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Facebook, Amazon, Google, IBM and Microsoft Create Partnership on AI

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Re: Facebook, Amazon, Google, IBM and Microsoft Create Partnership on AI

#101

Post by cybernytrix »

princeb wrote: post #80
altcognito wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also don't think of them as a straight technology company, but more of a best of breed product company focused on a great user experience. In that sense, high risk, long term investments that don't have an immediate application don't fit their profile.

> best of breed product company focused on a great user experience somehow i put them in the same category as LG, Samsung and Sony, albeit 100x better at what they do.

Apple has its own OS, compilers, IDE, 2+ languages, various frameworks etc. This is more than what Google, more importantly used a lot by people. But yeah it just a hardware company.

Re: Facebook, Amazon, Google, IBM and Microsoft Create Partnership on AI

#102

Post by cybernytrix »

princeb wrote: post #80
altcognito wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also don't think of them as a straight technology company, but more of a best of breed product company focused on a great user experience. In that sense, high risk, long term investments that don't have an immediate application don't fit their profile.

> best of breed product company focused on a great user experience somehow i put them in the same category as LG, Samsung and Sony, albeit 100x better at what they do.

Apple has its own OS, compilers, IDE, 2+ languages, various frameworks etc. This is more than what Google, more importantly used a lot by people. But yeah it just a hardware company.

Re: Facebook, Amazon, Google, IBM and Microsoft Create Partnership on AI

#103

Post by coldtea »

CalChris wrote: post #88
sqldba wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's just FUD. This whole thing is a boorish marketing exercise about throwing money about and which will go nowhere. That's why Apple is out. It doesn't waste it's money.

Really? http://www.billboard.com/articles/business/6251220/guy-osear...

Those are pocket change.

Re: Facebook, Amazon, Google, IBM and Microsoft Create Partnership on AI

#104

Post by [deleted] »

coldtea wrote: post #99
xenobioticants wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

'it really is a giant among giants.' You're confused. That would be Alphabet, not Apple. To put it in perspective for you, Google has: ~90% of the search market ( https://www.statista.com/statistics/216573/worldwide-market-... ) ~90% of the smartphone market ( https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/18/gartner-androids-smartphon... ) ~50% of the online advertisement market ( http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Google-Still-Domin…

>* I can think you can see the point I'm making: yes, Apple has a big pile of cash, a fat amount of profit and high stock value. However, Alphabet its influence and reach is far, far beyond that of Apple. Its just not as flashy & visible.* Yeah, Alphabet is bigger in every way that counts except those two inconsequential things for companies: revenue and profit.

[deleted]

Re: Facebook, Amazon, Google, IBM and Microsoft Create Partnership on AI

#105

Post by rojobuffalo »

hueving wrote: post #79
rojobuffalo wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's only fear mongering if it's deliberate for some ulterior end. If spreading concern is only motivated by protecting the human race from destroying itself--that would be a reasonable thing to talk about. Who's benefiting from urging caution about potential bad outcomes for AGI?

>Who's benefiting from urging caution about potential bad outcomes for AGI? Every single person working in a position on the cusp of automation. The same thing happens with any new technology that threatens massive industries. (automobiles, airplanes, electricity, heating oil, etc)

AGI and heating oil? There's a troubling gap in reasoning there. Narrow AI and automation replacing jobs has its own set of problems. But a machine intelligence explosion is a completely different thing, and a legitimate existential risk. It's really important to understand the difference and the specific arguments.

Re: Facebook, Amazon, Google, IBM and Microsoft Create Partnership on AI

#106

Post by econnors »

treehau5 wrote: post #91
itg wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good, there's enough fear mongering about it when we don't even know where to start when it comes to building an AGI.

It's not fear mongering. Some of the ideas I hear from people on this forum, from academia, and the likes are just downright terrifying, and we don't even know what future AI will be capable of. We have to decide as a society, and decide really soon how far we are willing to take AI research. We built the nuclear bomb, but we decided when to stop. We didn't build more advanced bombs that could level entire providence…

Curious: Do we actually know that we stopped nuclear advances? I'm guessing it's not something that would be publicized.

Re: Facebook, Amazon, Google, IBM and Microsoft Create Partnership on AI

#107

Post by aaachilless »

xenobioticants wrote: post #84
j1vms wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whether right or wrong, I think it's good to keep in mind that Apple has, by far the highest quarterly profit and total asset value, compared to any of these companies - it really is a giant among giants. Alphabet certainly has an excellent future outlook (reflected in the markets), but its current financial state still pales in comparison to Apple. Taking this into account, I figure Apple thinks twice and thrice bef…

'it really is a giant among giants.' You're confused. That would be Alphabet, not Apple. To put it in perspective for you, Google has: ~90% of the search market ( https://www.statista.com/statistics/216573/worldwide-market-... ) ~90% of the smartphone market ( https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/18/gartner-androids-smartphon... ) ~50% of the online advertisement market ( http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Google-Still-Domin…

Let's assume all these assertions are correct i.e. the disappearance of every Google product would hurt more than the same scenario but sub Google -> Apple. That doesn't actually imply that Google > Apple (in terms of general influence) in the world in which they both do exist.

My interpretation of your post is that Google might be more _important_ than Apple. And my counterargument is that importance is not equivalent to influence.

Re: Facebook, Amazon, Google, IBM and Microsoft Create Partnership on AI

#108

Post by wstrange »

mschwaig wrote: post #81
ENGNR wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use Android, but Apple are doing some good personal assistant stuff like tagging friends in photos, -without- uploading them to the cloud. A true personal assistant that can use machine learning locally and with discretion sounds pretty great

I'm really starting to appreciate this kind of thing about Apple. They seem to be concerned about keeping data in the hands of their users as much as possible, when the rest of the industry defaults to a cloud-hosted solution that requires the user to completely give up control.

That's a nifty feature, but I am sceptical that Apple can offer the same kind of experience when compared to cloud-based solutions that leverage massive amounts of aggregated data and backend processing.

Apple has made a pretty big deal about privacy, but they do collect user data (see the interview a few weeks ago with Apple's mapping lead -saying they are collecting user data to improve maps).

Ultimately if users want ultra smart AI assistants (Siri, Google Now, Cortana, etc.) they will need to give up some of their data.

That may be very unpopular with the HN crowd, but I suspect the vast majority of consumers will be OK with that tradeoff.

Re: Facebook, Amazon, Google, IBM and Microsoft Create Partnership on AI

#109

Post by blazespin »

gavman wrote: post #49

>>"As of today’s launch, companies like Apple, Twitter, Intel and Baidu are missing from the group. Though Apple is said to be enthusiastic about the project, their absence is still notable because the company has fallen behind in artificial intelligence when compared to its rivals — many of which are part of this new group." It seems Apple's lack of engagement in the community [1] is really starting to hurt it. Did…

Likely this is part of why this group was created. They were probably getting tired of Apple trying to ride on everyone's hard work without giving anything back.

Re: Facebook, Amazon, Google, IBM and Microsoft Create Partnership on AI

#110

Post by wstrange »

eridius wrote: post #72
tomnipotent wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are you surprised that Apple isn't involved in a field that has no material impact on their business? Outside of Siri and related projects, I don't see where AI/machine learning has any immediate benefits. Twitter and Intel missing seems like something to take note of, but I didn't even think twice about Apple. I'm more surprised GE is missing than Apple.

At WWDC they talked about how they put AI all throughout the system. It's not just when talking to Siri. It's things like suggested apps, photo tagging, deciding when to refresh apps in the background, text prediction, and probably lots of other stuff that I can't even think of because Apple's approach to AI is to make AI largely an implementation detail of the experience rather than a user-visible component.

Apple makes great stuff (typing this on a Mac), but I really don't get the adoration / mystic that surrounds them.

Those features have been on Android forever, but people don't call it "AI".

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