Apple's AI Team Publishes First Research Paper Focused on Advanced Image Recognition

[ipedro]

Bunch of sad half witty replies fishing for likes. Try to post some quality discussion next time guys

Exactly. This is why MacRumors is becoming unreadable as of late. These are the kinds of comments who's member I instantly add to my ignore list:

Woah, woah, woah. We're not interested in artificial intelligence and autonomous learning, they play second fiddle to the real issues. What we really want to know is how thin it is? And can it be thinner?

Can Apple make an AI that shows them how to eliminate dongles?

I must have hundreds on my list by now. MacRumors needs its own AI to weed out these kinds of comment trolls.

 

[Michaelgtrusa]

If anybody wants to play around with AI image recognition, CloudSight (scroll down to the Try it Out area) allows users to upload an image for recognition. It can be pretty cool to see how accurate its tagging is.

View attachment 680028

This image was described as "grey jar carton and bottle sketch" after uploading.

That looks good.

 

[wigby]

Bunch of sad half witty replies fishing for likes. Try to post some quality discussion next time guys

That's all I see here anymore...a race to critique Apple for making thin devices, requiring dongles and make fun of Siri. Oh and everyone gets bonus points for using the word "courage" in any post. Pathetic commenters.

 

[TMRJIJ]

Exactly. This is why MacRumors is becoming unreadable as of late. These are the kinds of comments who's member I instantly add to my ignore list:





I must have hundreds on my list by now. MacRumors needs its own AI to weed out these kinds of comment trolls.

Agreed, it's getting harder to actually find actual constructive discussions through all of the troll comments. My ignore list is filling up as well.
Funny though, some of the Moderators argue with those members so even they know of this problem.

 

[mkeeley]

That's all I see here anymore...a race to critique Apple for making thin devices, requiring dongles and make fun of Siri. Oh and everyone gets bonus points for using the word "courage" in any post. Pathetic commenters.

I know, how dare they say anything negative about a company some treat as a religion.

 

[ipedro]

Agreed, it's getting harder to actually find actual constructive discussions through all of the troll comments. My ignore list is filling up as well.
Funny though, some of the Moderators argue with those members so even they know of this problem.

Actually, the moderators end up deleting our posts criticizing the mishandling of troll posts which they don't delete because they're too many and those end up getting promoted to the front page. I've been coming to MacRumors daily since practically its inception and I finally deleted it from my Favourite sites and only come here now when I happen to remember.

 

[truthertech]

Woah, woah, woah. We're not interested in artificial intelligence and autonomous learning, they play second fiddle to the real issues. What we really want to know is how thin it is? And can it be thinner?

What we really want to know is can you trolls get any more tiresome than your endless trite comments about "thinness," "courage" and the like? We know your negative comments that don't have the slightest thing to do with this positive news are the very essence of what trolls do, and we know the things that cause you to be a troll don't lend themselves to originality and clear thought, but maybe give it a try in the new year just for a change of pace.

 

[A MacBook lover]

I know, how dare they say anything negative about a company some treat as a religion.

Try not to dilute the message. There's a difference between having valid civil negative criticism that pertains to the topic, and saying random negative catchy one liners that don't relate at all to topic.

 

[meaning-matters]

View attachment 680028
This image was described as "grey jar carton and bottle sketch" after uploading.

This on as "women's black spaghetti top".

 

[AngerDanger]

This on as "women's black spaghetti top".

Behind the scenes:

Server: Hey, CloudSight, analyze this image.

AI: Oh, wow, look at the pretty lady!

Server: Yeah, what about the rest of the image?

AI: So pretty. Is she wearing a spaghetti top?

Server: Dunno. Please look at the rest of the image.

AI: It is a spaghetti top! Here, look.

Server: …

 

[and 1989 others]

What we really want to know is can you trolls get any more tiresome than your endless trite comments about "thinness," "courage" and the like? We know your negative comments that don't have the slightest thing to do with this positive news are the very essence of what trolls do, and we know the things that cause you to be a troll don't lend themselves to originality and clear thought, but maybe give it a try in the new year just for a change of pace.

This isn't news. It's the publication of opinion pieces from a small department in a large computer manufacturer. One whom over the past 6 weeks has released and produced some dire products. Opinions, which because of the secrecy of the company could literally be made up by the marketing department, just to 'show' they are trying to innovate.

You need to lighten up. Maybe try that in the new year, just for a change of face.

 

[truthertech]

TMRJIJ said: ↑
Agreed, it's getting harder to actually find actual constructive discussions through all of the troll comments. My ignore list is filling up as well.
Funny though, some of the Moderators argue with those members so even they know of this problem.

Actually, the moderators end up deleting our posts criticizing the mishandling of troll posts which they don't delete because they're too many and those end up getting promoted to the front page. I've been coming to MacRumors daily since practically its inception and I finally deleted it from my Favourite sites and only come here now when I happen to remember.

Remember, the moderators are not part of the MR staff. They are just paid folks tasked to go through the comments for the most blatant inappropriate things. I've seen the same thing though, they do delete posts that point out the trolls. I think that's because MacRumors is so dependent, as are most sites, on clicks to sell advertisers on how many people may see the ads. Presumably, MR has done the calculation and they have decided to stomach the trolls in exchange for their clicks and for the click bait that the trolls provide for free. I may be wrong, but I suspect that in the long run MR would have more viewers if they chased away the trolls because many Apple enthusiasts I know won't come here anymore because of the inane comments.

The problem is also getting worse as the more trolls there are, the more inane and outrageous their comments need to be to get them the attention they crave. That in turn drives away the people who want thoughtful discussion. Also ironically, as Apple gets more and more success, the more trolls come out because their tremendous insecurity is threatened by successful people and companies.

There is no easy answer if you want to listen to thoughtful comments among enthusiasts if the economics discourage moderating out the trolls. Macworld and its parent group, essentially gave up trying to do any moderation and just moved everything over to Facebook and Twitter if folks want to comment. Perhaps some site will emerge that makes it clear that trolls aren't welcome and deletes their posts quickly. That's been shown to work to combat graffiti in neighborhoods, which is a good analogy to troll comments--people who feel powerless and insecure and want attention and to strike back against the community.
[doublepost=1482780882][/doublepost]

Try not to dilute the message. There's a difference between having valid civil negative criticism that pertains to the topic, and saying random negative catchy one liners that don't relate at all to topic.

Please don't feed the trolls by suggesting there was anything "catchy" about the boring, repetitive juvenile snickering. It's best for them to work out their personal issues on web sites devoted to those purposes.

 

[SoulCloud]

Something tells me that Apple is not as serious in their AI efforts as they should be or at least the way the others are. Or it may be because they were so late in the game that they are still crawling. It's interesting to see how Tim Cook's Apple work compared to the reign of Jobs. I suspect that the responsible executive team fully realised AI's importance only after Alexa, even if they were almost first in the game. It's like "Give me something before the next earnings call."
"We at Apple deeply care about AI", "We are working on great Macs", "We deeply care about Siri (since 2013)". And then no result. I have not so much hope in their road map anymore.

 

[ipedro]

TMRJIJ said: ↑
Agreed, it's getting harder to actually find actual constructive discussions through all of the troll comments. My ignore list is filling up as well.
Funny though, some of the Moderators argue with those members so even they know of this problem.




Remember, the moderators are not part of the MR staff. They are just paid folks tasked to go through the comments for the most blatant inappropriate things. I've seen the same thing though, they do delete posts that point out the trolls. I think that's because MacRumors is so dependent, as are most sites, on clicks to sell advertisers on how many people may see the ads. Presumably, MR has done the calculation and they have decided to stomach the trolls in exchange for their clicks and for the click bait that the trolls provide for free. I may be wrong, but I suspect that in the long run MR would have more viewers if they chased away the trolls because many Apple enthusiasts I know won't come here anymore because of the inane comments.

The problem is also getting worse as the more trolls there are, the more inane and outrageous their comments need to be to get them the attention they crave. That in turn drives away the people who want thoughtful discussion. Also ironically, as Apple gets more and more success, the more trolls come out because their tremendous insecurity is threatened by success, people and companies.

There is no easy answer if you want to listen to thoughtful comments among enthusiasts if the economics discourage moderating out the trolls. Macworld and its parent group, essentially gave up trying to do any moderation and just moved everything over to Facebook and Twitter if folks want to comment. Perhaps some site will emerge that makes it clear that trolls aren't welcome and deletes their posts quickly. That's been shown to work to combat graffiti in neighborhoods, which is a good analogy to troll comments--people who feel powerless and insecure and want attention and to strike back against the community.
[doublepost=1482780882][/doublepost]


Please don't feed the trolls by suggesting there was anything "catchy" about the juvenile snickering. It's best for them to work out their personal issues on web sites devoted to those purposes.

You may be right. The current system encourages trolls. One liners of the same tired joke are quick to post. First page comments get promoted and highlighted under the article. Well thought out, well crafted commentary takes longer to write so they get buried in the deeper pages and rarely get highlighted.

Instead, the system should allow moderators to highlight interesting posts and promote those to under the article. But as you pointed out, MacRumors is after clicks. Inevitably, it's going to destroy this site and people looking to have actual conversations about Apple will find somewhere else to go.

The irony of all of this is that we're having this conversation in the comments of an article about Artificial Intelligence which is the actual long term solution to deal with comment trolls.

 

[and 1989 others]

Something tells me that Apple is not as serious in their AI efforts as they should be or at least the way the others are. Or it may be because they were so late in the game that they are still crawling. It's interesting to see how Tim Cook's Apple work compared to the reign of Jobs. I suspect that the responsible executive team fully realised AI's importance only after Alexa, even if they were almost first in the game. It's like "Give me something before the next earnings call."
"We at Apple deeply care about AI", "We are working on great Macs", "We deeply care about Siri (since 2013)". And then no result. I have not so much hope in their road map anymore.

Exactly I'm convinced this is just lip service, after the last disaster of product releases.

Siri, really is uselss, which is made even worse considering other competitors have far superior systems and they been around roughly the same time.

My big question is, are they just banking the research or are they actually going to implement it? And if so, when and it what devices, hopefully the new desktop range.

 

[A MacBook lover]

This isn't news. It's the publication of opinion pieces from a small department in a large computer manufacturer. One whom over the past 6 weeks has released and produced some dire products. Opinions, which because of the secrecy of the company could literally be made up by the marketing department, just to 'show' they are trying to innovate.

You need to lighten up. Maybe try that in the new year, just for a change of face.

I could agree that all sides should be stated but the "Fire Tim Cook" one-liners side has been overstated and quite agressive in this forum and frankly it's unwelcome without any valid discussion.
[doublepost=1482781526][/doublepost]

Exactly I'm convinced this is just lip service, after the last disaster of product releases.

Siri, really is uselss, which is made even worse considering other competitors have far superior systems and they been around roughly the same time.

My big question is, are they just banking the research or are they actually going to implement it? And if so, when and it what devices, hopefully the new desktop range.

Siri is pretty bad. I use it for Hue light bulbs and a few other things everyday and it can just suck sometimes. AirPods made it slightly better and she seems to pick up the words better.

Other than that it hasn't gotten better.

They've unified Siri into all their products (now iOS, Mac, Watch, TV, and AirPods). I wondered why they would do that if it's quite terrible. My guess is they are banking the companies they bought, and thier AI research for a major release. We'll see.

 

[Labeno]

Apple's AI + Google's AI + Nvidia's AI + Tesla AI + Internet = SkyNet

 

[and 1989 others]

Apple's AI + Google's AI + Nvidia's AI + Tesla AI + Internet = SkyNet

They not natively compatible. Please install SkyCamp to be able to use this service.

 

[SgtPepper12]

Interesting, this has been in use in particle physics for a pretty long time. It's a little more abstract there, but fundamentally the same thing. Apple's AI team apparently wanted to see how they can train their classifiers with as little labelled data as possible and of course they looked over to physicists who have the same problem, but not for ethical reasons, but because it's simply impossible. Great idea.

 

[truthertech]

Exactly I'm convinced this is just lip service, after the last disaster of product releases.

Siri, really is uselss, which is made even worse considering other competitors have far superior systems and they been around roughly the same time.

My big question is, are they just banking the research or are they actually going to implement it? And if so, when and it what devices, hopefully the new desktop range.

You must be on the wrong web site. This is about Apple. You mention the last disaster of product releases. That sounds like Samsung with it's exploding phones, and now exploding washing machines, or another company because when we look at Apple's recent releases we don't see a disaster but rather:

1. iPhone 7 getting great reviews and headed for a record or near record quarter in sales. Analysts' predictions of nearly 200 million in sales in first year. Wowser! Samsung now reported to copy removal of headphone jack in next flagship.
2. Macbook pros - record start to sales
3. Apple Watch Series 2 - Can't keep them in stock in stores or 3rd Party. Record setting best quarter and number one holiday device, now owns the smart watch market by a mile.
4. Airpods - Terrific reviews, huge demand, people waiting in line and off to great start in sales
5. Latest version of Apple Music - Adding over a million users a month

Samsung BOD may be sitting around and bemoaning their company woes, and Apple has some misses, but by any objective standard, the Apple BOD has to be toasting the recent success of Apple.

Oh, and your repetition of the myths about Siri is again way off the mark. Siri is far from perfect and has a long way to go, but there are any number of published informal comparisons of Siri vs. Google vs Alexa vs Cortana and Siri does very well in all of these. Alexa is no comparison. She only speaks one language and has greatly reduced capabilities to Siri.

 

[Labeno]

the "Fire Tim Cook" one-liners side has been overstated and quite agressive in this forum and frankly it's unwelcome without any valid discussion.

Interesting... are you new to the Apple world? Apple software is mostly amazing in comparison to competing software, but under Timmy, Apple hardware has gone downhill significantly and at the same time increased in price dramatically. Tim is operating for profit, not innovation. Steve Jobs has said again and again that the profit will come if you operate on innovation, quality and simplicity. I'm not trying to troll, I'm just trying to be the voice of many frustrated Apple fans.
[doublepost=1482782566][/doublepost]

• iPhone 7 getting great reviews and headed for a record or near record quarter in sales. Analysts' predictions of nearly 200 million in sales in first year. Wowser! Samsung now reported to copy removal of headphone jack in next flagship.

• Macbook pros - record start to sales

• Apple Watch Series 2 - Can't keep them in stock in stores or 3rd Party. Record setting best quarter and number one holiday device, now owns the smart watch market by a mile.

• Airpods - Terrific reviews, huge demand, people waiting in line and off to great start in sales

• Latest version of Apple Music - Adding over a million users a month

Interesting. You got suck into Darth Timmy terrible reality distortion field for the MacBook Pros, Apple Watch, and AirPods. Timmy never quantified anything. He recently use "Sales are off the Chart". Well, this will be true if they sold 1 item where the chart only goes to zero. Historically Timmy has never publish actual numbers if sales were not drool worthy. But notice he does put out actually numbers if sales are awesome.

 

[and 1989 others]

O

... rather:

1. iPhone 7 getting great reviews and headed for a record or near record quarter in sales. Analysts' predictions of nearly 200 million in sales in first year. Wowser! Samsung now reported to copy removal of headphone jack in next flagship.
2. Macbook pros - record start to sales
3. Apple Watch Series 2 - Can't keep them in stock in stores or 3rd Party. Record setting best quarter and number one holiday device, now owns the smart watch market by a mile.
4. Airpods - Terrific reviews, huge demand, people waiting in line and off to great start in sales
5. Latest version of Apple Music - Adding over a million users a month

1, the 7 not compatible with the new MacBook Pro without a new single, great design, it's also not compatible with 99% of the populations preffered headphones.
2, MacBook Pros, have limited connectivity, exploding speakers, broken graphics rendering, diminished batterlife and a £400 premium for a touch bar. And it was a secondary design they didn't want to produce but couldn't get their **** together to produce their flagship device.
3, That's what happens when you have a second gen device, which is 'superior' to the 1st gen
4, they have 5hour battery life and you have can only use Siri with the compromise of other feature
5, subscription services are not an apple innovation it's standard business model for online business. They have consumers locked into their ecosystem.

 

[A MacBook lover]

Interesting... are you new to the Apple world? Apple software is mostly amazing in comparison to competing software, but under Timmy, Apple hardware has gone downhill significantly and at the same time increased in price dramatically. Tim is operating for profit, not innovation. Steve Jobs has said again and again that the profit will come if you operate on innovation, quality and simplicity. I'm not trying to troll, I'm just trying to be the voice of many frustrated Apple fans.
[doublepost=1482782566][/doublepost]

Interesting. You got suck into Darth Timmy terrible reality distortion field for the MacBook Pros, Apple Watch, and AirPods. Timmy never quantified anything. He recently use "Sales are off the Chart". Well, this will be true if they sold 1 item where the chart only goes to zero. Historically Timmy has never publish actual numbers if sales were not drool worthy. But notice he does put out actually numbers if sales are awesome.

These are the exactly the type of posts that we don't need. Just all words no facts, backed up with zero sources. Filled with buzz words like 'Darth Timmy' and 'empire'.

Apple margins are actually going down.

iPhones increased by $20. MacBooks are priced what they were a few years ago the last time they had a major redesign. I haven't heard anyone complain about hardware quality.

And owners of the new MacBook Pro, AirPods, and Iphone 7 are pleased with their devices despite your 'reality distortion' .

 

[macTW]

The amount of Siri complaints (which are irrelevant here) and comments fishing for likes shows the lack of intelligence in this community. Apple is doing things nobody has with machine learning and image recognition, and is willing to spread the knowledge. We should be discussing that, or maybe most here don't understand any of it....

 

[Zirel]

I don't know if it's because of Apple's recent acquisition and hiring spree in AI, but I found the (Italian) Siri vastly improved recently.

Using Siri with the Airpods is the best so far, she perfectly gets all sentences, including odd names.

I also find Siri to work better with the Apple Watch than with the iPhone.

Maybe Apple is saving their best (more computationally expensive) servers to do a better work with these devices.