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Apple Loses Robotics AI Researcher to Meta
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Fine, let him leave. Nobody is worth that much. There's plenty more fish in the sea.
Or it’s a very good sign. Apple’s back-pedalling on AI because Apple jumping onto the AI bandwagon turned out to be less than impressive.
Why keep on doing something you’re not good at when you can focus resource on doing what you are good at?
He AI hype has reached it’s peak, which means investors are going to stop throwing massive amount of money into so etching that has yet to show it can give any return on investment.
That Apple’s pivoting on AI might be very good. It definitely won’t be very bad.
They’ve already had their AI disaster, they’ve moved on, why keep banging away at it.
Looking past the spin and marketing hype, Apple’s core business is not AI. AI has not made them a lot of money, but it sure has hell sucked up a big chunk of their money.
Quietly pivoting now might turn out, in hindsight, to gave been very clever.
Meta was always known to have a high turnover even during the shiny days compared to Google and Apple.
Also, remember the Metaverse debacle? Zuckerberg publicly admitted it was his fault, but ended up firing 11000 people (13 % of the entire workforce), and nothing happened to him.
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This is true, however, Apple is in no position to lose AI talent when their program keeps getting delayed.
The mere fact that Meta needs to pay 5~10 × to lure someone out of Apple, tells a lot about both companies.
You sound like Steve Jobs when he returned to Apple and ditched the printers and all that stuff. Maybe you should replace Tim Cook when his time comes.
Tommorow Macrumors headline: Either HomePod with screen gets delayed or it is released and non functional just like the HomePods. Classic New Era Apple.
"People will buy it, cause it's Apple". Scott got ousted for that, the releases they are making now are vene worse than the Maps fiasco.
"People will buy it, cause it's Apple". Scott got ousted for that, the releases they are making now are vene worse than the Maps fiasco.
I&d say the opposite, they are in the best position to offload AI specialists and deprioritise AI.
Siri and other Apple AI products/service have already slipped the deadline. That damage is already done. There is no new release date, because Apple is not stupid. They can delay AI stiff for as long as they want now, and their reputation regarding AI won’t be any worse.
Announcing their AI Xiong with last year’s machine (but bit really happening) was bad then, but let’s them off the hook now.
Expectation for Apple’s AI stuff is so low now that all Apple have to do, at a mimumum, is realise a new Siri in the next 12 months and nothing else, and then just STOP TALKING ABOUT AI - if this is what they do I’ll Kay a large bet that it will not have any significant best I’ve effect on their share price.
Jobs’ ditching product ranges and cutting development of non-core products worked.
4 types of Mac and an iPod.
I guess the dark side has cookies....and big $$.
Seriously, tough choice to work for a company that exists to exploit their users and make bank, or work for a company that values privacy, hasn't shown they can deliver anything, and pays meh.
Seriously, tough choice to work for a company that exists to exploit their users and make bank, or work for a company that values privacy, hasn't shown they can deliver anything, and pays meh.
Without investment in AI, whatever grand ambitions Apple has going forward in the areas of home automation, wearables, and robotics, will be a bust.
I’m am not so sure of that at all.
I think that this whole iteration of AI, front-facing, chippy personality, develop cheesy picture and photos on a whim, a large amount of gamifying how it’s presented, as a “composing” and “assistant”, all of it, is going to crash and burn.
Because it doesn’t make money. It only attracts investment. And investment isn’t profit.
All of the “magnificent seven” are pushing AI, but AI is not, despite themarketing, their core business. They’re insulated.
AI Companies are going to feel the hurt.
This iteration of AI is as cheesy as the web in the mid-late nineties.
I reckon there’ll be AI integrated into a huge amount of what we do on our devices. But it won’t minix personality.
It will be boring, it’ll work well, and you won’t really notice it.
Also think, for actually being useful, having smaller, focused on narrower sets of tasks, running locally rather than a maasive server-side models with subscriptions to use it.
Subscription based streaming service are already driving people crazy.
But to get to the point I’m imagining, the current fad of AI has to burst.
According to the rumors, Apple’s only got one robot coming out. I’d imagine any research they need is done and they’re likely happy to let him go and research someone else’s stuff. Saves them from having to lay him off, too.
EDIT: He wasn’t even on the team that’s currently working on whatever it is Apple’s working on! He was “developing automation technology and exploring the role of AI in tech products”.
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Yeah, no matter what AI company we mention, they are ALL focused on ensuring that their models will be available on Apple devices. Even if their interface is a web app, they’re making sure those web apps are as performant or MORE performant than their competitor’s solutions. Until some company is willing to put their money where their mouth is and produces hardware that want to purchase in large quantities, they’re all just software solutions looking for customers.