Comment by slashnode

5 days ago

I think it's the right strategy for Apple.

They're not a model company. The risks of deploying something half-baked to their users is unacceptable. They're taking it slow and trying to do it in a way that doesn't damage/erode their brand.

Wait it out, let the best model(s) rise to the surface (and the hallucination problems to get sufficiently mitigated), and then either partner with a proprietary provider or deploy one of the open source models. Makes more sense than burning billions of dollars training a new foundation model

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bitpush  5 days ago

This is a reasonable approach, but unfortunately misses what made Apple soooo successful. Apple is the master of controlling the brand. Apple DOES NOT like to highlight their suppliers. Nobody knows who makes iPhones displays, or sensors, or RAMs.

They love to "invent" brands that they control, so that they can commodotize the underlying supplier. Hey user, it is a retina display and dont worry whether it is LG or Samsung is making it.

Apple tried this with AI, calling it "Apple Intelligence". Unfortunately that faltered. Now Apple will have to come out and say "iPhone with ChatGPT" or "Siri with Claude". AND APPLE HATES THAT. HATES IT WITH PASSION.

People will start to associate smartness with ChatGPT or Claude, and Apple loses control and OpenAI/Anthropic's leverage goes up.

Apple has painted themselves into a corner. And as I said elsewhere, it is a train-wreck happening in slowmotion.

  • snowwrestler  5 days ago

    Please go rewatch the iPhone keynote by Steve Jobs. Everyone remembers the beginning; few seem to remember that he brings out 3 other CEOs to highlight the integrations between the iPhone and those companies.

    Or consider that they spent a decade highlighting that their computers were powered by Intel, after leaving their proprietary PowerPC architecture—again, under Steve Jobs.

    Or go all the way back to 1997 when Steve Jobs had Bill Gates on the screen at Macworld and announced that IE would be the default browser on Mac.

    It’s easy to fall into a caricature of Apple, where they insist on making everything themselves. What is more accurate is to say that they are not afraid to make things themselves, when they think they have a better idea. But they are also not afraid to do deals when it is the best way forward right now.

thebytefairy  5 days ago

They already deployed half-baked models (eg needing to disable news summaries because they were so bad), and haven't delivered on other aspects of apple intelligence. This is hard to call being cautious, this is them not being able to keep up.

steve-atx-7600  5 days ago

Exactly. Another mobile.me moment that adversely impacts customers is worse than making something useful that works. Anyone that “needs” AI can use an app.