Was Apple’s rush to join the AI craze a misstep for Siri? |John Norton

aFter ChatGpt broke the cover in late 2022, and the tech industry embarked on modern rendering Tulip Maniapeople began to wonder why Apple, the biggest tech giant of all, is keeping their distance from the insanity. In the end, Tech Commentariat decided that there were only two possible interpretations of the company’s stand officeness. et alOr it had an unning plan to unleash the technology that would make the world a world-wide.

Finally, Apple was cleaned up at the annual World Wide Developers’ Conference (WWDC) held on June 10th last year. Or appeared. For Apple, “AI” is not what the vulgar routs rave about at Openai, Google, Microsoft, or Meta, and does not mean anything completely refined and refined what is called “Apple Intelligence.” It wasn’t like the veteran Apple-Watcher’s John Gruber put it downa single thing or product, but “marketing terminology for collections of features, apps, and services.” Putting everything under one memorable label makes it easier for users to understand that Apple is launching something truly novel. And, of course, it’s also easy for Apple to say that users who wanted to have all these flashy features should buy an iPhone 15 Pro, as older devices can’t stand the task.

Needless to say, this columnist fell into it and upgraded it. (Well, one sucker is born every minute.) Like the kit, the new phone was impressive. A powerful new processor chip, neural engine, and more have been treated. And the camera turned out to be surprisingly good. However, the features of Apple Intelligence enabled by the upgrade seemed trivial and sometimes exciting. I started messing around with my photo collection, for example, getting in the way, unwanted, and imposing categories on annoying images. And then there was a new pre-installed app called “Image Playground.”Make communication and self-expression even more fun” – This may be true for a 4-year-old with short attention span, but otherwise it was a central casting turkey and should have been strangled at birth.

However, there was one feature that looked interesting and useful. This is a serious enhancement to Siri, an attempt at Apple’s virtual personal assistant. from now on, The company announced: “Siri can deliver intelligence tailored to users and their on-device information. For example, users could say, “Play the podcasts recommended by Jamie.” Siri finds flight details and cross-references with real-time flight tracking to give arrival times. “

However, in a thorough examination, Siri was unable to do these useful things even when run on my expensive new phone. In fact, it mostly looked mediocre as ever. And it came on March 7th Announcement from Apple“We’re also working on more personalized Siri, making us more aware of your personal context and the ability to take action for you within and across your app. It takes longer than we thought we’d offer these features, and we’ll be rolling out it next year.”

For Gruber, who knows more about Apple than anyone I know, this was like a red rag of a bull. The announcement meant, He wrote“What Apple has shown regarding the upcoming ‘personalized Siri’ at WWDC was not a demo. It was a concept video. The concept video is bullshit and a sign of a company that is confused, if not a crisis.” And he has long memories, so he reminded him that Apple last screened the concept video – what is called Knowledge Navigator Video – He was heading for bankruptcy. And when Steve Jobs returns and turns it into the most profitable company in history, it never made anything like that again.

Until – called Gruber – now.

Is he overreacting? Answer: Yes. While Apple is not in danger, this minifiasco, featuring Siri and Apple Intelligence, looks like the first serious misstep in managing Tim Cook’s company. If there’s one thing Jobs’ Apple was famous, it didn’t announce the product before it was ready to ship. It is clear that the company had seriously underestimated the amount of work it took to deliver what it had promised to SIRI last June. If you were particular about Jobs Playbooks, the time to start the enhancement would have been early in June 2025. The company clearly forgot Hofstadter’s Law:Even considering Hofstadter’s law, everything takes longer than expected.

What I’ve read

A million monkeys…
ChatGpt can’t kill anything worth saving Amazing essay By John Warner on AI and writing.

A beloved machine of blessing?
AI: A means of end or a means to our end? Read Stephen Fry’s first lecture to the Digital Futures Institute in King’s College London Obsessive Du Jour.

It’s written on the card
Jillian Hess’s description of Karl Linnae’s materials Practice to take groundbreaking notes It is illuminated.