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Apple Silicon Exec Explains Mac Mini AI Demand and On-Device Future

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Re: Apple Silicon Exec Explains Mac Mini AI Demand and On-Device Future

#231

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

Jcowell wrote: post #216
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sadly, that is an outdated PoV. It has probably not been valid, since last century. It's just that Apple isn't really focused on software development professionals, and it's still fashionable to throw shade on them, so we hear a lot of kvetching about it, in communities like this.

I’m interested to know the ways that Apple doesn’t cater to Software devs the way other OS does. I hate developing on a windows/non-unix machine

I feel that it does, but I’m also a dev. I used to run a multi platform shop for years, and have a pretty good idea of what kind of support various companies give.

Re: Apple Silicon Exec Explains Mac Mini AI Demand and On-Device Future

#232

Post by robotresearcher »

hypercube33 wrote: post #142
wiether wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Buying a new computer at +$500 just to have iMessage access feels insane to me. OpenClaw supports all the mainstream (and free) chat apps like Discord, WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram... None of them requiring a MacOS machine. Is it a lack of knowledge from the users or do they really value iMessage integration that much?

What I don't get is where is the Mac Mini Neo at like $350? Neos tiny motherboard in a box with some more ports would be awesome.

Apart from the ports, that’s roughly the AppleTV hardware. A macOS or Linux port to that would be a cute thin client. Not gonna happen, but cute.

Re: Apple Silicon Exec Explains Mac Mini AI Demand and On-Device Future

#233

Post by ingenieroariel »

habosa wrote: post #219

Apple has totally failed to deliver interesting AI experiences so far ... and I still think they're going to be the dominant provider of AI in 5 years. We're just one or two advances in chips / models / both away from being able to run very good local models for free on mid-tier Apple devices. The privacy, cost, and latency story there will be too much for OpenAI/Anthropic/Google to beat. Just writing this down so I…

I wrote: "we should all be buying a fully loaded Mac Studio (128GB of ram, 20 CPU cores, a lot of GPU and Neural cores.)" April, 2023

We are both late and early.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35527692

Re: Apple Silicon Exec Explains Mac Mini AI Demand and On-Device Future

#234

Post by ransom1538 »

habosa wrote: post #219

Apple has totally failed to deliver interesting AI experiences so far ... and I still think they're going to be the dominant provider of AI in 5 years. We're just one or two advances in chips / models / both away from being able to run very good local models for free on mid-tier Apple devices. The privacy, cost, and latency story there will be too much for OpenAI/Anthropic/Google to beat. Just writing this down so I…

"Apple has totally failed to deliver interesting AI experiences so far ..."

You think this is a mistake...

Re: Apple Silicon Exec Explains Mac Mini AI Demand and On-Device Future

#235

Post by narrator »

ralusek wrote: post #222
coldtea wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That proves that spinning up US fabs takes ages. Chinese fabs might not be so tied with red tape and regulation upon regulation (which is a funny reversal, in terms of "communism vs capitalism" bureucracy/inefficiency cold war thinking)

1.) China is not communist, even remotely so. China is fascist in every sense of the word. 2.) Authoritarianism can move faster than anything. They can just say "wipe out that village, build the coal plant there, data center here, fab here. 3.) If it's red tape and regulation holding the US back, then that's clearly not "capitalism."

I think the most ironic fact of the 21st century is that there are less than 20,000 naturalized citizens in China. Western leftists don't really have a good explanation for that one and it definitely leans into the fascist characterization.

Re: Apple Silicon Exec Explains Mac Mini AI Demand and On-Device Future

#236

Post by _verandaguy »

habosa wrote: post #219

Apple has totally failed to deliver interesting AI experiences so far ... and I still think they're going to be the dominant provider of AI in 5 years. We're just one or two advances in chips / models / both away from being able to run very good local models for free on mid-tier Apple devices. The privacy, cost, and latency story there will be too much for OpenAI/Anthropic/Google to beat. Just writing this down so I…

I'm perfectly happy with Apple not becoming an "everything we do is AI-centric" business.

I'm fatigued by it all at this point. It's streamlining the interesting and fun parts out of my job (by practical necessity of use there), and if I used it half as much outside of work I'm sure it'd do the same there too.

Re: Apple Silicon Exec Explains Mac Mini AI Demand and On-Device Future

#237

Post by thesurlydev »

habosa wrote: post #219

Apple has totally failed to deliver interesting AI experiences so far ... and I still think they're going to be the dominant provider of AI in 5 years. We're just one or two advances in chips / models / both away from being able to run very good local models for free on mid-tier Apple devices. The privacy, cost, and latency story there will be too much for OpenAI/Anthropic/Google to beat. Just writing this down so I…

Did you mean 5 months? :)

Re: Apple Silicon Exec Explains Mac Mini AI Demand and On-Device Future

#238

Post by spiralpolitik »

mikeocool wrote: post #182
Sebastian_09 wrote: post #89

What I’m not sure to understand is that if you want to just run Claude code or openclaw type software with llm apis or subscriptions (and not run local models) to benefit from a local file system and always-on capability for ‘second brain’ type of workflows, I guess you don’t need a Mac mini but can run it on a raspberry pi or an old laptop ? Does anyone have experience with that ?

Yeah I find the Mac mini trend is kind of baffling. It seems like it's driven either by 1) people hearing Macs are good for AI, buying one, and using Claude for inference, not realizing that you interact with the anthropic API from an internet connected hair dryer. Or 2) people want their agents to have blue bubbles. I find it hard to believe that enough normal people are doing on device inference is driving Mac Mini…

There are two angles to this. One is that if you want to integrate your agent setup into the Apple ecosystem you need a network connected Mac running 24/7.

The second is that the puck is heading towards local models. The people running their own 'Claws are usually experimenting running their own services either to save money or to explore the future where 95% of requests are handled on device.

Re: Apple Silicon Exec Explains Mac Mini AI Demand and On-Device Future

#239

Post by kylehotchkiss »

When you don't limit on-device AI to "can be used to run coding model", Mac minis are great. My M4/16gb been working on a long term research project using Qwen 2.5 8b for months now. The performance is good enough for processing a lot of small text prompts.

Re: Apple Silicon Exec Explains Mac Mini AI Demand and On-Device Future

#240

Post by bigyabai »

jiqiren wrote: post #93
bigyabai wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or they could use that same amount of memory to ship 64x Macbook Neos, and probably make higher margins off the hardware volume. Those Macbook Neo users would be very reliant on Apple intelligence, enough maybe to pay for a service with it. I think Apple's much happier going this path.

When I was at Apple we never wanted or. We wanted all. If that push to use Chinese memory works out it will be great for us and Apple.

Apple sure doesn't act like it. The Mac is still a minority market share of PCs, and their entrants into spaces like AR do nothing to compete with incumbents.

Now that the Mac Pro is depreciated, Apple's plan to pivot to service offerings seems set in stone. That's the "want it all" attitude they've adopted with the App Store.

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