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Apple shuffles AI executive ranks in bid to turn around Siri

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Re: Apple shuffles AI executive ranks in bid to turn around Siri

#291

Post by kstrauser »

ksec wrote: post #237
ddp26 wrote: post #180

John Giannandrea (JG) was running the Google Assistant when I was there. That didn't go so well. (Pre-LLM assistants as a category have done badly - Alexa/Siri did _ok_ but presumably everyone working on them had higher hopes.) I remember being surprised when JG seemingly "failed up" to become head of Apple AI. It's been many years and it's hard to point to anything that's gone well in that category. Seems like there…

Plenty of examples. The problem isn't JG. It is Tim Cook. He is exceptionally poor at judging character. And I have been saying this for 10+ years. John Browett, CEO of Dixons. Anyone from UK have said WTF at the time. Angela Ahrendts, CEO of Burberry, the two together Apple has literally stopped expanding their Retail store despite having 10x as much customers. Rolled out many "changes" to Apple store when nearly ev…

To be fair, I’d counter with Jobs picking Jony Ive. Ive made gorgeous, lustworthy art objects that sucked as computers. The nadirs for me were iPhone 6’s bendgate and the 2015 MBP. Damn the functionality, we’ll make these suckers so slim you can shave with them! No one was begging for a MBP so thin it had to have compromised keyboard switches. Also consider the mouse that couldn’t charge while you use it, and the trashcan Mac Pro.

Those devices looked beautiful but they weren’t good at actually being used. Jobs let Ive design for a museum, not for the people using his creations. Cook let that continue for a while but finally reined it in and gave us useful designs again.

Which isn’t to say that Cook hasn’t made or isn’t making mistakes. I just meant that as a reminder that it wasn’t all wine and roses under Jobs.

Re: Apple shuffles AI executive ranks in bid to turn around Siri

#292

Post by losvedir »

SirMaster wrote: post #218

Do people actually want this AI stuff in their phone? I don't want AI on my desktop/laptop computer and I don't want it on my phone either. None of my family or friends that I talk to seem to want it either.

I absolutely do. The Apple Intelligence pitch where you can ask it "what time is my mom landing?" and it knows who your mom is, can RAG messages and emails from her to obtain a flight number for today, and then use a tool to look it up and respond back is 100% where the future is heading.

I'm excited for it, and like Apple's high level privacy protecting narrative with the secure cluster stuff. We'll see if they're ever able to deliver.

Has the Pixel Gemini assistant gotten to that level? The Google Assistant was always better, and I know the switch to Gemini was a little rocky at first, but in theory it should be able to do that stuff, without all the privacy verbiage.

Re: Apple shuffles AI executive ranks in bid to turn around Siri

#293

Post by pixl97 »

onemoresoop wrote: post #289
blindriver wrote: post #287

Siri is less than 50% useful when asked a simple question. My kids and I make a joke about it whenever we ask it something in the car. I don't understand how Siri is so exceptionally bad and why Apple didn't do something earlier. It's embarrassing in 2025.

Not only that but Siri seems to even have become worse than it used to be.

Are more people using it more often driving up costs and there are pressure on some managers to reduce said costs?

Re: Apple shuffles AI executive ranks in bid to turn around Siri

#294

Post by subsubzero »

ksec wrote: post #237
ddp26 wrote: post #180

John Giannandrea (JG) was running the Google Assistant when I was there. That didn't go so well. (Pre-LLM assistants as a category have done badly - Alexa/Siri did _ok_ but presumably everyone working on them had higher hopes.) I remember being surprised when JG seemingly "failed up" to become head of Apple AI. It's been many years and it's hard to point to anything that's gone well in that category. Seems like there…

Plenty of examples. The problem isn't JG. It is Tim Cook. He is exceptionally poor at judging character. And I have been saying this for 10+ years. John Browett, CEO of Dixons. Anyone from UK have said WTF at the time. Angela Ahrendts, CEO of Burberry, the two together Apple has literally stopped expanding their Retail store despite having 10x as much customers. Rolled out many "changes" to Apple store when nearly ev…

This is a fantastic comment, I wholeheartedly agree with your assessment on Angela Ahrendts. What was once a magical experience going to a apple store has devolved into a nightmare. A few reasons why:

- The complete removal of spontaneity of the shopping experience. You wander over to look at a laptop and decide you want to buy it. Asking a employee is disagreeable as most have a ear bud in their ear receiving instructions or messages from who knows what, they hurriedly ask if you made an appointment or placed the order online and then rush away and sometimes return.

- Such a heavy emphasis on online booking for every conceivable issue. If you want a genius bar appointment you are angrily told you need an appointment and such an appointment is only available days or weeks away and at a inconvenient time for someone with a 9-5 schedule(Tuesday at 2pm work?).

- Last years accessories are gone. Try finding a iphone case that was made for a phone you bough 7 months ago and an employee looks at you like you are trying to buy a model T - (Wait you are looking for a iphone 15 case, wow thats a really old model, I don't think we have anything for that anymore).

- Insane levels of crowds, I can't think of the last time I saw a apple store open in the past 6-7 years that didn't have crowds inside the store like disneyland with service dogs, screaming kids and grumpy boomers yelling about how to transfer their grandkids photos from a phone to computer, just a terrible experience to deal with.

I bought the first iphone in 2007 and have had a model for almost every two years and have been going to the apple stores since then, and the past few years have seen a huge drop in customer experience due to alot of the issuses I listed above.

Re: Apple shuffles AI executive ranks in bid to turn around Siri

#295

Post by mapper32 »

veidr wrote: post #203
gadders wrote: post #200

David Heinemeier Hansson (Ruby on Rails/37 Signals) has been writing about the state of Apple AI on LinkedIn recently (as well as an additional post that was deleted for using the word "asshole"): https://www.linkedin.com/posts/david-heinemeier-hansson-374b... https://www.linkedin.com/posts/david-heinemeier-hansson-374b...

LOL I did not click the links because I don't want to visit that site (and also have limited interest in what DHH says about Apple Intelligence — not none, but not enough to click it), but I am actually very curious as to why DHH (or anyone, but especially someone like him, with many other places to opine) would post his opinions on LinkedIn of all places...? Can anybody square that circle?

It looks like he's posting on his blog and maybe it cross-posts to linkedin:

https://world.hey.com/dhh/apple-needs-a-new-asshole-in-charg...

https://world.hey.com/dhh/age-is-a-problem-at-apple-f7ae6eca

https://world.hey.com/dhh

Re: Apple shuffles AI executive ranks in bid to turn around Siri

#296

Post by walterbell »

dmix wrote: post #290
blindriver wrote: post #287

Siri is less than 50% useful when asked a simple question. My kids and I make a joke about it whenever we ask it something in the car. I don't understand how Siri is so exceptionally bad and why Apple didn't do something earlier. It's embarrassing in 2025.

Because there was no competition. Alexa similarly gave up trying to improve theirs after it launched. I've never tried Google's voice assistant but I assume it wasn't very interesting before GPT either. I'm not convinced it was a technical limitation, even stuff like voice parsing was not improved or basic functionality expanded horizontally.

Alexa sold 500 million devices. Before layoffs, they had 10K staff doing something. Their LLM product recently launched and is rolling out soon, lead by former head of MS Surface.

Re: Apple shuffles AI executive ranks in bid to turn around Siri

#297

Post by Smaug123 »

quesera wrote: post #274
tiahura wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’d be happy with just being able to accurately position the cursor.

Many people are unaware of the ability to precisely position the cursor with the iOS keyboard by long-pressing the spacebar.

It's still weirdly hard compared to Android, though. It somehow makes decisions about whether to snap to different words or lines when you release the cursor, and I still don't understand the algorithm it uses for that, and I wish it just wouldn't.

Re: Apple shuffles AI executive ranks in bid to turn around Siri

#298

Post by el_benhameen »

ed_mercer wrote: post #108
AnonC wrote: post #55

IMO, Craig Federighi is quite good at presentations and his own style of humor, but he doesn’t seem to have a good grip on the quality of software across all of Apple’s (buggy) platforms and apps. I don’t believe that moving Siri under him (i.e., his reporting structure) is a good idea. Only time will tell. There are far more bugs and issues that are to be fixed (but don’t get attention) than Siri. Anyway Siri has be…

Literally the only time I ever use Siri is to set a timer. That is, if I’m lucky and she actually understands me. It’s such an embarrassment in 2025.

My favorite is asking it to set a timer for n minutes, seeing the timer start and assuming it’s good, and only later realizing that it actually started a timer for n hours or n days. Learned that lesson with some burnt cookies.

Re: Apple shuffles AI executive ranks in bid to turn around Siri

#299

Post by rchaud »

samtheprogram wrote: post #165
rchaud wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

None of my Samsung phones have ever advertised anything to me. Unlike iOS,there are any number of music player apps on Android that stay out of the way and don't try to be a "platform".

> None of my Samsung phones have ever advertised anything to me. I had a Galaxy S8. It definitely did. > Unlike iOS,there are any number of music player apps on Android that stay out of the way and don't try to be a "platform". iOS has other music players too. It was a choice that e.g. doubleTwist stopped supporting iOS when pivoting to CloudPlayer.

Galaxy S8 came out in 2017, almost a decade ago. I understand some budget and mid-range phones have ads, but I (in Canada) have used everything from S7, S8, S12, A51, Z Fold 3, and have never gotten one. There was a "Samsung Hub" app on the midrange A51 (similar to Google Discover), but that can be disabled.

Re: Apple shuffles AI executive ranks in bid to turn around Siri

#300

Post by lynx97 »

codr7 wrote: post #231
ddp26 wrote: post #180

John Giannandrea (JG) was running the Google Assistant when I was there. That didn't go so well. (Pre-LLM assistants as a category have done badly - Alexa/Siri did _ok_ but presumably everyone working on them had higher hopes.) I remember being surprised when JG seemingly "failed up" to become head of Apple AI. It's been many years and it's hard to point to anything that's gone well in that category. Seems like there…

Alternatively, the rumors were true, and Alexa/Siri were actually real people working very cheap for a while.

Wait, are you saying there was a deeper meaning to S5E14 of Big Bang Theory "The Beta Test Initiation"? That would be quite hilarious.
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