Tim Cook rallying Apple employees around AI efforts • Hacker News Board

Re: Tim Cook rallying Apple employees around AI efforts

#51

Post by xnx » Sat, Aug 02, 2025, 1:52 PM UTC

aunty_helen wrote: post #10

tiahura wrote: post #6

Deep breath. There’s no sense in trying to outcompete Google in burning cash. They’ve got time to wait until there’s the beginning of commodification of the tech, and a large profitable market to be had.

Or, apples just so bad at this they’re fumbling the bag. Billions in cash on hand each quarter but don’t have the balls that zuck has to pay unreasonable money. They have their own hardware like google does but are talking about perplexity??? They have all data but can’t seem to get an llm that can set an alarm and be a chatbot at the same time? Sometimes company’s just don’t do good enough.

> They have all data but can’t seem to get an llm that can set an alarm and be a chatbot at the same time?

This does seem like an embarrassing fail, but even Google has not completed replacing Assistant with Gemini. There have also been lost functionality (maybe temporary) in the process.

Re: Tim Cook rallying Apple employees around AI efforts

#52

Post by unsigner » Sat, Aug 02, 2025, 1:52 PM UTC

viraptor wrote: post #29

> there was a smartphone before the iPhone; there were many tablets before the iPad; there was an MP3 player before iPod That's the biggest shift I've heard from Apple. They were either "first" or ignored the existence of competing features/products for ages. I'm really surprised by this quote. Compare "smartphones before iPhone" to the original announcement: > iPhone also ushers in an era of software power and sophi…

I've heard the phrase "through Apple new technologies achieve their final form", possibly not official Apple but one of the Apple choir bloggers (Gruber?).

There were smartphones before iPhone, now all smartphones are black featureless rectangles. There were printers before LaserWriter, then for 20 years all printers became this. (And later disappeared.) There were wireless heaphones before Airpods, now the difference is in the shape of the stubs. There were laptops before the Macbook Air... etc

Re: Tim Cook rallying Apple employees around AI efforts

#53

Post by lapcat » Sat, Aug 02, 2025, 1:53 PM UTC

Serious question: Did Apple employees need rallying?

Also, it sounds like Cook and Federighi just repeated talking points the public has already heard, so I'm not sure what the point of this was.

If there are any current Apple employees here, maybe they can weigh in.

Re: Tim Cook rallying Apple employees around AI efforts

#54

Post by unsigner » Sat, Aug 02, 2025, 1:53 PM UTC

aunty_helen wrote: post #10

tiahura wrote: post #6

Deep breath. There’s no sense in trying to outcompete Google in burning cash. They’ve got time to wait until there’s the beginning of commodification of the tech, and a large profitable market to be had.

Or, apples just so bad at this they’re fumbling the bag. Billions in cash on hand each quarter but don’t have the balls that zuck has to pay unreasonable money. They have their own hardware like google does but are talking about perplexity??? They have all data but can’t seem to get an llm that can set an alarm and be a chatbot at the same time? Sometimes company’s just don’t do good enough.

they are not talking about perplexity; the endless rumor mill talks about perplexity. The same that has them buying everything from Disney to Porsche to Nike for decades.

Re: Tim Cook rallying Apple employees around AI efforts

#55

Post by unsigner » Sat, Aug 02, 2025, 1:58 PM UTC

paulpauper wrote: post #18

bigyabai wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't a larger concern that Tim "Services" Cook failed to skate where the puck was headed on this one? 15 years ago the Mac had Nvidia drivers, OpenCL support and a considerable stake in professional HPC. Today's Macs have none of that. Every business has to make tradeoffs, it's just hard to imagine that any of these decisions were truly worthwhile with the benefit of hindsight. After the botched launch of Vision Pro…

Macs are basically a dead business. The key is somehow creating the AI equivalent of an App Store or something

Dead business?

The Mac is something like 30 billion in revenue per year, and 10 billion in profit.

The entire "generative AI" "industry" is struggling to reach 30 billion in revenue even with their creative accounting (my free Perplexity that comes with Revolut is somehow counted at full price, even though I never paid anything, and I'm sure Revolut doesn't pay full price), and gross profit is deep in the negative.

Re: Tim Cook rallying Apple employees around AI efforts

#56

Post by politelemon » Sat, Aug 02, 2025, 1:58 PM UTC

troad wrote: post #32

viraptor wrote: post #29

> there was a smartphone before the iPhone; there were many tablets before the iPad; there was an MP3 player before iPod That's the biggest shift I've heard from Apple. They were either "first" or ignored the existence of competing features/products for ages. I'm really surprised by this quote. Compare "smartphones before iPhone" to the original announcement: > iPhone also ushers in an era of software power and sophi…

That's actually very consistent for Apple. Apple doesn't generally claim to be the first to do something, but have always taken the line that they're the first to execute it well . Hence their fondness for words like 'reimagine', 'revolutionise', etc.

> Apple doesn't generally claim to be the first to do something

Strongly disagree with this. Their marketing often claims inventing things that have existed.

Re: Tim Cook rallying Apple employees around AI efforts

#57

Post by lotsofpulp » Sat, Aug 02, 2025, 1:58 PM UTC

SebFender wrote: post #49

lotsofpulp wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don’t think Apple makes moves? Not everyone has to make the same move at the same time.

Apple did many - Just not the right or good ones in the past decade.

Services (icloud and music and tv)/airpods/watch/M processors and the new modem seem like good ones.

If those don’t seem like right or good moves, I can’t imagine much will impress you in this world.

Re: Tim Cook rallying Apple employees around AI efforts

#58

Post by reactordev » Sat, Aug 02, 2025, 2:06 PM UTC

indy wrote: post #47

Tim Cook is a "Keep things ticking along" CEO, not a "Change course to a new destination" CEO. Initiatives like this will probably require different leadership to succeed.

Exactly, Tim Cook is a finance guy - he knows the numbers and how to keep Apple profitable. What he lacks is product vision. His one opportunity (ironically, vision) fell flat.

Re: Tim Cook rallying Apple employees around AI efforts

#59

Post by koakuma-chan » Sat, Aug 02, 2025, 2:12 PM UTC

bni wrote: post #37

What other companies have successfully integrated LLM tech in their mainstream products? To be clear, just having a chatbot website/app does not count.

Are you implying Apple integrated AI successfully? How do you use AI in Apple products?

Re: Tim Cook rallying Apple employees around AI efforts

#60

Post by ljlolel » Sat, Aug 02, 2025, 2:15 PM UTC

reactordev wrote: post #58

indy wrote: post #47

Tim Cook is a "Keep things ticking along" CEO, not a "Change course to a new destination" CEO. Initiatives like this will probably require different leadership to succeed.

Exactly, Tim Cook is a finance guy - he knows the numbers and how to keep Apple profitable. What he lacks is product vision. His one opportunity (ironically, vision) fell flat.

Don’t downvote this guy! Interesting to note that he probably constantly got criticized for not having vision, so he took that literally and called the product Vision Pro.

It’s the kind of mistake an LLM would make. Very Lacanian.