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Well there are so many other AI models out there now you can just use online or download like an App.
No one needs to upgrade to apples model.
You have zero knowledge about AI and no idea what you're talking about. You're downloading an app where you send just a prompt and requests are processed remotely, not running locally.
 
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If it weren’t scheme to sell the 15 Pro versions, they would have given the regular 15s good enough specs to run the AI stuff.
But the 15 is just a 14 Pro without the nicer screen and camera. So why not also do the regular 14, which is just a 13 Pro... How far back do you think this "scheme" goes?
 
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there is a difference between on device and "off device" AI.

small models for on device can be a few GB to ~40GB. models than run on servers can be ~300GB - 1TB in size.

Off device is of course slower and if you care about privacy then you need to worry about your data being sent to servers. Ideally on device processing is the way to go but if we want that we need to accept that hardware specs are going to increase significantly in terms of ram, storage, and maybe battery.
That’s just the thing.
99% of consumers won’t care. They won’t be using it for secret squirrel reasons.
They will be using it to figure out how to solve a math problem, or how to cook a new recipe.

The people who actually CARE about it being built in are the niche crowd.
 
Well there are so many other AI models out there now you can just use online or download like an App.
No one needs to upgrade to apples model.
That is totally correct. But the integration with the OS and other apps is what makes these AI models most useful, in my opinion.

I rarely use GPT/LLMs, because it's so cumbersome to think about a suitable prompt, type or dictate it, and then parse the answer.
 
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I’m wondering if this why I got an offer from Verizon yesterday for 1000 off the cost of a new 15 ProMax with trade in of my 13 ProMax. It’s very tempting right now.
 
That is totally correct. But the integration with the OS and other apps is what makes these AI models most useful, in my opinion.

I rarely use GPT/LLMs, because it's so cumbersome to think about a suitable prompt, type or dictate it, and then parse the answer.
Google is working on a downloadable keyboard for iOS with built in AI features. Search for GIFs for websites, use cloud AI models to create and search for new emojis and edit photos. All built into a downloadable keyboard, for free.
 
Yes, any device over $750.00 USD should have had 16GB starting back in about…. 2013.
To say Apple is behind the curve is an intelligent observation.

OR. Apple knew this was coming for years now. And planned all of this.
Just another reason to force an upgrade cycle.
I disagree. AI has, and still is to an extent, been a ******** marketing word/phrase but you can't deny AI has improved a lot recently.

16GB in "any device" has been more than enough and still is. You do NOT need more than 16GB today if you have a smartphone, tablet, gaming console, or a mid range gaming PC. If you have a high end gaming PC, workstation PC/laptop then you want 32GB.

I think 8GB in MacBooks is a joke in 2024 and do think 12-16GB should have been standard in the last few years.

I don't think Apple knew this was coming. Not many people/companies have known that AI was going to progress so fast in the last 2-3 years. The only companies that seem to have prepared for AI are Nvidia/Microsoft. Of course Apple have long been doing the bare minimum in the effort to force people to upgrade.
 
But the 15 is just a 14 Pro without the nicer screen and camera. So why not also do the regular 14, which is just a 13 Pro... How far back do you think this "scheme" goes?
Apple knew what its AI requirements were when developing the 15 series. They intentionally didn’t give the 15 and 15 Plus 8GB; if not to drive 15 Pro sales, then as a way to force iPhone 16 upgrades sooner.
 
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there is a difference between on device and "off device" AI.

small models for on device can be a few GB to ~40GB. models than run on servers can be ~300GB - 1TB in size.

Off device is of course slower and if you care about privacy then you need to worry about your data being sent to servers. Ideally on device processing is the way to go but if we want that we need to accept that hardware specs are going to increase significantly in terms of ram, storage, and maybe battery.
Once again….
99% of consumers do not care.
There have been petabytes of server farms built out in the Midwest of the USA to literally maintain consumer use of cloud based AI.

Only the niche market will care if it runs native.
Only the niche market will require it onboard.
Only the niche market will worry about privacy.
But when it’s used to edit pictures, edit photos and create emojis…..
The vast majority doesn’t care.

Apple says its cloud systems are some of the most secure on the planet, why not use some of that secure infrastructure to have a limited AI experience on non natively housed AI device?

Money.

Moooooooney.
That’s why.
 
They could run it completely in PCC (private compute cloud) for previous models, but it's going to be lot of work / double work, they actually have imessage,contacts,emails etc in icloud anyway to be able to produce personalise results, but we know they wont do it.
 
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5
I disagree. I think people have simply lost interest in new phones. it's about as exciting to many people as buying a new washing machine. They don't want a new device, regardless of what it does.

My manger, a very highly educated woman in her 30s, was livid the other day that she needed to upgrade her 8 Plus. She didn't want the hassle of moving to a new phone.

For many, smartphones=boring necessary tools and upgrading isn't exciting anymore.
Maybe you can explain to her how easy it is to upgrade? And I believe Apple stores are still willing to assist.
 
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Remains to be seen, it is curious though that they restricted AI to only the newest iPhone chip. The M1 is supported yet has a weaker neural engine than the A16, for example - so it has to just be RAM if we do believe they aren't just using it as a scheme to sell new phones.
Crazy to me that Apple has apparently not thought ahead here. If it's RAM, then they could have easily just upped the RAM to 8GB in new phones sold since - say - 2022. Would have cost them almost literally nothing. Even if they just did 8GB of RAM on the Pro models.

I'm only just assuming but I think this is showing that Apple either (1) didn't expect Generative AI to take off this fast and weren't prepared to roll this out so early; the contracts with OpenAI support this theory. Or (2) they wanted to get their generative AI working on a wider variety of hardware but couldn't get the model to run on less than 8GB of RAM.

I feel like #2 is also supports #1, in that if they had more development time they probably could have optimized a bit more to run on 6GB or even 4GB but they probably would have bumped all phones to a min of 8GB eventually. Again, this is an assumption on my behalf. I know LLM's are vast but perhaps they could be much smaller in 2 years (if that's even when Apple would have launched this).
 
Mind you, the A14, A15 and A16 all have as powerful of a Neural Engine as the M1 has. So either it isn't related to the SoC at all, but solely to the RAM (in which case Apple is an absolute idiot for going so long with so little RAM in such expensive devices, which incidentally is something people have warned them about that the amount of RAM they gave their devices isn't very future-proof) or this very much is just to get people to buy the next iPhone or the current but more expensive iPhone Pro.

Either way, the sudden explosion of AI absolutely caught Apple with its pants down. The M4 is just another example of that.
Lol the Pixel 7 Pro can't run Gemini Nano as well. The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is also missing out on a lot of AI stuff...
d8ltmjj3qfdc1.jpeg

One can go on and on.
 
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Yes, any device over $750.00 USD should have had 16GB starting back in about…. 2013.
To say Apple is behind the curve is an intelligent observation.

OR. Apple knew this was coming for years now. And planned all of this.
Just another reason to force an upgrade cycle.
The Apple apologists pretend that’s not the case. But the market was expecting this from Apple demanding it even.

The hope is that AI will generate a “supercycle” where people upgrade in very large numbers.

If Apple made this work in the majority of iPhones they would have undercut that goal.

There was no way this feature was coming to existing iPhones. The iPhone 15 Pro was spared only due to developers needing a device to work with.
 
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