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Most iPhone owners see little to no value in Apple Intelligence so far

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Re: Most iPhone owners see little to no value in Apple Intelligence so far

#91
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We’re actively pressured to use co-pilot at work Unless you work at Microsoft, that's really interesting to me. Can't say I've ever experienced a boss pushing for me to use a certain developer tool.

I have many friends telling me their job is actively pushing for them to use AI, asking them to be creative about the use of AI, and in some cases pivoting the business to AI products which have no profit margin for the business. I have worked at many places, and often as soon as there's enough profit and momentum based on the back of some core product the fad chasing begins in earnest.

I've experienced this, it mostly comes with eye-wateringly expensive yearly contracts the company has signed where whoever made the decision needs to show that even low single digit percentages of company staff are using the thing they received a license for.

Re: Most iPhone owners see little to no value in Apple Intelligence so far

#92

This is emblematic of the LLM race in general. We’re actively pressured to use co-pilot at work, and it’s crammed into every Microsoft product. I’m thankful that my iPhone is old enough not to use LLMs. Companies are afraid of being left behind in the new arms race, but that doesn’t actually mean that the technology actually present use-cases which most people need. (Worse are the meeting summaries or emails which ar…

What I don't understand is, what benefit is there for 99% of companies to get in on the ground floor of LLMs? If you're not developing your own model, you're effectively just beta testing someone else's model. And if the sales pitch of LLMs being able to do basically anything comes true, wouldn't most companies still get the same benefit if they just wait? It seems like a lot of companies are so terrified of missing…

Talking about what “companies” are doing is misleading because it suggests thst the actions taken will be driven by the medium to long term interests of the company.

In reality, the decisions are made by individual executives and managers with their own interests in mind who are being asked by the people they report to what they’re doing in AI. And this goes all the way to the top where the CEOs are basically required to tell shareholders how they’ve implemented AI and how it’s helping them a bunch.

One of the nice things about being in AI right now is that your customers will advertise it and lie about how useful it has been.

Re: Most iPhone owners see little to no value in Apple Intelligence so far

#93

We have a family friend who is blind and a programmer. It's interesting to hear his perspective. His hope and expectation are that it will greatly increase usability. I've been thrown into the usability deep end due to my wife also losing her sight due to an autoimmune disorder, and my dad losing his sight due to Macular Degeneration. Honestly, it sucks, and I mean like rage quitting, phone throwing sucks. (Try it. T…

I don't have experience with this kind of problem. But I don't think GenAI is the best tool for this, at least not until it's so rock-solid trustworthy that everyone uses such an interface. Even leaving aside AI questions, if I'm looking for a human personal assistant for someone who's blind, and that person will have unlimited access to their electronic life, I'm going to vet that person very, very carefully.

Re: Most iPhone owners see little to no value in Apple Intelligence so far

#94

We have a family friend who is blind and a programmer. It's interesting to hear his perspective. His hope and expectation are that it will greatly increase usability. I've been thrown into the usability deep end due to my wife also losing her sight due to an autoimmune disorder, and my dad losing his sight due to Macular Degeneration. Honestly, it sucks, and I mean like rage quitting, phone throwing sucks. (Try it. T…

A few days ago, OpenAI released live video integration with Advanced Voice mode for ChatGPT—point your phone at something and ask what it sees, and it will tell you pretty accurately. I thought it was just a cool trick until I read the top comment on their YouTube video announcement: “I'm screaming. As a visually impaired person, this is what I was eagerly waiting for. Still screaming! Thank you, Sam, Kev and the entire team over at OpenAI.”

https://www.youtube.com/live/NIQDnWlwYyQ

Google released a similar feature with Gemini 2.0 last week. While it doesn’t seem to be integrated with a smartphone app yet (at least on iOS), it can be used through the AI Studio browser interface.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42394998

Re: Most iPhone owners see little to no value in Apple Intelligence so far

#95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I don't understand is, what benefit is there for 99% of companies to get in on the ground floor of LLMs? If you're not developing your own model, you're effectively just beta testing someone else's model. And if the sales pitch of LLMs being able to do basically anything comes true, wouldn't most companies still get the same benefit if they just wait? It seems like a lot of companies are so terrified of missing…

I assume they believe in the advantages, to the company, of using these AI tools. Of adding them to the workflow, training their employees, and understanding quickly how it impacts their space. If you just wait and all of your competitors have a workforce enabled and equipped with the best tools, you are at a disadvantage. It's being the company that put off computerization or automation when everyone else went wild.…

ChatGPT thinks 9.11 > 9.9. I'm in no hurry.

Re: Most iPhone owners see little to no value in Apple Intelligence so far

#96
post #2

Apple has tons of user engagement data. You would think they would have a heatmap showing them where their customers are spending a lot of time trying to accomplish a task. I would focus Apple Intelligence, amongst other tools, to reduce the time needed to accomplish that task. If I were the PO, that's how I'd proceed. I'd want my customers to be able to reduce the time they're spending using the phone and yet gettin…

I'm still waiting for Google / Alexa / Siri to be the personal secretary promised a decade ago. Siri can set a timer or simple reminders, and with Apple Intelligence can do a bit more in a more natural language, but the reliability and accuracy drops off incredibly fast once things become more complicated, to the point where they're near-useless.

I'm still disappointed by what I'd consider to be simple stuff, like hands-free operation of my phone while driving, or even just simple instructions on operating the phone without needing to touch it (let alone look at it). I'm having trouble imagining what the product owners at Apple are actually expecting it to help us with - do they use it in their daily lives?

A family member is blind, and in many ways digital assistants and AI voice control have been a godsend, and Apple Intelligence should have been enabling in so many ways. Instead it's an exercise in frustration, advertising hope where there is nope, as well as being all but hostile to blind users (Apple's is the best of a bad bunch). Arguably the switch from tactile buttons to touch screen slabs has removed more autonomy for my relative than AI has added.

It's no wonder that Apple have found that people see no value in Apple Intelligence, then, because it doesn't add any practical value.

Re: Most iPhone owners see little to no value in Apple Intelligence so far

#97
post #85

I'm weirdly happy with Apple taking their time. Seeing AI stuffed into every nook and crevice of various non-Apple apps has made me appreciate apps that use AI tastefully or not at all (counter example: today I tried the LLM built into GitHub's feed page - to describe it as a 'toy' or 'trash' is not overstating how embarrassingly useless it is!). Better not to have junk features, or ones that use AI for AI's sake.

But it seems that the whole Apple Intelligence initiative is impacting iOS 19 [1], which to me makes Apple Intelligence detrimental to the whole OS. Some of the features are nice (smarter Siri, notification summary) others will probably be left to rot like the whole Animoji thing.

[1] https://www.moneycontrol.com/europe/?url=https://www.moneyco...

Re: Most iPhone owners see little to no value in Apple Intelligence so far

#98

So, surveys. "Smartphone users in general are unsatisfied with the existing AI features as the survey recorded 73% of Apple Intelligence users and 87% of Galaxy AI users stating the new features to be either ‘not very valuable’ or they ‘add little to no value’ to their smartphone experience." This could be read as 27% of users, who have tried a brand new way of interacting with their phone, found it useful to some de…

Polls are weird like that, especially for things that have strong brand affinity, like with soda or politics. If Apple falsely announced that they had a new 4D holographic battery and charged an extra $100 for it in new phones, I bet about 25% of users surveyed would report being satisfied with it.

Re: Most iPhone owners see little to no value in Apple Intelligence so far

#99
I'm deeply fatigued by this constant pushing of AI everywhere.

I now actively avoid any of the new AI features and try to block them as soon as possible. Yet they shoving it in all of my tools...notes..os..pics..chats..

There's scenarios where I do use and want the AI features like Cursor or occasionally chatgpt, but that's essentially it.

Re: Most iPhone owners see little to no value in Apple Intelligence so far

#100
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I don't understand is, what benefit is there for 99% of companies to get in on the ground floor of LLMs? If you're not developing your own model, you're effectively just beta testing someone else's model. And if the sales pitch of LLMs being able to do basically anything comes true, wouldn't most companies still get the same benefit if they just wait? It seems like a lot of companies are so terrified of missing…

I think you'll find most people in leadership positions at most companies are not that forward thinking, proactive, or frankly intelligent. I thought cost-benefit and risk was analyzed on most big company decisions, until I sat in rooms for a Fortune 500 where those decisions were getting made. If you assume that everyone everywhere is doing just barely the minimum to not get fired, you're right more often than not.

Career risk is also a very real motivation. If you are an executive at a company whose competitors are jumping on the AI bandwagon, but you are not, you will have to justify that decision towards your superiors or the board and investors. They might decide that you are making a huge strategic blunder and need to be replaced. Being proven right years later doesn't do much for you when you no longer have a job. And if you were wrong, then things look even worse for you. On the other hand, if you do get on the bandwagon yourself, and things go sideways, you can always point to the fact that everyone else was making the same mistake.
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