Apple Shares New Ads Highlighting Apple Intelligence Features

[Gengar]

Has Apple ever had more cringe commercials than these? I'm serious

Everybody can't be Mother Nature

 

[spicynujac]

I wonder if the real problem is that AI has the potential to be immensely powerful but no one has really figured out how to deploy it

"AI" is not some new revolutionary thing.
It's just a buzzword for certain types of software.

The photo replacement stuff has been possible in photo editing software suites like Lightroom and GIMP for YEARS.
The text re-writing stuff has been available through services like Grammarly.
The video creation tools -- Capcut has offered that for years and even the TikTok app can automatically apply filters, montage photos and videos, and add music.

None of this required any sort of specialized hardware or new AI chips or anything. It's off the shelf software that works on any Windows 7 machine.

Sure, what they are calling "AI" is more powerful / invasive software than we had in the past. Because that's what technology does. I agree it would be really interesting to see the direction Steve Jobs* would have gone over the past few years.

There is no evidence we are close to getting anything like the Ex Machina / AI -- Steven Speilberg / Stanley Kubrick form of "AI" - ie conscious self sufficient robotic life with artificial intelligence. And many argue that's not even possible. Until then we are dealing with a much more basic question of "what can we do with software and how should we deploy it." AI is just a buzzword.

*FYI I heard an interesting podcast lately from a long time Apple manager about Steve Jobs' legacy, Tim Cook, privacy, AI, and the future direction of Apple.
Deus Ex Machina - Apple and the Ghost of Steve Jobs - (Myth20c-Ep270)

Myth of the 20th Century - Deus Ex Machina - Apple and the Ghost of Steve Jobs (Myth20c - Ep270)

Listen to Myth of the 20th Century - Deus Ex Machina - Apple and the Ghost of Steve Jobs (Myth20c - Ep270) by Hank Oslo on Podcast Addict. Since its founding in 1976, Apple has been at or near the center of personal computing. Led by legendary founder Steve Jobs, who described the company as...

podcastaddict.com

 

[svish]

Good ads. Will be updating my devices soon. Looking forward to trying out Apple Intelligence.

 

[Compote]

So,
Apple's strategy for pushing AI is to present its customers as morons? Because there's intelligence in the name of AI?
I don't thing Apple "gets" what AI is.

Like they really expect us to believe it's Apple AI, when they constantly let slip that it's just chatGPT but integrated in iOS.

 

[Compote]

The capabilities and interface of the writing tools are very bad. Very awkward to use. And the results are just OK.

Edit: I am actually surprised. Apple worked on it for so long, and they ended up with this? On a positive note, the photo clean up feature works well enough for me.

Edit 2: Also, I tried the writing tool on some statements on a polemical essay I have been working on, and a message says the writing tool was "not designed for this type of content." 😂 It's not adult content or extremist content. It's just that the tone was a bit polemical and it tripped Apple's circuit breaker. 🤷‍♂️

You're quoting it wrong.

 

[jchap]

Something fun about macrumors is it’s against the rules to publish AI written content. Gonna be interesting how they deal with that soon!

Regardless, here’s how GPT came up with a better ad campaign than these two. Read it now before it gets deleted!

<snip>

These concepts take the focus entirely away from productivity and practicality, instead celebrating the sheer fun of turning ordinary moments into something unexpectedly delightful. They showcase AI as a tool for creativity and humor, rather than efficiency.

These ideas are actually a significant improvement over the tasteless drivel commercials that Apple came up with this time.

It just goes to show that if you're not raising the bar with your work, and you are content with producing drivel that you think is going to pander to the masses, you're likely to be replaced soon by AI.

 

[jchap]

The AI stuff is of highly questionable utility, Siri still sucks, Car was a waste of time and money, AVP was a flop of biblical proportions.... this is on the heels of the AirPower failure, Butterfly keyboard massive mishap, TouchBar mistake... on ... and on.. and on...

I'd agree with you on much of this, although the Touch Bar was actually not a bad concept IMHO, and could have been useful in theory. YMMV

 

[Compote]

I'd agree with you on much of this, although the Touch Bar was actually not a bad concept IMHO, and could have been useful in theory. YMMV

Introducing Apple's revolutionary new concept. And we call it Touch Screen.

 

[uacd]

you're likely to be replaced soon by AI.

Ooh I hope Apple’s Marketing team gotta be first for the great replacement. At least we will see “Apple Intelligence” in real action🤣

 

[TechnoTiger3000]

You know how sometimes a criminal develops a conscious or subconscious urge to get caught? That’s Apple right now. After the iPad-crushing ad debacle, there's no way this latest ad is coming from a mentally stable company... This is self-sabotage on a corporate scale—auto-mutilation for the brand.

 

[mk313]

Usually do not care re: ads, but these (notably the office worker) are very, very, very cringe. Hopefully AI helps those striving to achieve greater things accomplish even more, rather than cover up laziness. Could greater accomplishment not have been your theme Apple ??? That office commercial... WOW. Does Warren work in Apple's software QA dept ?? If so, then explains a lot last few years. Also, not that anyone cares but me, I HATE the colorization of these ads. Remember the Apple logo with bright colors, these ads are the antithesis. I know dull, highly-tinted is considered cool, but it just drains the life/interest from me -- world is a colorful, beautiful place.

First off, that line about Warren working at Apple's software QA department was the funniest things I've seen in a while, well done.

But with regards to the ads, I don't hate them. I work a standard office job & sometimes struggle to see how AI will change anything for me. These ads show some concrete ways that AI can impact my life. I agree with you that they highlight slackers, but I think that ads showing hard workers & go getters improving their game 1% might not be all that captivating. I'll bet a lot of people can see through these ads, how these tools can make their lives better.

 

[flybass]

"AI" is not some new revolutionary thing.
It's just a buzzword for certain types of software.

The photo replacement stuff has been possible in photo editing software suites like Lightroom and GIMP for YEARS.
The text re-writing stuff has been available through services like Grammarly.
The video creation tools -- Capcut has offered that for years and even the TikTok app can automatically apply filters, montage photos and videos, and add music.

None of this required any sort of specialized hardware or new AI chips or anything. It's off the shelf software that works on any Windows 7 machine.

Sure, what they are calling "AI" is more powerful / invasive software than we had in the past. Because that's what technology does. I agree it would be really interesting to see the direction Steve Jobs* would have gone over the past few years.

There is no evidence we are close to getting anything like the Ex Machina / AI -- Steven Speilberg / Stanley Kubrick form of "AI" - ie conscious self sufficient robotic life with artificial intelligence. And many argue that's not even possible. Until then we are dealing with a much more basic question of "what can we do with software and how should we deploy it." AI is just a buzzword.

*FYI I heard an interesting podcast lately from a long time Apple manager about Steve Jobs' legacy, Tim Cook, privacy, AI, and the future direction of Apple.
Deus Ex Machina - Apple and the Ghost of Steve Jobs - (Myth20c-Ep270)

Myth of the 20th Century - Deus Ex Machina - Apple and the Ghost of Steve Jobs (Myth20c - Ep270)

Listen to Myth of the 20th Century - Deus Ex Machina - Apple and the Ghost of Steve Jobs (Myth20c - Ep270) by Hank Oslo on Podcast Addict. Since its founding in 1976, Apple has been at or near the center of personal computing. Led by legendary founder Steve Jobs, who described the company as...

podcastaddict.com

Agreed it is all software, but the difference is the implementation detail of the feature. The current models being employed are generally multi-modal transformers (branded "AI"). These are larger neural networks with tons of weights (billions). The computational cost for inference is therefore much higher than previous methods. Specialized hardware (more gpu-like) helps with the efficiency of large-scale linear algebra in the inference stage. In contrast, old models could be shallow logistic regression on n-grams attached to a beam search.

 

[Lift Bar]

These ideas are actually a significant improvement over the tasteless drivel commercials that Apple came up with this time.

It just goes to show that if you're not raising the bar with your work, and you are content with producing drivel that you think is going to pander to the masses, you're likely to be replaced soon by AI.

Uhhh, but these significantly improved ideas were by AI. I know because I prompted it to just keep coming up with ideas which were more novel. Don’t you understand that these AI “ideas” are raising the content of “my” work. Like it’s literally replacing it. I don’t think you’re thinking this through entirely.

 

[jntdroid]

And the woman walks away from her family to the camera with a kinda sad, checked out look on her face. The rest of the family is happy and together with the dad, but she seems miserable. Leaves me feeling pity for her and the family dynamic.

Ads should make you feel good after you watch it, so you feel about the company and product…

I read her face as thinking she just pulled a fast one on her husband... almost like a mic drop moment that she was proud of. 🤷‍♂️

Ironically, though, she's not in any of the photos either. So a part of me hopes you're right, and Apple was trying to make a subtle point about staying connected... but that feels way too deep and like a bit of a stretch.

Funny how things can be interpreted differently!

 

[jchap]

Uhhh, but these significantly improved ideas were by AI. I know because I prompted it to just keep coming up with ideas which were more novel. Don’t you understand that these AI “ideas” are raising the content of “my” work. Like it’s literally replacing it. I don’t think you’re thinking this through entirely.

Oh, I see. I was just weighing the apparent quality of what AI generated vs. what Apple’s marketing team apparently generated without AI (maybe?). I do see the pitfalls in allowing AI to replace what we are doing. Is that what you’re trying to say?

 

[Lift Bar]

Oh, I see. I was just weighing the apparent quality of what AI generated vs. what Apple’s marketing team apparently generated without AI (maybe?). I do see the pitfalls in allowing AI to replace what we are doing. Is that what you’re trying to say?

I don’t think it’s a pitfall. I’m saying it doesn’t matter how “quality” your work is. AI will replace craft. Utterly and totally. Except for the very rare instances of life where the labor is the product, live acoustic music (no microphones to “fix” it) live theatre, ballet, uhh, puppet shows (maybe!), as long as it’s not animatronics those will be better with AI

But nearly everything that can be put on the internet will be made by AI. Almost all of it. Including this comment section..

 

[turbineseaplane]

But nearly everything that can be put on the internet will be made by AI. Almost all of it. Including this comment section..

I guess in that scenario, I just wonder how compelling the actual Internet will be at that point and whether we will even be here looking at it if that’s what it’s made of

 

[Lift Bar]

I guess in that scenario, I just wonder how compelling the actual Internet will be at that point and whether we will even be here looking at it if that’s what it’s made of

Depends on your definition of compelling. The only thing AI won’t replace on the internet is the stuff that’s out of ‘alignment’ (racism, sexism, etc.) AI won’t touch that. But everything else with a computer? AI will do it better, faster, cheaper, and with more iterations than humans ever could.

 

[Imperial926]

The constant push is about Intelligence and I see little evidence of it in these adverts. Both seem simplistic in the extreme. If I wasn’t already using Apple I would look elsewhere. The ultimate irony is we don’t have any of this in the UK anyway!
Can anyone point to companies who are doing all this better? I surely hope so!

 

[CarAnalogy]

Oh man I missed this post. But can't miss the chance to get on the hate train. Worst ads EVER. They actively make me NOT want to use it and certainly to not let anyone know about it.

Between Apple Intelligence and chasing the Services revenue dragon, Apple is going off the rails a bit.

 

[Newmacuser2024]

That last apple ai commercial was so terrible it made me create an account here just so I could comment about it. First of all it sends the message that it's ok to forget your significant other's birthday even if other members of your family don't forget. Then it makes the message worse by giving the forgetful mother an easy way out by having her click a few buttons on her phone and use apple intelligence to create a quick photo album as her gift. Finally it shows her flexing as if this is something that we should all appreciate and celebrate as acceptable behavior. At least it could have shown the mother take the time to pick out photos that were actually relevant and emotionally appropriate for the moment. Instead it shows her clicking on her phone a few seconds and viola! Here's my gift. I am genius! No wonder apple turned off the comments for these commercials on YouTube and other sites. Call me old fashioned all you want but these commercials make me never want to use apple intelligence for anything. It's also more evidence, imo, that apple intelligence and ai as a whole is a solution looking for a problem.

 

[Apple_Robert]

I liked the first commercial. The second commercial I found jejune.

Has anyone tested the writing tools features when posting on MR, to make sure one doesn’t get a mod nudge or kick? lol