Apple's Push Into AI Allegedly Happened After Craig Federighi Tried Microsoft AI Coding Tool

[SmugMaverick]

I mean, this was obvious from all the leaks.

Apple is in a shambles right now chasing the AI fad and its embarrassing, iOS and iPadOS are so far behind basic AI features on Android right now and they know it.

 

[VPsmith]

- The Software team works in a traditional approach
- The AI team works in agile approach

This explains the disaster of Siri from some years ago.

Also seams that the new AI generative research don’t come from AI team but from Craig team.

In old times (Jobs) the AI team be fired in years.

No it’s more like

- The software team works in agile approach
- The AI team works in a relaxed approach

 

[VPsmith]

Someday in the future will be able to ask AI to create a personal iOS branch to fix battery life and broken “features” from the original GM release.

Or ask AI to develop 3D hardware accelerated Mac OS 9.2.2 emulation that runs as fast as a Performa 6400 200MHz.. so I can finally have my childhood Mac properly emulated at full speed

 

[CPTmom2wp]

Kind of pathetic. It's like great grandpa being introduced to a microwave while it has already become people's daily tool for a long time.

I am a grandparent and wholeheartedly agree with this statement. While I have been an early tech adopter and had pretty much every initial Apple product, the changes are happening quickly now. People who don't live in that world cannot keep up. Apple employees, who do live in that world, specifically the aging leadership from, Cook on down, have become embarrassingly slow and dense in product development, software design, and obviously, AI. Something is wrong at Apple when they have to "discover" and "learn from" people at Microsoft and Google.

 

[coffeemilktea]

In a report on Apple's AI ambitions, WSJ says that Federighi became an AI "convert" after testing the Copilot coding tool introduced by Microsoft-owned GitHub. Copilot, which uses OpenAI technology, was created to help programmers write, troubleshoot, and translate code into different programming languages.

Ironic, as Microsoft's own AI projects started because their CTO realized how far Microsoft was behind Google on AI.

Dudes in their 50s realizing they're behind on AI is the catalyst for so much AI progress in these big companies.

 

[verniesgarden]

Has there been any rumors of AI integration into Xcode?

 

[CPTmom2wp]

It's a little sad that Apple hasn't been developing its own AI, independently and in a top security environment, like it did when it was at the forefront in developing new products, software, and technology pathways. The executives don't seem to have any vision other than the stock price. All that talent below the C-Suite is left without that future vision that generates excitement among employees and the public. I really miss the days when Apple did its own thing and was Creative in all aspects of what made the company great. Instead it feels a little like the company has become "copy and paste" with a few tweaks. I remain a staunch Apple fan but really miss Jobs and his visionary approach to technology. Were he still alive, I absolutely believe he would have pioneered state of the art AI with associated products that would revolutionize e.g., HOME technology and many other AI tools that could enrich our lives.

 

[Ethosik]

And you don’t think you’re being extreme when you want AI to be stopped?
You don’t want developers to use AI to develop faster and better Apps and software? You don’t want photographers/videographers/creators to use AI based software to create better photos, movies and videos etc etc?

You do know that the AI we’re taking about here is not Arnold Schwarzenegger Terminator movie, right?

Because what Adobe has done I can’t open creative cloud apps until I have my meeting with my lawyers. No I am not being extreme. This TOS change is going to cost me a lot of money and delays. I had already planned to eventually drop Windows (Copilot is for ARM PCs….for now).

How do you think this generative AI stuff will get better? By essentially stealing from us creatives.

 

[0828557]

Apple is aiming to integrate AI into as many apps as possible

I am deeply concerned that this was not instead "Apple is aiming to integrate AI into apps that have a clear use case for it"

 

[bobringer]

GitHub Copilot is one of the most useful implementations of AI I’ve ever used, so if Craig and Apple are taking inspiration from that in designing features it gives me hope.

^^ 100% Accurate

I suspect for folks that don't know our world and don't live in an editor with copilot, they think things like copilot chat and longer code generation are how programmers use AI day to day when it really has nothing to do with that.

Completion works so well that we're now writing code that's easily understood by our AI tools so that copilot completes the repetitive bits with basically zero friction. I have a designer friend that was thinking about AI could help him with basic coding. I showed him a 20 line suggestion that popped up half a second after I did nothing but write a descriptive function name.

(and now I digress)

We're not just writing more declarative code... we're starting to live in a declarative workflow.

// copilot, give me some typescript to do x, y, z
[tab]

This is a trend and it's starting to get wild. Writing my own frontends for some LLM tools right now. My too includes the function to run, and then natural language instructions for how the LLM should provide params to the function. Since GPT-4o, I've had full (sort of) type safety without fail... using English.

 

[purplerainpurplerain]

Because what Adobe has done I can’t open creative cloud apps until I have my meeting with my lawyers. No I am not being extreme.

Don’t listen to attention seeking social media clowns. This is not a Recall moment.

outside Adobe’s cloud folders and cloud system Adobe has no clue what you are working on and cannot access your files.

If you have a Mac you should know this already. Their apps will ask for permission to record your screen which you are not obliged to give. If an app asks that always deny it. It’s usually for support reasons not function reasons.

If you are concerned about cloud then all providers are doing the same thing. If you want to share large folders with sync then use encrypted disk images or passworded compressed folders in cloud or direct wetransfer.

 

[CorvusFox]

Generative "AI" is not AI. It's not intelligent, it's just a next-word or next-pixel guessing algorithm, trained on stolen artists work. It can't do a single useful or helpful thing, and can certainly never be relied on. It's an interesting child's toy, that's it. This mad rush to cram it into absolutely everything is utterly insane, not to mention criminally irresponsible considering the environmental cost.

 

[DocMultimedia]

Generative "AI" is not AI. It's not intelligent, it's just a next-word or next-pixel guessing algorithm, trained on stolen artists work. It can't do a single useful or helpful thing, and can certainly never be relied on. It's an interesting child's toy, that's it. This mad rush to cram it into absolutely everything is utterly insane, not to mention criminally irresponsible considering the environmental cost.

Stop these posts that sound like they come from a sane person! Forums can't deal with that.

 

[Ethosik]

Don’t listen to attention seeking social media clowns. This is not a Recall moment.

outside Adobe’s cloud folders and cloud system Adobe has no clue what you are working on and cannot access your files.

If you have a Mac you should know this already. Their apps will ask for permission to record your screen which you are not obliged to give. If an app asks that always deny it. It’s usually for support reasons not function reasons.

If you are concerned about cloud then all providers are doing the same thing. If you want to share large folders with sync then use encrypted disk images or passworded compressed folders in cloud or direct wetransfer.

I have contracts and NDAs. Yes my lawyer wants to review. It’s not as simple as “ignore the media”. I need to look at this long term as well. This is how it starts. Adobe WILL scan local files at some point.

 

[Ethosik]

Generative "AI" is not AI. It's not intelligent, it's just a next-word or next-pixel guessing algorithm, trained on stolen artists work. It can't do a single useful or helpful thing, and can certainly never be relied on. It's an interesting child's toy, that's it. This mad rush to cram it into absolutely everything is utterly insane, not to mention criminally irresponsible considering the environmental cost.

Thank you! That is precisely the issue!

 

[TLuc]

This claim seems a little suspect, at least in terms of the timing. Are they suggesting that Apple designed and built M4 with a heavy AI emphasis, based on stuff that happened in 2022? For a chip shipping in volume in actual products in early 2024 (meaning production of the chip starting in 2023), one would have expected them to have started before 2022.

It doesn't feel like the M4 was built with "huge emphasis" on AI, it's just the Apple SOC with the best AI performance because it's the latest chip they launched.
While X Elite and AMD's Strix APU really do feel like AI was maybe the main focus when designing them.

 

[TLuc]

Would pretty much be an Apple chip then. Qualcomm bought Nubz’s which is a bunch of ex Apple chip engineers and designers. It seems Qualcomm was not able to do it by itself. I also find it funny MS bragging about the chips when they do not make them.

It's called NUVIA, and they were only working on custom ARM CPU cores, the AI/NPU(GPU, Modem, Wi-Fi etc) is all Qulacomm's doing. They could have also designed their own custom CPU cores as they already did it successfully in the past but why bother when NUVIA already had something they wanted?

 

[mxrider88]

He is so smart and innovative wow

 

[syklee26]

Much better than having a rockhead exec who just flat out refuse to change.

 

[purplerainpurplerain]

I have contracts and NDAs. Yes my lawyer wants to review. It’s not as simple as “ignore the media”. I need to look at this long term as well. This is how it starts. Adobe WILL scan local files at some point.

A third party will not be spying on files on your computer if even Apple won’t spy on files on your computer. They need system level permissions to be able to do so or an illegal hack.

Remember that Apple has already backtracked on CSAM scanning on iPhones. They won’t be giving third parties the ability to do so and have given you a ton of settings to prevent third parties from accessing files, folders and apps.

Adobe released a FAQ yesterday stating in clear terms they only collect data in their cloud system. The media and social media lunatics have not even bothered to update their click bait.

Regardless, you have the ability to create encrypted disk images built into macOS and Windows. I have used them forever. All my accounting is in disk images. You should always use encrypted disk images locally and in cloud, even if AI never existed.

 

[SDJim]

Having used Copilot to write code, I can't say this is terribly surprising, though overall AI is still kind of meh to me. It needs to bake for a couple more years and be available on-device as much as possible.

 

[Ratlerbite]

Ahhhh so they still can innovate, they just steal as always. Cool

 

[jvchappy]

Is this an AI photo of him or is Craig really that intimate with a MacBook?

 

[9081094]

So in other words: Apple stepped into ai when competitors were showing what they got. It seems a bit of a pattern these days. Where is the nimble Apple who was always at the forefront of new technologies? Apple is becoming the Atari and commodore of the tech industrie. At least it’s somehow good for consumers. They’ve to lower their prices to stay relevant.

I’m hopeful WWDC 2024 brings more fruit to the table. But be prepared to be underwhelmed if this trend at Apple continues.

 

[9081094]

If he just started with Copilot last year, then that means it's going to be another 4 years before a hardware product with a new chip is available that was designed around it.

Chips generally take 5 years from concept to consumer.

And when the M5 comes out. There will also be a new snapdragon x elite that even smokes Apple’s best offerings out of the water. Or maybe the new Mac’s will be sold with a snapdragon X elite to compete. Same has happened with the PowerPC. I remember that Apple showed ads mocking intel with a snail 🐌. Few years later whe had intel inside Mac’s 🤣😂🤣.

Apple is has a very good marketing department that lets you believe you buy the best tech has to offer… they always get leapfrogged by the competition. That circle of time seems to shorten by the year.