Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
A lot of us are VERY worried.
There’s a reason every major AI company is cutting deals with the government.

It’s like regulatory capture for lawmaking, none of the outstanding lawsuits are going to wind up creating any major change regarding the legality / fair use of training data, and it’s why in the US there are provisions in a bill being discussed right now that states can’t regulate AI for at least 5-10 years.

The cat is not going back into the bag and a lot of people are going to be left behind if they don’t deeply understand this technology fast, whether it directly applies to you right now or not.

Surveillance is already happening and likewise will only increase worldwide.
 
There’s a reason every major AI company is cutting deals with the government.

It’s like regulatory capture for lawmaking, none of the outstanding lawsuits are going to wind up going making any major change regarding the legality / fair use of training data, and it’s why in the US there are provisions in a bill being discussed right now that states can’t regulate AI for at least 5-10 years.

The cat is not going back into the bag and a lot of people are going to be left behind if they don’t deeply understand this technology fast, whether it directly applies to you right now or not.

Surveillance is already happening and likewise will only increase worldwide.

This take is so dystopian that I'm not sure what benefit one would get from "understanding the technology fast".

This is like saying "get onboard with the Gestapo ... it's happening! Best to understand it, and fast!"

So basically "get onboard with and participate in a surveillance state or get left behind?"

I guess I'll go with "left behind" if those are my options.
 
If the biggest reason for this AI arms race is to be the defacto surveillance tech for the military, I would be worried.
You should be VERY worried. If you need a reason to go see a therapist then watch anything by Carole Cadwalladr. Watch her Ted Talk, her interview with John Stewart or her group video chat concerning the movie “2073”. It’s all on YT. AI is the 21st century Nuclear Weapon. And everyone in the US military is deathly afraid of China becoming the AI “nuke” superpower in a like manner that the old Soviet Union became the physical nuke superpower during the Cold War. AI is quite literally an arms race. Combine this with every American corporation is racing to integrate AI and where applicable robots to slash their employee headcount to make a few more bucks in profit every single quarter in perpetuity. These two reasons alone are why millions of investors are pouring a trillion dollars collectively into AI even though AI is complete garbage right now. It’s what is known in the investment world as FOMO. “Fear Of Missing Out”. It’s literally the human and financial version of “Herd Mentality”. When I say it’s “insanity” in Silicon Valley right now it’s quite literally, psychologically true. It’s also true for Wall Street.
 
  • Love
Reactions: smulji
This take is so dystopian that I'm not sure what benefit one would get from "understanding the technology fast".

This is like saying "get onboard with the Gestapo ... it's happening! Best to understand it, and fast!"

So basically "get onboard with and participate in a surveillance state or get left behind?"

I guess I'll go with "left behind" if those are my options.
Whenever you can stream it watch “2073”. It’s part documentary, part futurist dystopian film. Also watch the video group chat with the film maker and other folks concerned with the surveillance state hosted by Carole Cadwalladr. It’s on YT.
 
Whenever you can stream it watch “2073”. It’s part documentary, part futurist dystopian film. Also watch the video group chat with the film maker and other folks concerned with the surveillance state hosted by Carole Cadwalladr. It’s on YT.

Will add to my list, thx! Maybe tonight!
 
  • Love
Reactions: Wx_Man
This take is so dystopian that I'm not sure what benefit one would get from "understanding the technology fast".

This is like saying "get onboard with the Gestapo ... it's happening! Best to understand it, and fast!"

So basically "get onboard with and participate in a surveillance state or get left behind?"

I guess I'll go with "left behind" if those are my options.
You’re misinterpreting me, understanding does not mean agreement, it means awareness.

I think every member of the public should understand to some degree how this technology works, especially regarding surveillance technology.

Everyone who works in technical ‘knowledge work’ and especially Computer Science should deeply understand how it works, whether they use it right now or not. Understanding the limitations, implementation details, and importantly the caveats are all increasingly more important given the ubiquity. If you’re in this industry and have been avoiding it I think you are not only doing yourself a disservice but guiding yourself out of a job. The current technology is going to advance but not fundamentally change until world models arrive (see my earlier post in this thread) and in the meantime, for the next few years, it will be critical to know what’s going on with GenAI, LLMs, and their associated hooks.

We can’t go back to previous world whether we’d like to or not. I’d personally be fine with a 1980s pre-internet locked version of computer technology but that’s not the world I live in, and I was born too late to enjoy that.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Wx_Man
This made me laugh in the article.
sparking customer outrage

Really? oh good grief.
The more they keep AI out of my devices, the happier I will be. As long as there is a proper way to disable it, then fine, not like MS Ai on Windows,.
One reason why I went for the MAc, is because I hoped that when AI did come to the Mac, they would allow us to turn it off with ease.
There’s a reason why every processor in every device from Apple, Android and now Windows PC’s had a NPU ( Neural Processing Unit ). Ai is not just Genmoji’s and Chatbots. The days of AI “Opt-In or Out” are quickly diminishing. By 2030 or sooner those options will be gone for all platforms.
 
Give us an option to use Grok
Why? All AI is eventually insane. Like LSD tripping insane. And you want to use an AI from a guy who already trips Ketamine and other drugs? I mean Elon is already insane. Literally. Functional, yes, but clinically insane. But he is showing himself time and time and time again recently that he isn’t even really functional anymore. And you want to use Grok? From the man who made Twitter a place for him to sacrifice his own cash like a pagan cult making burnt offerings.
 
You should be VERY worried. If you need a reason to go see a therapist then watch anything by Carole Cadwalladr. Watch her Ted Talk, her interview with John Stewart or her group video chat concerning the movie “2073”. It’s all on YT. AI is the 21st century Nuclear Weapon. And everyone in the US military is deathly afraid of China becoming the AI “nuke” superpower in a like manner that the old Soviet Union became the physical nuke superpower during the Cold War. AI is quite literally an arms race. Combine this with every American corporation is racing to integrate AI and where applicable robots to slash their employee headcount to make a few more bucks in profit every single quarter in perpetuity. These two reasons alone are why millions of investors are pouring a trillion dollars collectively into AI even though AI is complete garbage right now. It’s what is known in the investment world as FOMO. “Fear Of Missing Out”. It’s literally the human and financial version of “Herd Mentality”. When I say it’s “insanity” in Silicon Valley right now it’s quite literally, psychologically true. It’s also true for Wall Street.
Thanks for the suggestion. Will definitely check it out.
 
  • Love
Reactions: Wx_Man
Thanks for the suggestion. Will definitely check it out.

I can tell I'm going to enjoy it already...

1751385781869.png
 
  • Love
Reactions: Wx_Man
Siri just blows. Even putting AI functionality aside, Siri is very limited.

Siri is a voice assistant. Old tech. To integrate an llm ai into iOS means rewriting everything. It becomes less about what iOS is and more about the ai you design around. None of this is trivial. Even the talk about open AI or buying perplexity are nonstarters. Apple is freaking clueless here although it seems to be dawning on them understanding the problem. Lightyears away from a solution.
 
  • Like
Reactions: verdi1987
Rumors like this and the rumor of Apple buying Perplexity give me no hope that a decent, working Siri is coming out in Spring. I think they are still very early in the planning stages and just trying to figure out who they can hire, who they can cut a check to, and what they need to do to get out of last place.
Totally agree, but as a side point, Apple rightly took heavy criticism for announcing non-working features with Apple Intelligence. It worries me that they haven’t learned their lesson if a) they are still advertising any actual timeline for Apple intelligence powered Siri when b) one of the options on the table is giving up and using someone else’s model.

I’m fine with them exploring a different model if that is the best path forward, but stop announcing dates until you are at the bug fix stage, not when you are still figure out how to accomplish it!
 
Hasn't it been obvious this was the right solution for Apple for about two years now? Why so slow? People here including myself have been saying this was the best solution for Apple for quite a while now. Apple should continue their own research in AI in the background and just use one of these models where hundreds of BILLIONS have already been spent and where top talent is is being poached back and forth for more and more money.
Right now consumers really do not care, and those that do, pick and choose the model they like best anyway.

Let this simmering can of worms crash and burn on it's own and buy up the best of what is left over for pennies on the dollar.
There is no financial way forward for how things are going. There is only one way things will go. Crash and burn. This is so obvious. More obvious than Intel being a dead company walking for the last decade, and more obvious than the housing crash. And Apple just has to be there to pick and choose the parts that it wants for chump change.
Let Mark Zuckerberg and other's eat the bill.
 
Totally agree, but as a side point, Apple rightly took heavy criticism for announcing non-working features with Apple Intelligence. It worries me that they haven’t learned their lesson if a) they are still advertising any actual timeline for Apple intelligence powered Siri when b) one of the options on the table is giving up and using someone else’s model.

I’m fine with them exploring a different model if that is the best path forward, but stop announcing dates until you are at the bug fix stage, not when you are still figure out how to accomplish it!

There’s no using another model. I mean if you want that then open the app and go at it. Having this third party model learning you, the contents on your phone, being hooked into everything and all apps. Good luck.

At this point you’re customizing your own “Siri” and calling it what you want and giving it its own profile and everything. But it has to be integrated. None of that exists. This requires a rewriting of iOS. New apps. Cloud infrastructure Apple doesn’t have. It doesn’t exist.

The only features coming later is more of a realization by Apple of how behind they are. They couldn’t do it on their own in even having their own llm and trying to bake it into iOS. What makes you think they can do this with a third party service. Not to mention privacy concerns. Apple can possibly get away with it but not with a third party.

There’s a reason others were paying billions for ai. Signing talent up with millions off the bat. It’s a race. Apple is stumbling around. They’ve never looked more vulnerable to being taken down. Siri is a dumb phone in comparison to what comes next.
 
  • Love
Reactions: Wx_Man
I think the part a lot of people are missing is Siri is now just a very limited "voice mode". Apple Intelligence is supposed to be the all encompassing backbone to all of this. LLMs are just 1 component.

If you go with OpenAI for the LLM, you should probably starting using their superior voice modes as well. Otherwise, if you are still using the Siri voice mode, you're still going to have a fairly degraded (albeit improved) experience.
 
"Thief doesn't like other people stealing"

News at 11

Btw, it's "fall out of my chair laughing" levels of funny that Altman considers himself to be in the "missionary" category here.

Screenshot 2025-07-01 at 11.53.08.png
 
Last edited:
You’re misinterpreting me, understanding does not mean agreement, it means awareness.

I think every member of the public should understand to some degree how this technology works, especially regarding surveillance technology.

Everyone who works in technical ‘knowledge work’ and especially Computer Science should deeply understand how it works, whether they use it right now or not. Understanding the limitations, implementation details, and importantly the caveats are all increasingly more important given the ubiquity. If you’re in this industry and have been avoiding it I think you are not only doing yourself a disservice but guiding yourself out of a job. The current technology is going to advance but not fundamentally change until world models arrive (see my earlier post in this thread) and in the meantime, for the next few years, it will be critical to know what’s going on with GenAI, LLMs, and their associated hooks.

We can’t go back to previous world whether we’d like to or not. I’d personally be fine with a 1980s pre-internet locked version of computer technology but that’s not the world I live in, and I was born too late to enjoy that.
I think the public is well aware, even now, at the very least, the implications of AI, robotics and mass 24/7 surveillance. At the very least on an instinctual, “repetilain brain”, level. They do need to, at double speed, get MORE informed about the deep, personal to their own individual lives, implications of global AI, Robotics based job losses and mass surveillance. Not that it will generate enough political pressure in the long term on each of their individual elected individuals as each of those people are fully in the back pocket of Deep Tech, which is not DARPA anymore but the Tech Oligarchy running American Capitalism as we know it today ( Amazon for commerce, Facebook and Google for advertising, various Fintechs along with the established banking and credit players who are increasingly going digital and algorithm blockchain, etc ). Even the mass media, both Left wing and Right wing have been co-opted and even bought wholesale by one of the three mentioned spheres of influence and control mentioned above.

I think the best we can hope for now, apart from a Carrington level Solar Event, is to fully and deeply understand the coming Mass Control Tech regime being built in real time and deployed right before our eyes and in our midst and formulate some way to live outside it as much as possible, to minimize it in our lives as much as possible and if that can’t be done particular in our work lives then to become as resilient as possible for when the inevitable disruption happens in your work life and thus your personal life.
 
There’s no using another model. I mean if you want that then open the app and go at it. Having this third party model learning you, the contents on your phone, being hooked into everything and all apps. Good luck.

At this point you’re customizing your own “Siri” and calling it what you want and giving it its own profile and everything. But it has to be integrated. None of that exists. This requires a rewriting of iOS. New apps. Cloud infrastructure Apple doesn’t have. It doesn’t exist.

The only features coming later is more of a realization by Apple of how behind they are. They couldn’t do it on their own in even having their own llm and trying to bake it into iOS. What makes you think they can do this with a third party service. Not to mention privacy concerns. Apple can possibly get away with it but not with a third party.

There’s a reason others were paying billions for ai. Signing talent up with millions off the bat. It’s a race. Apple is stumbling around. They’ve never looked more vulnerable to being taken down. Siri is a dumb phone in comparison to what comes next.
This !
 
Apple doesn’t have an offering. It’s what people dont understand it seems. Siri isn’t an AI and it never will be.
They told me my iPhone has Apple Intelligence so in their mind they have an offering. We know it isn’t really an offering but it is marketed as one.
 
How is it obvious?
Off the top of my head..1. No is making any money in it. 2. Open source, there are no secrets, no moats 3. The easily available data sources have already been scrapped. 4. LLMs may not be the future of AI,it's not in any way ready for prime time or critical system and possibly never will. 5. The inherent nature of today's LLM where they need prompts, and "alignment" under the hood to keep them from straying.

The foolish belief in a race to AGI with a winner takes all jackpot. This is a fallacy of people who live inside cubicles and have never experienced the real world or touched grass. To believe that once you achieve AGI that everything stops for them and no one will ever catch up is something only children homeschooled could believe. The world does not work that way
 
Last edited:
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.