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John Giannandrea named to Apple’s executive team

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Re: John Giannandrea named to Apple’s executive team

#41

Post by rrdharan »

m0zg wrote: post #27
dwighttk wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who is this best of the best that they didn't hire?

Everyone who cares even a little about their academic career. Apple doesn't really let you publish. Even pop-sci articles they do publish on their website don't have any names. I know no sane researcher who would agree to end their academic participation so abruptly, particularly in order to work for an organization widely perceived as a perennial laggard.

Actually they fixed that 2 years ago:

https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2016/12/6/13858354/app...

https://machinelearning.apple.com/

Re: John Giannandrea named to Apple’s executive team

#42

Post by danso »

m0zg wrote: post #21
dboreham wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Um...you know JG was formerly at Google doing all that magic you love and is now at Apple, right?

JG was _managing people_ doing the magic. There's a difference. By himself, he can't really do much. He's not even a ML/DL guy per se.

So you concede that there was “magic” being done at Google, but you want to argue that Giannandrea’s leadership of the search and AI teams had nothing to do with it?

Re: John Giannandrea named to Apple’s executive team

#43

Post by onlyrealcuzzo »

Despegar wrote: post #30
m0zg wrote: post #16

It's just unbelievable to me that the company sitting on a quarter trillion dollars is unwilling to spend a small fraction of that hoard to hire the best of the best in order to fix the very thing that will kill their cash cow in the next 5 years. I'm on iOS myself (and have been faithful since the first iPhone), but $30 Google Home puck feels like it's from the future. Understands me perfectly, comes up with decent…

I'll take that bet. The iPhone is going to keep printing money for the next 15-20 years at least. Apple is a 40 year old company, and they're still raking in the dough from their original product category.

15-20 years? How are you SURE that smartphones will still be a thing in 20 years? Let alone that Apple will still be the hip premium brand? 20 years is a LONG time. The average lifespan for an S&P 500 company is less than that these days.

Re: John Giannandrea named to Apple’s executive team

#44

Post by danso »

m0zg wrote: post #39
dwighttk wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

so is it "they won't open their wallet!" or "they won't let you publish!"

How about both. Google, Microsoft, and Facebook both pay their researchers very well and let them publish extensively. That's why they have world-leading research organizations, and Apple does not.

If Google’s strategy is to be emulated, then why is hiring someone who was part of that strategy a bad move on Apple’s part?

Re: John Giannandrea named to Apple’s executive team

#45

Post by m0zg »

rrdharan wrote: post #41
m0zg wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone who cares even a little about their academic career. Apple doesn't really let you publish. Even pop-sci articles they do publish on their website don't have any names. I know no sane researcher who would agree to end their academic participation so abruptly, particularly in order to work for an organization widely perceived as a perennial laggard.

Actually they fixed that 2 years ago: https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2016/12/6/13858354/app... https://machinelearning.apple.com/

But... they didn't. In the very page you linked, try to find a single name of a concrete researcher who wrote/contributed to the article. If there's no name on the paper it's not "publishing".

Re: John Giannandrea named to Apple’s executive team

#46

Post by greglindahl »

danso wrote: post #26
m0zg wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

JG was _managing people_ doing the magic. There's a difference. By himself, he can't really do much. He's not even a ML/DL guy per se.

If there’s one company that’s proved how successful non-technical leaders can be, it would seemingly be Apple.

jg isn't non-technical.

Re: John Giannandrea named to Apple’s executive team

#47

Post by Despegar »

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #43
Despegar wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll take that bet. The iPhone is going to keep printing money for the next 15-20 years at least. Apple is a 40 year old company, and they're still raking in the dough from their original product category.

15-20 years? How are you SURE that smartphones will still be a thing in 20 years? Let alone that Apple will still be the hip premium brand? 20 years is a LONG time. The average lifespan for an S&P 500 company is less than that these days.

Shifts in computing paradigms are incredibly rare. The smartphone is unlikely to be replaced for a long time to come. There will be plenty of head fakes along the way no doubt (smart speakers and voice bots come to mind), but the smartphone is simply too good and has too much utility to be easily challenged.

And you also have to make a bet that Apple won't come to dominate that area as well (even if they aren't first to it). AR glasses have some promise to be a new general purpose computing platform, but even then I'm skeptical that it will be able to mount a serious challenge to the smartphone.

Re: John Giannandrea named to Apple’s executive team

#48

Post by goatherders »

Despegar wrote: post #30
m0zg wrote: post #16

It's just unbelievable to me that the company sitting on a quarter trillion dollars is unwilling to spend a small fraction of that hoard to hire the best of the best in order to fix the very thing that will kill their cash cow in the next 5 years. I'm on iOS myself (and have been faithful since the first iPhone), but $30 Google Home puck feels like it's from the future. Understands me perfectly, comes up with decent…

I'll take that bet. The iPhone is going to keep printing money for the next 15-20 years at least. Apple is a 40 year old company, and they're still raking in the dough from their original product category.

Any amount you want to bet...ill take the side that there will not be an "iPhone 25."

Re: John Giannandrea named to Apple’s executive team

#49

Post by psychometry »

m0zg wrote: post #39
dwighttk wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

so is it "they won't open their wallet!" or "they won't let you publish!"

How about both. Google, Microsoft, and Facebook both pay their researchers very well and let them publish extensively. That's why they have world-leading research organizations, and Apple does not.

Do you have evidence that Apple pays AI researchers less than those other companies? Honestly I'm not sure that you even understand the argument you're trying to make. The rest of us here certainly don't.

Re: John Giannandrea named to Apple’s executive team

#50

Post by seunosewa »

Despegar wrote: post #30
m0zg wrote: post #16

It's just unbelievable to me that the company sitting on a quarter trillion dollars is unwilling to spend a small fraction of that hoard to hire the best of the best in order to fix the very thing that will kill their cash cow in the next 5 years. I'm on iOS myself (and have been faithful since the first iPhone), but $30 Google Home puck feels like it's from the future. Understands me perfectly, comes up with decent…

I'll take that bet. The iPhone is going to keep printing money for the next 15-20 years at least. Apple is a 40 year old company, and they're still raking in the dough from their original product category.

> The iPhone is going to keep printing money for the next 15-20 years at least.

How? The improvements to the iPhone are less compelling every year, while the prices are going up. The company recently stopped reporting iPhone sales numbers.

> Apple is a 40 year old company, and they're still raking in the dough from their original product category.

Are they, though? Aren't Mac sales insignificant compared to iPhone sales? Haven't the latest Macbooks suffered from significant feature regressions?

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