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Apple shuffles AI executive ranks in bid to turn around Siri

finance.yahoo.com

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

#381

Post by herbturbo »

kstrauser wrote: post #291
ksec wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 tra…

So every other iPhone, the iPad, the MacBook Air, AirPods and the Watch were not useful because of one bendy phone and a bad keyboard? What great feat of design did Tim Cook bring us?

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

#382

Post by pesus »

mplanchard wrote: post #188
ed_mercer wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This is also one of my only uses of Siri, and the only one it gets right the large majority of the time. I also try to use it to se reminders in the future, but it’s a crapshoot whether it will get the date and/or reminder text correct. I may be remembering incorrectly, but I honestly think it was better when it was released years ago than it is today.

> I may be remembering incorrectly, but I honestly think it was better when it was released years ago than it is today.

I think you're remembering correctly. Siri used to work much better for basic tasks, and didn't seem to randomly fail for no discernible reason. I can't remember what iOS updates changed things, but there were at least a few that absolutely degraded Siri's functionality. One that stuck out to me was when Siri was one day suddenly unable to correctly respond to "play all songs shuffled" - it worked fine for years, but after an update, just decided it couldn't do that anymore.

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

#383

Post by pm90 »

lsllc wrote: post #324
ksec wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 big company problem. When companies grow, they eschew the folks who helped build it from the ground up and are intimately familiar with the business, products and customers in favor of people who have "worked at big companies". But in most cases, they didn't actually build them. So all they have to offer is the "big company baggage" that they were exposed to previously. You can imagine how it usually works…

“Big Company Experience” is a fucking plague. Smaller companies hire from them thinking they will bring magic sauce but all they bring is toxicity and political baggage. Meanwhile the people who went against all odds to get the company to where it is are pushed out, because “they’re not the right fit for this scale”. Nobody who says this ever talks about growing people into those roles.

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

#384

Post by viraptor »

whynotminot wrote: post #368
viraptor wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not processor dependent. The OS is just buggy. Actually the only thing that is processor dependent is dtrace failing on Apple silicon and not fixed for years. Other bugs are very generic. I get focus bugs, password input box broken on lockscreen, search just not working in settings app, xcode crashing if I even look at it wrong, and lots more...

Did you see the part where I said macOS on my M1-based laptop is great?

Yes, that's why I'm saying - no, they're not better and I do see issues on Apple silicon. You got lucky so far.

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

#385

Post by [deleted] »

jjtheblunt wrote: post #362
ksec wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

As an ex Apple engineer myself, I've got to say the Angela Ahrendts thing was profoundly disgusting, and a partial reason i quit, despite thriving in a great team. They gave her 75 million dollars vesting over 3 years, as i recall, she did jack shit, and quit the day after all the money vested. Total failure of character judgement not only of the Burberry lady but of the hardcore engineers who believed in Apple (and…

[deleted]

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

#386

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

MPSFounder wrote: post #376
lsllc wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a big company problem. When companies grow, they eschew the folks who helped build it from the ground up and are intimately familiar with the business, products and customers in favor of people who have "worked at big companies". But in most cases, they didn't actually build them. So all they have to offer is the "big company baggage" that they were exposed to previously. You can imagine how it usually works…

Disagree. This is a founder problem. Once founders go away, you are left with the MBAs and characters that are fit for business, but lack the umph you are describing.

Yeah, agree with your take. I think it's especially odd to describe Apple as suffering from this "big company problem" given that it seems like the execs there have tenures much longer than the norm. Cook has been at Apple since 1998, shortly after Jobs' return. Federighi originally worked at NeXT when it was acquired by Apple. Eddy Cue has been at Apple since 1989 and his Wikipedia page says he was instrumental in creating Apple's online store in '98.

Sure, Jobs was such a unique visionary and it was inevitable that things would change after his death, but I still find folks tend to minimize his missteps (the Cube, antenna-gate), while somehow shitting on Cook despite Cook managing the giant ship that is Apple extremely well for nearly 15 years.

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

#387

Post by kjkjadksj »

musictubes wrote: post #269
ksec wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

The biggest thing that Ahrendts did was merge the online and physical stores. People forget that before she came around there was very little overlap. If you bought something online and you wanted to return it you had to ship it back instead of going to a store. It was one of the things that Cook wanted to get done by retail. Katie Cotton’s departure was in no doubt at least partly to do with her health. She died not…

Funny how that seemingly forgettable caveat is seen as a huge achievement for an executive. As a customer my biggest issue with the apple store is not the return process. It is the lack of them for the population of apple customers given how long it takes to get attended to and the difficulty of securing genius bar appointments. It worked alright 15 years ago but the stores needed to expand along with iPhone market share and they did not at all.

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

#388

Post by madeofpalk »

caycep wrote: post #351
kstrauser wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 tra…

that being said, Ive was important in asking why physical form factors should make sense in human terms. Big computers w/ a lot of ports make sense to comp sci/ee ppl in the lab but people in the real world have priorities more in line with Ive. Without Ive challenging the design, Apple wouldn't have even tried.

Who's responsible for designing the trash can Mac Pro?

> “I think we designed ourselves into a bit of a thermal corner, if you will,” one of Apple’s top executives reportedly said.

https://www.theverge.com/2017/4/4/15175994/apple-mac-pro-fai...

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

#389

Post by whynotminot »

viraptor wrote: post #384
whynotminot wrote: post #368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you see the part where I said macOS on my M1-based laptop is great?

Yes, that's why I'm saying - no, they're not better and I do see issues on Apple silicon. You got lucky so far.

For years now. I guess I’ve had a good run.

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

#390

Post by kjkjadksj »

caycep wrote: post #351
kstrauser wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 tra…

that being said, Ive was important in asking why physical form factors should make sense in human terms. Big computers w/ a lot of ports make sense to comp sci/ee ppl in the lab but people in the real world have priorities more in line with Ive. Without Ive challenging the design, Apple wouldn't have even tried.

It is just funny how this hyper lean design philosophy ushered in an era of littering your desk, school, and workplace with random usbc dongles from storied $5 chinese brands like iKLingKing or Daehoo and whatever else. So much for the minimalism in practice. At least they created a great deal of work for these chinese producers on amazon.
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