Tim Cook Says Apple Will 'Break New Ground' in Generative AI

[Octavius8]

How about let Siri make a freaking call or send a message with WhatsApp?.
Or make an appointment to the calendar with details?.
Or correct a mistyped phone number?.
Or open a support case to Apple when IOS is buggy?.
Everything else will be half baked.

 

[delsoul]

The biggest thing I want to see is how much Apple edits its AI. It’s no use in solving things if it’s crippled and edited for consumption. Even ChatGPT is extremely powerful but dodgy when you ask it questions like, “When was the country of Taiwan founded?”, etc. Facts are facts and whether we like them or not, truth should never be edited.

 

[Harry Haller]

What will AI called? Apple Intelligence? 🧐

Siridipity?

 

[carestudio]

wait .. I thought you are not allowed to talk about any future products? 🙂

 

[Downhilltenago]

Rofl. More endless platitudes.......

Talk is cheap Tim

Yep

 

[ThomasJL]

The CEO of one the most successful companies on the planet today is mediocre, what would you consider stellar?

Steve Jobs. Yeah, he didn't make Apple anywhere near as much money as Tim Cook, but money is not the benchmark for consumer-friendly products. Anyone who disagrees with that and thinks Cook is an excellent CEO should also think that Steve Ballmer was an excellent CEO. That's because Microsoft made huge record profits when Ballmer was CEO.

 

[svish]

Waiting to see Apple's take on AI on all its software this year.

 

[mxrider88]

Gonna break some iOS code probably.

 

[Tagbert]

A car and better Siri would have satisfied me over more AI.

AI means better Siri.

 

[Tagbert]

There's far more to AI than just Siri.

Yes. Apple has been doing various types of AI for years. Siri was a very basic but rigid AI that turned out to be a dead end. In the meantime they have been doing lots of smaller AI that they call machine learning. This past year they did a pilot project using a Transformer on the typing suggestions feature. This new push will likely bring more AI into a significant number of iOS features. An LLM infusion into Siri will probably be just the most obvious change.

 

[Tagbert]

I hope there will be a way to disable it in any and all *OS'. I want no part of AI in anything I do.

Too late. There has been machine learning in Apple’s products for years.

 

[Tagbert]

Please don't put lipstick on Siri and claim it is breakthrough AI...

One thing Apple could do with AI is to make shortcuts easy and intuitive to use.

Like if I'm going home from work, why can't the phone predict that I'm going home, and prompt me if I would like to run a "coming home at evening time" routine? And if I do want to run it, then run shortcuts or other backend actions for various disparate things like setting the right temp on the thermostat, disarming the alarm system when I am a couple min away, turning on the smart lights, running the water heater's recirculation so water is warm at the shower, etc? I have to do these things manually and some of the apps don't have any plugins for Apple's shortcuts infrastructure. So I can't set a routine to automatically everything I want to do anyways.

It would be nice for the phone and iOS apps to be like a brain and nervous system, where iOS itself can speak to Apps and get them to trigger certain functions. Right now each App is like its own little island, its own little ecosystem, but they don't really come together as a community.

Like for example, if the thermostat has been off all day and now it's evening time and I set it to come on, mightn't it also be true that maybe I'd like the water heater to heat and recirculate water too and for smart lights to come on? There's no central iOS intelligence autonomously making such inferences or decisions. The human body is made up of disparate systems like the nervous and cardivascular systems... but they all work together autonomously as a cohesive whole. We don't have to "think" to breathe or for the heart to pump blood or for the liver, lungs, etc to do what they are designed to do. They just do it, autonomously.

Why can't iOS be similar when it comes to automation? Each app has certain capabilities, but many times they require manual user intervention, and sometimes we just want things to be automated. Just a thought of mine.

That sounds like you are asking for …. AI.

Each of those things could be better automated with some AI in the mix.

People keep bringing up the current Siri and acting like that is all that it can ever be. What has been rumored will essentially be a ground up replacement for Siri. Hell, they could finally rename it though that might be a little too much. 😊

 

[Tagbert]

If you are referring to "Auto-Correct" I agree with you
My goodness has that become bad -- basically useless

I find it a big improvement on the older typing suggestion system.

 

[Tagbert]

I was raised with you right up until the last line. What is the problem with Siri comparisons when discussing apples next ventures into AI? Siri is AI. I’ll be a relatively limited one when compared to what’s available today…

Current Siri is a very old approach to AI that barely qualifies as AI today. According to reports a lot of it was hard coded and the architecture ended up so convoluted as to make it nearly impossible to modify.

I would expect them to essentially gut Siri and put something much more modern in its place.

 

[Fraserpatty]

This seems like it'll be a complete overhaul. And Apple actually has a pretty good record when overhauling something that got negative criticism...

Yes, judging from Maps, they do have a pretty good record. But Siri has been lambasted for many years and it’s like Apple didn’t pay it any attention. Considering that it is on all of their devices, I wonder that they would have let that be the case for so long, especially since they have had the engineering capability to have changed that image. Really hoping that from what we hear in June will have down the same path as Apple Maps.

 

[RickDEGH]

Rofl. More endless platitudes.......

Talk is cheap Tim

Comments are even cheaper, I guess.

 

[robertosh]

I really doubt it, but I don't care as long as there is an option to disable it.

 

[mxrider88]

I find it a big improvement on the older typing suggestion system.

Yeah like when you start replying to an email and instead of Hi it corrects it to Ho

 

[oldwatery]

These forums have gotten more and more pessimistic and flippant as time goes on…

The majority of conversations seem to be critical and condescending at base, with rational discussion and optimistic speculation dismissed or ridiculed regularly.

That said, I’m truly excited to see what Apple has in store for Siri 2.0. I don’t personally care for generative AI, but a truly helpful and advanced AI assistant would connect all the dots of Apples ecosystem soooo well - especially given how controlled/consistent it is.

Bring it on! 🤓👍

So do you not think there might be actual reasons for this increasing negativity. Of course you don’t. It must be so nice living in in your Apple bubble.

 

[matsan]

You're late on the AI bandwagon, Tim.

 

[tweaknmod]

So do you not think there might be actual reasons for this increasing negativity. Of course you don’t. It must be so nice living in in your Apple bubble.

You just proved my point perfectly; flippant and condescending.

Respectful discussion and debate can absolutely discuss and even highlight the negatives. I hold zero loyalty to any corporation - just as they hold no loyalty to me - and when Apple makes a bad call, I’m all over having that discussion.

My point was about these forums and the overall tone of the posts in recent months. Again, your response to mine was a perfect example of what I was trying to point out.

 

[Razorpit]

Break New Ground meaning it's going to be good or it's going to stink?

It means it’s DOA, “dead on arrival”.

 

[ender78]

Should've done that with the vision pro aswell.

The AVP or one of its successors is the future of computing. The AVP in my opinion is a product that was released as soon as it was ready for "beta testers". Apple has done about as much as it can behind closed doors on that products development. It was time to let the product to be used by the masses. Those users will tell Apple where they believe they went wrong. Is it ready for prime time, no. It is ready for early adopters and developers to start to see where the product will go in the future.

 

[ender78]

That's debatable.

No it's not. They oversee software development for platforms used by over a billion devices every day. They have to be doing something right to get to over a billion daily active users.

 

[Shasterball]

Why are you here there? If you don't believe in the company, its direction and products what are you contributing to the conversation here. How about you comment about what you would like to see.

You sure did extrapolate a lot from a couple sentences...lol.

Also, what exactly did your comment "contribute?"