AI seems to be a product if you're Anthropic (the seller) and any enterprise with a software team (the buyer).
I agree with Gruber's take, if the seller is Apple.
AI is a technology not a product
51–60 of 224 posts
Re: AI is a technology not a product
#52Agreed. The ideal implementation of AI for Apple is probably to finally make Siri work. This isn’t necessary fancy, just let me set some calendar events without knowing the magic words or tell it to open Overcast and play the new Gastropod episode. Better yet, for power users, let me set up reusable shortcuts using natural language. The most important part of this is it doesn’t necessarily feel like AI. The user does…
> This isn’t necessary fancy, just let me set some calendar events without knowing the magic words or tell it to open Overcast and play the new Gastropod episode. Better yet, for power users, let me set up reusable shortcuts using natural language. Isn’t this the proverbial ”faster horse”? Ie let me do exactly what I can do now, in a very slightly different, possibly very slightly more convenient way?
If the user asks for a faster horse and you sell them a car, you win.
If the user asks for a faster horse and you sell them a trebuchet, you lose, no matter how fast the trebuchet would technically get them to their destination.
Re: AI is a technology not a product
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
> This isn’t necessary fancy, just let me set some calendar events without knowing the magic words or tell it to open Overcast and play the new Gastropod episode. Better yet, for power users, let me set up reusable shortcuts using natural language. Isn’t this the proverbial ”faster horse”? Ie let me do exactly what I can do now, in a very slightly different, possibly very slightly more convenient way?
The whole point of AI is that if something different happens, it's not you doing it.
Exactly as a UX person who watched the movie H.E.R. A few times i feel something like is the next UX internet evolution… talking and texting to AI where all visuals need to be seen appear your iPhones lock screen. Siri would in the background communicate with AI agents of businesses to govt organizations to organizations to your friends and family to get things done for you. Lessen the need to unlock your phone and Apples creating AI AirPods just use the iPhones lock screen to create/show the appropriate visuals and text.
As UX / UI professional of 17 years I think design is a dying field the above would kill digital UI design quicker. Yet the UX would be less steps / friction to complete tasks which is the harbinger of UX design…less is more.
On a side note I’m just in medical school studying a mid level Concentration. I don’t foresee a LONG term future in digital design and development much anymore.
Re: AI is a technology not a product
#54Agreed. The ideal implementation of AI for Apple is probably to finally make Siri work. This isn’t necessary fancy, just let me set some calendar events without knowing the magic words or tell it to open Overcast and play the new Gastropod episode. Better yet, for power users, let me set up reusable shortcuts using natural language. The most important part of this is it doesn’t necessarily feel like AI. The user does…
Absolutely agreed. It feels like tech companies forgot that they are supposed to add value to users. Theyve been shoving random AI usecases down their users throats with no regard for whether it works for the users flow or not. When theres so much value to be had from AI in normal products. Claude code is the best in this right now, probably because the engineers themselves are users. This isnt unprecedented, its wha…
>Absolutely agreed. It feels like tech companies forgot that they are supposed to add value to users.
They lost the plot long ago. They're firmly in extraction mode now: how much value can they get from end-users?
Re: AI is a technology not a product
#55Agreed. The ideal implementation of AI for Apple is probably to finally make Siri work. This isn’t necessary fancy, just let me set some calendar events without knowing the magic words or tell it to open Overcast and play the new Gastropod episode. Better yet, for power users, let me set up reusable shortcuts using natural language. The most important part of this is it doesn’t necessarily feel like AI. The user does…
The thing which kills me is a lot of this was working back in the Newton days.
Can you expand on this? Having used two different Newton models, even squinting, I don’t understand what you’re getting at.
Re: AI is a technology not a product
#56Re: AI is a technology not a product
#57Agreed. The ideal implementation of AI for Apple is probably to finally make Siri work. This isn’t necessary fancy, just let me set some calendar events without knowing the magic words or tell it to open Overcast and play the new Gastropod episode. Better yet, for power users, let me set up reusable shortcuts using natural language. The most important part of this is it doesn’t necessarily feel like AI. The user does…
> ideal implementation of AI for Apple is probably to finally make Siri work Wouldn't the simplest solution be to auction off Siri's back end the way Apple does Safari's search bar in iOS?
They're reportedly already doing that, AI services will be able to publish "Extensions" that Siri will use and then those services can compete amongst themselves to power it.
But this is contingent on the same services not being able to replace Siri and being able to reserve its APIs for Apple's exclusive use, and they have a pretty tenuous grasp on that these days.
https://9to5mac.com/2026/05/05/ios-27-will-let-you-choose-be...
Re: AI is a technology not a product
#58Agree with this article, and I almost threw up in my mouth when I read this quote from Stephen Levy:
> By the end of this decade, it’s unlikely that people will swipe on their phones to tap on Uber or Lyft. They will just tell their always-on AI agent to get them home. Or that agent will have already figured out where they need to go, and the car will be waiting without the friction of a request. “There’s an app for that,” may be replaced by “Let the agent do that.”
Who TF are these people who think this kind of future is desirable? I basically think it's just people that want to broadcast that they're so important and busy that they can't take the 5 seconds it takes to hail an Uber. Its like all that "productivity optimization" porn that people spew online to show how focused they are.
I was reading article recently that said that a majority of people interviewed did not want to use AI agents simply because they didn't have much stuff in their life worth automating. Or more to the point, a lot of people actually enjoy making grocery lists, planning trips, picking out gifts for friends, etc. This stuff is generally considered "life", not some back breaking drudgery like washing clothes in a stream that I'd like to automate.
These folks like Levy who view this dystopian future as some sort of nirvana (and not because they view a different future, they actually want all this nonsense) can go F themselves. You can also tell how incredibly sheltered these people are because you can see they're rarely interacting with people outside their bubble. For example, a lot of people that open the Uber app make their decision based on data in the app, like "surge pricing, nevermind, I'll just walk" or "this looks expensive, let me try Lyft". You could argue an agent could learn all those rules, but again, these minutia of life are not exactly a nuisance to most people.
Re: AI is a technology not a product
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
The thing which kills me is a lot of this was working back in the Newton days.
Can you expand on this? Having used two different Newton models, even squinting, I don’t understand what you’re getting at.
On my Newton MessagePad, one could write things such as "Lunch Friday" interact with it using a stylus to activate "Newton Intelligence" and it would create a calendar event for the next Friday, and attach the contact as a link.
Re: AI is a technology not a product
#60[flagged]
another "ai is inherently evil" take coming from the "ai is inherently evil" blog. i agree that specific implementations of a technology (claude, gemini, qwen) are never neutral but any tech itself (llms as a concept) is neutral you can implement it in any way you want. you can make a llm trained on diverse data, tuned for anti fascist opinions, using solar power and recycled hardware to be carbon neutral. the reason…
AI harbours evil, because unskilled people tend to trust it blindly. People have already been evicted, arrested and harassed by police simply because they choose to trust technology that flags or "recognizes" them, with no proof that they can trust it. This happens automatically. Thus, AI should be treated as potentially malicious, especially when it is sold as neutral.