Live data from Hacker News

Tim Cook: Technology Should Serve Humanity, Not the Other Way Around

technologyreview.com

21–30 of 87 posts

Re: Tim Cook: Technology Should Serve Humanity, Not the Other Way Around

#21
post #12

This is a pretty ironic statement, given their entire product design is built to serve apple, and the users are often secondary to that or ignored entirely; such as making UI more difficult on purpose so you're more inclined to use siri, or buying music instead of bringing your own. I dont see AI at apple being any different. Its for them FIRST, us second, if at all. "humanity" may as well mean corporations since the…

Do you have any examples of them making bad UI to get people to use siri?

Allowing the user to choose their default assistant (Google, Cortana, Siri, ) would be a good start.

EDIT: I didn't read the question carefully enough. I don't believe Apple has dumbed down the UI to push people to Siri.

That being said, giving users a choice over the assistant, browser, etc. would be a good thing.

Re: Tim Cook: Technology Should Serve Humanity, Not the Other Way Around

#22
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you think "a massive overhaul of Foxconn's employment practices" will serve humanity?

Injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere.

If you have an app filling your database with bad data, do you just take an extra step of writing a tool to correct bad data after the fact?

I'd rather fix the app itself so that it isn't sending bad data.

"Fixing Foxconn" is taking bad output and correcting it. It's not fixing the app generating bad data.

Re: Tim Cook: Technology Should Serve Humanity, Not the Other Way Around

#23
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have any examples of them making bad UI to get people to use siri?

That's easy. The most common thing to do with my iPHone is hit the button. They overloaded the button to load Siri if its held for even a fraction of a second too long. 99 times out of 100 I don't want to use siri but she continually pops up. Trying to click to get back to the home screen.... here's Siri. Trying to double click the button, to kill an app..... here comes Siri So to answer the question.... 1) They made…

When I setup my iPhone, it asked me if I wanted Siri up front, instead of sneaking the functionality in.

Later, I was able to go to Settings and switch it on or off.

I don't see how your above example is at all egregious -- people retain full control.

Compare this to Windows 10 (at launch) turning on a whole host of privacy-compromising features and not giving clear control to the user (but I was glad to see at a more recent setup I did that I now can toggle it off even at first install, and that I can look it up later)

To steelman your argument, I would propose instead talking about lack of browser rendering engine control or lack of ability to install arbitrary executables. That's actually something people have no/little control over. But even then, there is a reasonable debate to be had.

Re: Tim Cook: Technology Should Serve Humanity, Not the Other Way Around

#25
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple has done more than any other American company to improve working conditions in China.

Even if that's true, it does not mean they have done enough.

That's fair enough as long as other companies and their customers are held equally responsible. Just because we sometimes/always use linux does not mean the hardware we run it on has an equally "clean" background. Also, we buy too much stuff, meaning too much stuff is being produced... etc.

Re: Tim Cook: Technology Should Serve Humanity, Not the Other Way Around

#27
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have any examples of them making bad UI to get people to use siri?

Allowing the user to choose their default assistant (Google, Cortana, Siri, ) would be a good start. EDIT: I didn't read the question carefully enough. I don't believe Apple has dumbed down the UI to push people to Siri. That being said, giving users a choice over the assistant, browser, etc. would be a good thing.

[deleted]

Re: Tim Cook: Technology Should Serve Humanity, Not the Other Way Around

#28

This is a pretty ironic statement, given their entire product design is built to serve apple, and the users are often secondary to that or ignored entirely; such as making UI more difficult on purpose so you're more inclined to use siri, or buying music instead of bringing your own. I dont see AI at apple being any different. Its for them FIRST, us second, if at all. "humanity" may as well mean corporations since the…

> given their entire product design is built to serve apple, and the users are often secondary to that or ignored entirely; such as making UI more difficult on purpose so you're more inclined to use siri, or buying music instead of bringing your own.

That's simply not true, and it's a really offensive statement for pretty much anybody working at Apple. There's no company I can think of that cares more about the user experience than Apple, and here you are claiming that they're doing the exact opposite.

Re: Tim Cook: Technology Should Serve Humanity, Not the Other Way Around

#30
post #28

This is a pretty ironic statement, given their entire product design is built to serve apple, and the users are often secondary to that or ignored entirely; such as making UI more difficult on purpose so you're more inclined to use siri, or buying music instead of bringing your own. I dont see AI at apple being any different. Its for them FIRST, us second, if at all. "humanity" may as well mean corporations since the…

> given their entire product design is built to serve apple, and the users are often secondary to that or ignored entirely; such as making UI more difficult on purpose so you're more inclined to use siri, or buying music instead of bringing your own. That's simply not true, and it's a really offensive statement for pretty much anybody working at Apple. There's no company I can think of that cares more about the user…

This is my first thought as well. Apple has done wonderful things as far as accessibility for the handicapped, and usability in general. I can't think of a more incorrect statement than the one claiming otherwise.
Post reply on HN