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Apple Ramps Up R&D Intensity to Pre-iPhone Levels

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Re: Apple Ramps Up R&D Intensity to Pre-iPhone Levels

#11

Post by mustacheemperor »

isaacisaac wrote: post #7
seatac76 wrote: post #2

Wonder what they are cooking ? - AR Glasses would be one but they still feel like a decade away - Whatever happened to the Apple Car? - Apple Watch with more sophisticated medical sensors for sure must be in there. Wonder what else?

I guarantee LLMs are a big piece of it. Not necessarily ChatGPT-like interfaces but instead dynamic interfaces/behavior that intuit what you want the device to do, especially on mobile where the user device interaction bandwidth is quite constrained.

This is pretty much confirmed: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2023-10-22/what-i...

>the company built its own large language model called Ajax and rolled out an internal chatbot dubbed “Apple GPT” to test out the functionality. The critical next step is determining if the technology is up to snuff with the competition and how Apple will actually apply it to its products.

>Giannandrea is overseeing development of the underlying technology for a new AI system, and his team is revamping Siri in a way that will deeply implement it. This smarter version of Siri could be ready as soon as next year, but there are still concerns about the technology and it may take longer for Apple’s AI features to spread across its product line.

I wonder, will they launch this as "Siri, but actually useful" or will the Siri brand be replaced altogether.

Re: Apple Ramps Up R&D Intensity to Pre-iPhone Levels

#12

Post by ayewo »

mustacheemperor wrote: post #9
seatac76 wrote: post #2

Wonder what they are cooking ? - AR Glasses would be one but they still feel like a decade away - Whatever happened to the Apple Car? - Apple Watch with more sophisticated medical sensors for sure must be in there. Wonder what else?

There are unlabeled, very slick looking LIDAR enabled cars driving around the Mountain View area - I've been told by a few folks on HN and IRL that 'everyone knows' they're Apple vehicles.

Any photos of these slick vehicles you could point to?

Re: Apple Ramps Up R&D Intensity to Pre-iPhone Levels

#13

Post by mustacheemperor »

thiago_fm wrote: post #10

Money likely spent on crap. Apple is now a really bloated company that barely innovates, and now with plenty of governments breathing on its neck. Just look at how many IPhone models exists nowadays, Steve Jobs would be shocked to see Apple in 2024.

I don't think he would be shocked to see this comment, though, since it is materially identical to the complaints I remember reading circa 2010 and is as willfully ignorant of the Vision Pro as those complaints were of the iPad, and later the Apple Watch and the AirPods (when 'the FBI will destroy Apple's privacy edge' was the government conflict du jour).

I don't mean to come across as standoffish here, it's just, this complaint reads to me like the "HN is becoming reddit" complaints. People have been saying it forever, so, without any new evidence, it just reads like the same old prediction that hasn't come true yet.

Re: Apple Ramps Up R&D Intensity to Pre-iPhone Levels

#14

Post by mustacheemperor »

ayewo wrote: post #12
mustacheemperor wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are unlabeled, very slick looking LIDAR enabled cars driving around the Mountain View area - I've been told by a few folks on HN and IRL that 'everyone knows' they're Apple vehicles.

Any photos of these slick vehicles you could point to?

Unfortunately no, and I should mention a cursory search turns up known driverless startups active in Mountain View - so I think unless any other HNster has better evidence, treat me as hearsay.

I also shouldn't oversell them, the ones I've seen look 'slick' in that they are similar to other well-polished LIDAR test vehicles that aren't just a bunch of sensors bolted to a roof rack, and they're 'mysterious' in that they're unmarked.

Re: Apple Ramps Up R&D Intensity to Pre-iPhone Levels

#15

Post by master_crab »

I don't think it's anything as sexy as some world-shattering AGI, etc.

Remember they are doing a lot of building and research on things other companies already do: cellular modems, microled, etc. This is probably where a large portion of these costs go: the refinement of production ready devices and the manufacturing processes/plant needed is incredibly expensive.

Re: Apple Ramps Up R&D Intensity to Pre-iPhone Levels

#16

Post by staplers »

thiago_fm wrote: post #10

Money likely spent on crap. Apple is now a really bloated company that barely innovates, and now with plenty of governments breathing on its neck. Just look at how many IPhone models exists nowadays, Steve Jobs would be shocked to see Apple in 2024.

I don't think he'd be shocked. More like disappointed. Most innovators and future thinkers understand the entropy of large organizations left to business-types.

Re: Apple Ramps Up R&D Intensity to Pre-iPhone Levels

#17

Post by mattmaroon »

mustacheemperor wrote: post #13
thiago_fm wrote: post #10

Money likely spent on crap. Apple is now a really bloated company that barely innovates, and now with plenty of governments breathing on its neck. Just look at how many IPhone models exists nowadays, Steve Jobs would be shocked to see Apple in 2024.

I don't think he would be shocked to see this comment, though, since it is materially identical to the complaints I remember reading circa 2010 and is as willfully ignorant of the Vision Pro as those complaints were of the iPad, and later the Apple Watch and the AirPods (when 'the FBI will destroy Apple's privacy edge' was the government conflict du jour). I don't mean to come across as standoffish here, it's just, t…

And if they didn’t invest in r&d the same people would say they’re stodgy dinosaurs cashing in on what they’ve got ABC heading for extinction. Like HN said about Microsoft 15 years ago.

Re: Apple Ramps Up R&D Intensity to Pre-iPhone Levels

#18

Post by jwells89 »

mustacheemperor wrote: post #11
isaacisaac wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guarantee LLMs are a big piece of it. Not necessarily ChatGPT-like interfaces but instead dynamic interfaces/behavior that intuit what you want the device to do, especially on mobile where the user device interaction bandwidth is quite constrained.

This is pretty much confirmed: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2023-10-22/what-i... >the company built its own large language model called Ajax and rolled out an internal chatbot dubbed “Apple GPT” to test out the functionality. The critical next step is determining if the technology is up to snuff with the competition and how Apple will actually apply it to its products. >Giannandrea is overseeing develop…

If this next-gen LLM-based Siri is built to take advantage of local documents/data with all processing happening on-device, I think it could be more useful than incumbent LLMs in some ways even if it’s technically not as smart simply because it has far more relevant context by default. It being local-first could also help assuage privacy concerns and make users less reluctant to use it.

Re: Apple Ramps Up R&D Intensity to Pre-iPhone Levels

#19

Post by mikestew »

thiago_fm wrote: post #10

Money likely spent on crap. Apple is now a really bloated company that barely innovates, and now with plenty of governments breathing on its neck. Just look at how many IPhone models exists nowadays, Steve Jobs would be shocked to see Apple in 2024.

You forgot to mention that the only reason people buy Apple products in the first place is because of marketing. If the sheeple ever wake up, Apple is doomed.

Or so I've been hearing for, what, the last decade or more?

Re: Apple Ramps Up R&D Intensity to Pre-iPhone Levels

#20

Post by nerdjon »

master_crab wrote: post #15

I don't think it's anything as sexy as some world-shattering AGI, etc. Remember they are doing a lot of building and research on things other companies already do: cellular modems, microled, etc. This is probably where a large portion of these costs go: the refinement of production ready devices and the manufacturing processes/plant needed is incredibly expensive.

This makes me wonder, sure there is a large investment cost in creating many of those things. But is the Maintence/upgrade cost (particularly for things like the modems) the same or less than the investment to do it in the first place?

If they are going to own as much of the internal hardware as they clearly want to, they have to be ready to continue to innovate or risk falling behind.

I ask because I legitimately don't know the answer, but its something I have been curious about.

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