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Gross Apple Marketing

jonathanbuys.com

231–240 of 270 posts

Re: Gross Apple Marketing

#231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a good example of where we should have stigma attached to AI: a partner showed me their CRM that summarized my profile for them. It was creepy in how far into my online life it had dug. It also said, along with the creepy things, that I was "risk adverse" and "only acted when I had complete information" ... as a startup CTO this is both laughably wrong and could have career implications.

LLM's can be tuned to do what you want it to do. It can be as simple as "summarize these notes" to as questionable as "rate this candidate for this job". The former is mostly just a reduction in task and condensation of information. The latter is the opposite: an extrapolation of some conclusion based on given information. This is not the fault of an LLM, but the people using it and the use cases that have been desig…

I get what you are saying but, the same way ad targeting can be used to "serve me more interesting ads" and "surveillance" can be used to find missing children and sex trafficing victims, it isn't being used that way across the board.

Re: Gross Apple Marketing

#232
> In another the same young woman again uses it to lie about reading an email from a college, to her face

If only he'd let Apple Intelligence proof-read his blog post.

Re: Gross Apple Marketing

#233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>the wife asks the AI to make a Woodworking Memory Video, and while they're watching it, it looks like a beach vacation photo is included in the mix What's funny is that google photos sorta makes these sort of random little videos all the time for you and asks if you want to see them. It also suffers from the issue of not really understanding the context from some of the pictures it pulls in. But this is a thing that…

I love google photos little albums and creations. I am the kind of person that almost nevers looks at pictures on their own, so when I get a google photos notifications I always get watch them and get to remember cool memories.

yeah I like them, it's just weird what they pull in sometimes. the ones with my kids often seem to always include the same pictures too, so I always end up seeing this one specific one of my son in basically every slideshow. I wonder if it meets some criteria for being colorful or something.

Re: Gross Apple Marketing

#234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think people present day do not understand how to really use AI.. understand how it can benefit their life. The commercial the OP speaks and the ad agency sounds lame as they arent helping. Personally Ive been enjoying wearing my Ray Bans for the past year and have used them to do things no other glasses can like... - Translate.... was in Canada recently and a sign about Jasper the town i was in was in French. I as…

My problem with all three of these features (besides the terrible privacy impact that other commenters have already addressed) is: As the end user, how do you know and verify the results are actually correct? How do you know the road sign was translated correctly? How do you know that the name of the church was actually correct? How do you know that the estimate given was even close? Your examples were all pretty low…

How do you know any information you get from a source that you can’t personally and independently verify is correct? How do we know a tourist guide book is correct? How do we know our language dictionary is correct? You don’t. People will need to learn to what degree they can actually trust a given source of information and decide how much the risk is worth taking. We do this all the time today, and every time new technology comes along there’s always an adjustment period as we sort out the boundaries of trust (see also people driving off roads and into ponds when GPS was new). The danger to me is not that it can be wrong, it’s that people don’t yet understand it can be wrong. That’s not helped by AI boosters trying to use AI in inappropriate ways and situations, but it’s also not helped by AI doomers that treat every failing of the new technology as proof it’s worthless and will never be useful. Both extremes are speed running a “boy who cried wolf” scenario for losing public trust in what they have to say.

Re: Gross Apple Marketing

#235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's like the Google Pixel ads showing how you can take a picture, and change all of the scenery with AI. Nothing is real, and you can't trust anything you see or hear. I would be pretty disappointed in my wife if she A) forgot my birthday, and B) spent 10 seconds putting together a photo collage using AI. I would expect her to feel the same. Personal and financial circumstances aside, it IS the thought that counts,…

I would rather my SO just tell me they forgot. Then we could have an honest conversation about why. That, I believe, is what you should do in a marriage.

In my marriage i have been slowly trying to move my birthday back one day at a time. After 3 years of effort ive successfully moved it back 1 day and my spouse still gets confused if its 1 or 2 days later, all due to my active efforts. I dont believe anyone should do this in a marriage, but they could!

Re: Gross Apple Marketing

#236
post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The idea that a shlub like this would only just now for the first time be using an LLM like this is what is unbelievable. It's unbelievable that someone would use a brand-new feature on their device for the first time?

Again: It's unbelievable that someone (like this) would be using an LLM to compose an email to their boss for the first time. He's a lazy fuck office stiff (yet still manages to warrant an iMac desktop), you're telling me he's just now starting to use an LLM to compose emails? Sure, whatever. If you think this ad is clever and funny you are entitled to that, you're not going to convince me it isn't idiotic and the jo…

> Again: It's unbelievable that someone (like this) would be using an LLM to compose an email to their boss for the first time.

There's always a first time.

> He's a lazy fuck office stiff (yet still manages to warrant an iMac desktop), you're telling me he's just now starting to use an LLM to compose emails?

I know plenty of "lazy fuck" people not yet using LLMs. Having it built in to the device is likely to change that.

> Even the bastion of pretentious journalism Fast Company has this headline: "In Apple’s new ads for AI tools, we’re all total idiots"

That's fairly standard for ads. Cleaning supplies are sold on a "so easy dads can use it" sort of basis. Prepared food is sold on a "because you can't cook, obviously" basis. etc. I have managers at work who ask me to write client emails for them, even, because I'm a pretty good writer.

> If you're intuitive enough to conclude that an otherwise inarticulate douchebag probably used an LLM to compose an email, why would you "pretend" to be confused?

The actor is pretending. The character is shocked - for comic effect - that such a nice email came from someone who never sends professional ones. In the real world the response is obviously more likely to be "ah, they used ChatGPT this time", but if you expect realism in ads...

This really isn't as complicated to understand as you're making it.

Re: Gross Apple Marketing

#237
post #18

Appple are speaking to the “Everyman”, Canonical are speaking to the tech literate. Different audiences, Apple has power users, but its largest audience is an average person (my wife for example). The average person doesn’t care about tech, they want it to work, work well enough and be dependable. Linux is can be a minefield, and Windows is a mess IMO.

Apple's ads tell you what they think their target audience is, clearly they think it's "bumbling fool that can't do anything right".

You’re simplifying it a bit, but versions of that framing and mindset have brought user interfaces and interactions into existence.

Re: Gross Apple Marketing

#238
post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which iPhone ad can you point me to that doesn’t have a story around a feature at the least? Also since you bring up familiarity, does that Ubuntu ad tell you which version it’s about? What’s it telling even a seasoned Ubuntu veteran? And lastly, there’s a much larger percent of the population that knows what an iPhone is but even if they didn’t, it’s in the name. The ads end with iPhone, by Apple and show the produc…

If you don't know what an iPhone is, what Siri is, this ad spot's is this girl asking on the phone for someone's name and faking remembering the guy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPe8revsg3k Is that a story or one single scene ? Was there someone on the phone ? Is the text bubble that person answering ? or is it just movie magic like so many over ads? It only makes sense as an ad if you know the product, otherwise…

The story is you ask your phone and it tells you. The rest of the details are irrelevant to it.

You don’t need to know how it happens.

And that’s fair about the Ubuntu ad. I think the issue is the Ubuntu ad isn’t trying to be anything much. But the author has positioned it on a podium against the Apple ads where it doesn’t belong. They’re not trying to do the same thing at all, and so framing them that way isn’t fair to Ubuntu

Re: Gross Apple Marketing

#239
post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple have a range of ads to appeal to a range of people. Even back then they had the Mac vs PC or a variety of other ads too that weren’t “cool” but were funny. Tongue in cheek ads have been in their DNA since forever. Take for example the new Mac mini ad which is cute https://youtu.be/JjpGvjy0Gxk?si=Gk1cU80FiJX2KYbC Or just scrolling through their YouTube channel now to find a few over the years Find your Friends h…

Eh, but even in the Find Your Friends ad, where the guy is pretty nerdy and not conventionally cool (I mean he’s going to some cosplay festival), it is still portraying the main character as kind of… somebody you wouldn’t mind being, right? Like he’s doing something nerdy, dressing up in cosplay, but he’s doing it well, he’s got friends, businessmen get out of his way as he strides down the sidewalk. Some of the peop…

Coolness is about being comfortable and confident being yourself these days. Not just outward shows of “coolness” That’s apples brand and has always been.

It’s the “you’re weird, you’re quirky, you’re different, you’re you” of being cool, not the jock/rockstar cool. The iPod commercials just happened to illicit both. But look at most Apple ads through the years and they have a consistent corporate theme.

That’s what is cool. Being confident to meet your friends at a convention in costume is cool.

Idk who said it, but it’s the “personal computer”. The person is key.

Re: Gross Apple Marketing

#240
post #83

I work at a startup in the AI space. We've been working with it for over a year now and I'm of the mind that AI, in it's current state, really isn't a tool meant for an end user to interact with. It feels like it's the most useful when it's transparent and you -- as an end user -- don't know that there's an LLM in the process. The best use cases seem to be those that don't require an end consumer to directly interact…

But it seems like Apple could make "fetch" happen in the past. Their ads were very aspirational, almost like you could become an Olympian if you just owned a Macintosh. These ads though, they're not about "you can do more". They're about "you can care less".

Eh, I mean Apple has had its flops over the years like any company. Their ads were good, but all of their successful products were of high quality when evaluated objectively, in addition to having been marketed well.
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