Tim Cook Defends Apple's AI Delay: 'We've Rarely Been First'

[dustin_]

this is a ridiculous thing to say when they were advertising the hell out of this product a year ago. i don’t recall a time that’s ever happened in apple’s past. everyone involved should be embarrassed & i reiterate my point that it’s past time to clean out apple’s marketing team.

 

[Abazigal]

This is one of those times when I wish Apple would have the guts to just sit out the entire AI race, and wait for the bubble to implode. Either way, I believe Apple will do just fine (you will still need hardware to run AI on).

 

[smulji]

This is one of those times when I wish Apple would have the guts to just sit out the entire AI race, and wait for the bubble to implode. Either way, I believe Apple will do just fine (you will still need hardware to run AI on).

Machine learning / AI isn't going anywhere

 

[grammatica]

You can be both first and best.

 

[Plutonius]

Apple may have only rarely been first but it doesn't mean they should accept being last.

 

[SAIRUS]

Apple Fan:
Tim..stop using this “we do it better later” as an excuse to keep the product line stale and get maximum return on investment.

That cushion Steve built for you was there for growth, not micromanage to bleed dry.

Apple Investment Fan:
Umm keep doing what you’re doing Tim.


Me:
I’ll just pull my shares when I need to and hop to the next best thing. Huzzah consumer!

 

[smulji]

Apple may have only rarely been first but it doesn't mean they should accept being last.

Apple should always focus on being the best. That's all that matters.

 

[svish]

No doubt Apple will eventually be successful in the AI field. Will take some time but a lot of work has to be done. Hoping to see some meaningful improvements with iOS 27.

 

[Dark_Omen]

Tim Cook is an idiot, point blank.

Only an idiot gets outdone by a competitor by over a trillion dollars in market cap when they have the products Tim had put right in their lap. Apple should be where Microsoft is right now.

Only an idiot approves this ugly Liquid Glass software theme.

Take responsibility to your superiors and admit you’re a screw up. We’ll all forgive you and move on with less hate towards you, Tim. Everyone knows you’re a terrible leader and shouldn’t be in charge of a tech company.

 

[2128506]

> We will make the investment to do it

Whoa, you did not do this yet? Might be too late to the party, bud.

 

[etichi]

Words

 

[starlabjump]

Tim Cook certainly has a list of successful products to be proud of — the M-series MacBooks, the Apple Watch lineup, the AirPods, the revitalized MacBook Air, and so on.

On the other hand, he has yet to deliver meaningful success in areas like Apple Glasses, the Apple Car, and Apple’s AI efforts. Most notably, I believe software has been Tim Cook’s weakest area.

 

[Dark_Omen]

Tim Cook certainly has a list of successful products to be proud of — the M-series MacBooks, the Apple Watch lineup, the AirPods, the revitalized MacBook Air, and so on.

On the other hand, he has yet to deliver meaningful success in areas like Apple Glasses, the Apple Car, and Apple’s AI efforts. Most notably, I believe software has been Tim Cook’s weakest area.

M series is basically an arm chip. Took a Steve Jobs invention and improved on it.

Apple Watch was in the works before Steve died. It is now behind the Samsung watch in terms of features.

AirPods aren’t anything special.

MacBook Air isn’t revitalized. The super slim version from 2010 looks much better.

Unfortunately Steve’s biggest and last mistake was nominating Tim to take over as CEO.

 

[gleepskip]

Tim Cook certainly has a list of successful products to be proud of — the M-series MacBooks, the Apple Watch lineup, the AirPods, the revitalized MacBook Air, and so on.

On the other hand, he has yet to deliver meaningful success in areas like Apple Glasses, the Apple Car, and Apple’s AI efforts. Most notably, I believe software has been Tim Cook’s weakest area.

Tim always slept through this part of Jobs' speeches.

 

[MichaelAdam]

Is it a big deal that Apple doesn’t bring to the table ANOTHER Ai ? Do they have to rush ? Apple didn’t compete with Google, Yahoo and Bing when it was a big deal and we didn’t mind. But at the time they were offering so much innovation that everyone was content. So maybe if they could do what they know best and do it we would not mind if they let us use another AI on their products …

 

[Jimmy Goodwood]

Siri is a complete Joke. Basically useless. Last night I asked Siri what day is Mothers Day in the USA. The answer, I can't tell you without a specific city or time zone. Then I asked the same question for Canada, I got the correct answer, but if I ask from my phone (IOS 18.50 I only get a list of links on the screen, not a verbal answer), like when I ask from a Homepod. I went back to the Homepod & tried again with what days is Mothers Day in the USA, after getting nowhere for a few tries, I finally asked "What day is Mothers Day in Los Angeles", well then I got a correct verbal answer. Anyway after all these years it's still a complete mess. The only thing I can use it for is adding an appointment to my calendar. My Homepods can't even get simple Music requests correct 50% of the time, same using it in Car play, I rarely get what I was asking for. For a company that makes such beautiful, functional products, Siri is an absolute disgrace. Apple should be embarrassed to have this in their ecco system.

 

[Rogifan]

This is one of those times when I wish Apple would have the guts to just sit out the entire AI race, and wait for the bubble to implode. Either way, I believe Apple will do just fine (you will still need hardware to run AI on).

I don’t think there is a bubble that is going to implode. Which is why AI is now the top priority for Apple.

 

[PowerButton]

I don't think you understand what Apple's AI strategy is.

Up until a year ago they didn’t even have a strategy. At this point their strategy is to keep from being left behind.

 

[PowerButton]

Siri is a complete Joke. Basically useless. Last night I asked Siri what day is Mothers Day in the USA. The answer, I can't tell you without a specific city or time zone. Then I asked the same question for Canada, I got the correct answer, but if I ask from my phone (IOS 18.50 I only get a list of links on the screen, not a verbal answer), like when I ask from a Homepod. I went back to the Homepod & tried again with what days is Mothers Day in the USA, after getting nowhere for a few tries, I finally asked "What day is Mothers Day in Los Angeles", well then I got a correct verbal answer. Anyway after all these years it's still a complete mess. The only thing I can use it for is adding an appointment to my calendar. My Homepods can't even get simple Music requests correct 50% of the time, same using it in Car play, I rarely get what I was asking for. For a company that makes such beautiful, functional products, Siri is an absolute disgrace. Apple should be embarrassed to have this in their ecco system.

Every year I try to use Siri once, then remember why I never use it.

 

[Seoras]

He's right, it's about being first to do it the right way and do it really well. Everyone else copied Apple after they did "it".

 

[cbaca51]

I hope Apple stays like this with AI. Don’t want that garbage

 

[Abazigal]

I don’t think there is a bubble that is going to implode. Which is why AI is now the top priority for Apple.

The bubble pops when these AI startups begin running out of investor funding and realise that they don’t have a product consumers are willing to pay for.

The mass market simply doesn’t care about AI, much less AI on their phones. I feel there is this unrealistic optimism in tech circles that isn’t representative of how AI is perceived by the general public.

There is too much focus on the raw power found in LLMs like ChatGPT, and not enough on to turn this into a product that people are willing to pay money for. It’s a trend similar to when I was arguing that people fixated too much on raw specs in a smartphone, and not enough on the end user experience.

 

[bluecoast]

Behold, the iTunes phone! Definitely no stumbles there!

Oh wow I had forgotten about that it was so bad. I remember Jobs barely hiding his distaste when he introduced it.

 

[Stehsegler9]

The fact that they increased the standard amount memory in their laptops and phone indicates to me their initial strategy was to run models locally to work the privacy angle and to cut down on cost. They very likely ran into a road block they couldn't solve and running all requests in the cloud was likely too costly and during peak usage would run into performance issues.

Also, people keep forgetting that the current AI race is a bit like the dot com bubble. In the end there will be a handful of companies left. The rest will run out of money and either get absorbed by the bigger players or will disappear all together. Given the amount of money Apple still makes from their hardware I doubt they will be going away anytime soon.

 

[bluecoast]

It’s good that TC admits as to how big a deal AI is going to be (and already is).

It’s also good that they will make a big acquisition / partnership - evidently he’s willing to spend what it takes.

The acquisition method will also allow apple to pay AI experts huge ‘salaries’, as it’s been common for them to buy companies with the founders / senior employees in line to get millions if not billions in golden handcuffs deals (Beats).

What this now all means will be fascinating.

If they can acquire someone like anthropic that would be the best bet, as it’s tech is good but they just haven’t got the public profile and awareness (and presumably the usage figures) outside of the coding community.

But entering in a deep multi year partnership with it and/or ChatGPT, would also provide breathing space for them.

As would making huge partnerships with whoever has a stack of nvidia chips (google Microsoft Amazon) and the cloud capacity to run them on.

Then it feels like it wouldn’t be an impossible leap to produce something that uses app intents and runs in the cloud initially, in a similar way to the iOS 18 ChatGPT cloud queries & will give them breathing space to create on device models.

It’s time to get the wallet out and to spend big.