been slower in rolling out generative AI, which can generate human-like responses to written prompts, than rivals such as Microsoft and Alphabet’s Google which are weaving them into products.
On Wednesday, Cook argued that AI is already at work behind the scenes in Apple’s products but said there would be more news on explicit AI features later this year.
MacDailyNews Take: While Cook is hemming and hawing when faced with shareholders (virtually, of course, never again in person for as long as Cook remains), Apple is currently in scramble mode trying to catch up to rivals — including the world’s most valuable company, Microsoft — in generative AI, a technology the company seems to have completely missed while focusing instead on the not-ready-for-primetime Apple Vision Pro, visionOS, its now-canceled decade-long multi-billion-dollar electric vehicle boondoggle, replacing leather in iPhone cases and Apple Watch bands with overpriced junk in a quest to “save the planet,” forcing employees to endure a constant barrage of time-wasting zero-productivity DEI sessions, and myriad other various and sundry “initiatives” which Cook deems of import.
Until it gets another visionary leader (fingers crossed; Apple’s history has shown – cough, Sculley, Spindler, cough – that the next CEO could be far, far worse than the very competent caretaker Cook), Apple can afford to miss things like generative AI – which they clearly did – and then use its huge war chest to catch up – which they’re doing right now (fun times and 80-hour weeks inside Apple Park!) – and, hopefully, surpass rivals (or at least be as good). Apple will very likely unveil their catch-up work within months (this June at WWDC 2024) in iPhones (and iPads, Apple Watches, etc.) with built-in on-device generative AI and other new AI-driven features. – MacDailyNews, February 14, 2024
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Later this year, huh Timmy? Let’s let the competition run circles around you for a few more months. Sounds like a great plan.
How about a few emojies with dildos while we wait?
I’ll just be happy if I can ask Siri a simple contextual question based on my location and she can answer, and then remember the context for my next question.
I mostly agree with the scathing MDN take. But it is wrong about one thing.
MDN notes that it could be worse, that you could have a John Sculley followup to Tim Cook, but does not get, that Tim Cook is a WORSE version of John Sculley.
Remember, after Sculley had Steve Jobs thrown out of Apple, he initially, INCREASED sales dramatically. But since he was a product dullard, like Cook, once he finished riding Steve Job’s vision, he started running Apple into the ground.
Cook is NO DIFFERENT. Cook is John Sculley redux. It’s just that Jobs handed Cook a WAY BIGGER cash cow to milk, the iPhone. So Cook has way more runway and time to bury the company, and he has and is. He is worse.
Cook is proud that he hasn’t fired anyone from apple, but apple is full of worse-than-do-nothing Bozo losers. Elon Musk fired 90% of the useless do-nothing sacks of s*** twitter employees, and he now handles MORE traffic, MORE users, and has released more new features in a year, than Twitter did in a decade!
Jobs in the past culled Bozos from apple in mass firings in the 80s and on his return in the 90s and it caused huge bursts in creativity and new successful products.
https://www.cultofmac.com/530247/today-in-apple-history-apple-layoffs-clear-the-bozo-explosion/
Cook closed down the car group and announced NO LAYOFFS. That means apple is just dragging this do nothing dead weight.
Apple needs to fire like 80% of its employees. In the mean time its burning through shareholder wealth, wasting it, dragging these do nothing dregs of humanity that actually inhibit it from doing creative new things. They are essentially counter agents within the company thwarting its success much like Apple when it almost went bankrupt before Steve returned and fired everyone from their do-nothing petty fiefdoms.
Apple desperately needs a new CEO. My best guess is Craig Federicci is that guy. A core ex-NeXT guy, and a real tech guy with some vision and actual enthusiasm for tech products. It’s too much to wish for Elon Musk to want to take over, who could do a world of good with Apple…it would be like getting ice water in hell replacing Cook with Musk.
AI is like a house.
The better its foundation (truth) the stronger it will be and the longer it will last.
Once you try to rationalize everyone’s opinions as equal, you lose sight of the basic truths and your shelter from the storms of history turns into a house of cards…
It’s hard to see Apple catching up to let along surpassing its competition in AI when they’d rather die than let politically incorrect responses affect their brand. Knowing Apple we’ll get very limited, leashed AI, essentially a Siri+
At the very least to keep up Apple should be working on integrating real-time translation into iMessage and FaceTime. I don’t expect that facet of generative AI to be affected by Apple’s current PC policies.