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Apple picks Gemini to power Siri

cnbc.com

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Re: Apple picks Gemini to power Siri

#371

Post by WorldMaker »

layer8 wrote: post #129
Angostura wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And you don't think they will include an abstraction layer?

An abstraction layer doesn’t prevent Google from seeing the data. Last year the story was that Apple would be running a Google model on their (Apple’s) own server hardware.

This story says the custom model will run on-device and in Apple's Private Cloud Compute. The implication is that Google will not see the data. The "promise" of Private Cloud Compute is that Apple wants it to be trusted like "on-device".

Presumably cutting Google out of getting the data from this is part of why this story first was mentioned last year but is only now sounds close to happening. I think it's the same story/project.

Re: Apple picks Gemini to power Siri

#372

Post by cush »

baxtr wrote: post #289
cush wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Gemini is objectively a good model (whether it's #1 or #5 in ranking aside) so Apple can confidently deliver a good (enough) product Definitely. At at this point, Apple just needs to get anything out the door. It was nearly two years ago they sold a phone with features that still haven't shipped and the promise that Apple Intelligence would come in two months.

What are the top 3 features you’re missing right now?

I'll bite

1. Have a user interface. Sometimes I'll ask a question and Siri actually provides a good enough answer, and while I'm reading it, the Siri response window just disappears. Siri is this modal popup with no history, no App, and no UI at all really. Siri doesn't have a user interface, and it should have one so that I can go back to sessions and resume them or reference them later and interact with Siri in more meaningful ways.

2. Answer questions like a modern LLM does. Siri often responds with very terse web links. I find this useful when I'm sitting with friends and we don't remember if Lliam Neeson is alive or not - for basic fact-checking. This is the only use case where it's useful I've found, when I want to peel my attention away for the shortest period of time. If ChatGPT could be bound to a power button long-press, then I'd cease to use Siri for this use case. Otherwise Siri isn't good for long questions because it doesn't have the intelligence, and as mentioned before, has no user interface.

3. Be able to do things conversationally, based on my context. Today, when I "Add to my calendar Games at Dave's house" it creates a calendar entry called "Games" and sets the location to a restaurant called "Dave's House" in a different country. My baseline expectation is that I should be able to work with Siri, build its memory and my context, and over time it becomes smarter about the things I like to do. The day Siri responds with "Do you mean Dave's House the restaurant in another country, or Dave, from your contacts?" I'll be happy.

Re: Apple picks Gemini to power Siri

#373

Post by WorldMaker »

lolive wrote: post #276

What happens to on-device intelligence? Does it stay a massive part of the Apple Intelligence offer? Or can we expect everything to be offloaded to the cloud?

Apple seems positioning this announcement as "on-device intelligence", with the caveat that Apple is promoting their Private Cloud Compute as "on-device" or at least "on-device-like". I'd be curious if they do a breakdown of what they expect to do on-device versus what happens in Private Cloud Compute for this Siri project. I'm a little on the fence if Private Cloud Compute counts as "on-device" as well, but I'm hopeful it is a good idea and is as well built/considered as its documentation says it is.

Re: Apple picks Gemini to power Siri

#377

Post by 46493168 »

DrewADesign wrote: post #367
blitzar wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple might have gotten very lucky here ... the money might be in finding uses, and selling physical products rather than burning piles of cash training models that are SOTA for 5 minutes before being yet another model in a crowded field. My money is still on Apple and Google to be the winners from LLMs.

Yeah… there’s this “bro— do you even business?” vibe in the tech world right now pointed at any tech firm not burning oil tankers full of cash ( and oil , for that matter,) training a giant model. That money isn’t free — the economic consequences of burning billions to make a product that will be several steps behind, at best, are giant. There’s a very real chance these companies won’t recoup that money if their prod…

>Nobody is going to not buy an iPhone because they’re using a third-party model.

You're right, and this is proven. Apple has fumbled a whole release cycle on AI and severely curbed expectations, and they still sell 200m iPhones a year and lead the market [0]

[0] https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/apple-leads-g...

Re: Apple picks Gemini to power Siri

#378

Post by cpeterso »

Ninjinka wrote: post #226
cpeterso wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Neither Apple's nor Google's announcement says Siri will use Gemini models. Both announcements say, word for word, "Google’s technology provides the most capable foundation for Apple Foundation Models". I don't know what that means, but Apple and Google's marketing teams must have crafted that awkward wording carefully to satisfy some contractual nuance.

Check again: https://x.com/NewsFromGoogle/status/2010760810751017017?s=20 "These models will help power future Apple Intelligence features, including a more personalized Siri coming this year."

I see what you mean, though I think “these models” refers to Apple’s Foundation Models, which “will be based on Google's Gemini models and cloud technology.” I guess it depends on wrist “based” means.

Re: Apple picks Gemini to power Siri

#379

Post by estearum »

lvl155 wrote: post #346
estearum wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

During his tenure as CEO, Tim Cook has added $700 million per day in enterprise value to Apple. Per day! For 14 years!

I was not aware HN is now an investment discussion board. Even if you were to argue that point, what’s his incremental value comped to but-for world? I mean one where Steve Jobs is still alive and running Apple. I am sure Jobs would’ve sat on his behind milking iPhones and just let Google, Microsoft, Meta and Nvidia take the entire AI TAM. I am sure that’s the Steve Jobs we all knew.

There are many dimensions one could assess a management team, but it is obviously ridiculous to call them “a joke” when they achieve their principal goal at such astonishing scale.

I am certain Apple will do just fine in the AI revolution, in large part because such a massive distribution and brand advantage is extremely hard to overcome.

Re: Apple picks Gemini to power Siri

#380

Post by xmcqdpt2 »

tech-historian wrote: post #322
elzbardico wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, they stopped. Culture is overrated. Money talks. They did things far more complicated from an engineering perspective. I am far more impressed by what they accomplished along TSMC with Apple Silicon than by what AI labs do.

Is Apple silicon really that impressive compared to LLMs? Take a step back. CPUs have been getting faster and more efficient for decades. Google invented the transformer architecture, the backbone of modern LLMs.

You can understand how transformers work from just reading the Attention is All You Need paper, which is 15 pages of pretty accessible DL. That's not the part that is impressive about LLMs.
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