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As long as we can turn these features off regardless of who the provider is, it's fine with me. I'd rather not have the water and energy wasted for LLM stuff.
But you're OK with the "water and energy wasted" for all the other stuff going on in their data centers?
 
I’ve also played around with local models by Google and found them to be not that great compared to others.

Obviously these models are significantly smaller than what is referenced in this article, my perception is that Google is also behind the competition on AI.
You clearly have not used the latest Gemini release. Your perception shouldn't be used to make comments about things that really aren't related at all.
 
Too often I've found Gemini to incorrect and lost all trust its summaries. Really annoyed Siri will be powered by this crap. Annoyed at Apple too for being too scattered to focus on areas that would enhance the use of their core products like phones and Macs. I'm way too deep into the Apple ecosystem to have jump ship should a competitor come along that beats Apple at what it used to do best (and that's whole other separate debate).
Oddly Gemini has never been wrong when I've used it.
 
Regardless, this is pretty big news. And strangely perhaps, apparently it's on the down-low.
 
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Yes, I was very disappointed that Sony turned to Google to replace their Bravia operating system. I have used Sony's operating system for decades on various TVs and thought that it was marvelous. The supplanting of that with Google TV makes me shudder.

Also as an Apple TV 4K owner, I'd much rather have a "dumb" TV than a so-called smart TV that potentially spies on you. ATV does all that I need as far as connectivity is concerned.

Therefore having Google's camel nose pushing itself into iOS or the MacOS tent is quite unwelcome. Sure it looks like it's sandboxed now, but based on Google's business model of infiltration everywhere it doesn't bode well.
Uh...when you're paying billions they dont need to worry about their other business model. I'd also remind you that lots of businesses pay for Google Workspace, and Apple runs part of iCloud on Google's cloud product. Google has more than one business model believe it or not. Y'all are hilarious.
 
Yes, I was very disappointed that Sony turned to Google to replace their Bravia operating system. I have used Sony's operating system for decades on various TVs and thought that it was marvelous. The supplanting of that with Google TV makes me shudder.

Also as an Apple TV 4K owner, I'd much rather have a "dumb" TV than a so-called smart TV that potentially spies on you. ATV does all that I need as far as connectivity is concerned.

Therefore having Google's camel nose pushing itself into iOS or the MacOS tent is quite unwelcome. Sure it looks like it's sandboxed now, but based on Google's business model of infiltration everywhere it doesn't bode well.

I, too, can't stand the Google OS on my Sony OLED.
Like you, I really enjoyed the Sony OSes of the past on their TVs.
 
Making a model is trivial now. xAI did it in like 6 months. Everyone understands LLMs now. Making a basic one for the purposes they need is well within their reach. They have probably choked it by insisting it is on device or something unnecessary.

"Making a model is trivial now." says "jimbobb24" on macrumors who I'm sure is an expert 😂
 
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Apple has done this before:
- Leaned on Google until Apple’s in-house maps were “ready”.
- Leaned on Weather Channel until their in-house weather data was ready.
- Leaned on Intel and Qualcomm until their in-house chips were ready.

Now leaning on Gemini until their in-house solution is ready. This is a stop gap to give Apple all the time it needs to get this right, since they got it so publicly wrong the first time, yet can’t risk not shipping an enhanced Siri in 2026.

I don’t disagree with your post, your observations about precedents are good, but I actually wish that Apple would go back to licensing Google Maps data because even now, outside of the USA at least, Google has much better ground truth data on places and services than Apple has (shops, restaurants, bars, public transport routes & timetables etc). My ideal would be the Apple Maps app (nice graphics and good integration with other Apple apps) but using Google ground truth.

I’m assuming that this new Siri will access Apple ground truth if you ask it for directions, restaurant recommendations, the opening hours of some shop etc but again from my experiences with current Siri and with Google Assistant I would love it if the deal with Google meant that the new Siri had access to the superior Google ground truth.
 
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I have a Google Pixel phone for work and an iPhone personally. The Google phone is just the worst. Ugly, complicated, seems like a copy of Apple design but an ugly version of it. I've tried to ask people that love Google to tell me how I can enjoy the device, but every time I use it, I just have deep regret. I have to stop mid-way, pull out my iPhone just to smile again. Please, I'm asking. Let us know why you like the Pixel phone. It would actually help me because I'm forced to have it and just don't understand why anyone would choose to purchase it on purpose.

"I have to stop mid-way, pull out my iPhone just to smile again."

Sounds like maybe you've got more to worry about than phones 😆
 
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In the article: "The AI model that Google is developing for Apple will run on Apple's Private Cloud Compute servers, so Google will not have access to Apple data."
Yes, I got that, though thank you for reiterating that point. My disappointment lay in the fact that a 'privacy focused' firm needs to pay truckloads of cash to a data monster in order to develop a platform. Clearly, privacy doesn't pay.
 
This is the best option and many of felt it was the obvious option from the beginning. Let’s remember regardless that these models are not living up to expectations or whether this is the path forward. The reality is that Apple would need to join everyone in the race to build the infrastructure of massive AI data centers that are at the center of what can be a bubble. They will need to build these data centers or buy capacity from them.

A race to for locations where they can get cheap energy without having to build their own nuclear reactors or be faced with the inevitable regulations that will make it harder and more expensive to build them.

It’s not as simple as people think. They will also have to face the backlash from consumer groups for making utility bills skyrocket and the excessive use of water to cool the Nvidia furnaces.
 
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The reality is that Apple would need to join everyone in the race to build the infrastructure of massive AI data centers that are at the center of what can be a bubble. They will need to build these data centers or buy capacity from them.
Apple IS building its own big data centers, containing its own Apple-manufactured servers, on which it will run Google's AI LLM. Its Apple's "Private Cloud Compute" initiative. Those data centers may not need to be as massive as some others, since Apple isn't planning on including a general, universal chatbot capability for Siri/Apple Intelligence, though I wouldn't be surprised if they change their mind about that at some point.
 
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I haven't read through all 11 pages of this thread but I think this will be fine. Even years ago before AI became popular the Google Homes worked so much better than Siri, so I think this will be more than capable of doing the tasks you would use Siri for that it can't seem to do now.
 
That's crazy that they couldn't make their own. I've been using Gemini Pro some for basic tasks and research and it will be good enough for most daily uses. If you ask it to research most anything you personally know that is very niche it will take a while and create a paper that looks and reads great but is all wrong. I'm a composer and violinist and it gets a lot wrong there. I also have a degree in math and it gets most anything I throw at it correct in that field. I asked it to fix a VBA macro for an import utility that wasn't working correctly and it spit out code that worked.
 
AI.png
 
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