Vision Pro Creator Taking Over Siri After Apple Intelligence Setbacks
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Hey I'm one of those satisfied customers!
People are seriously, seriously underestimating the virtual Remote Desktop capability of the Vision Pro to be productive. It's what I use it for every night, writing code in my bed as if I had a huge monitor in front of me. There are definitely things that can be improved, but for my purposes - how to be the laziest developer ever - it works extremely well. It's useful and usable RIGHT NOW, not just as a tech demo.
Given that, I don't think Siri on iPhones is going to be an easy problem to solve. AI LLM is still unreliable and running it locally on a mobile device even more so, as its going to need tons of memory. I think we're still about 10 years away from it being useful locally in iPhones.
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Jashar7
macrumors regular
$3.21 Trillion worth company to have such ridiculous issues is ridiculous.
Apple is reportedly shaking up its executive ranks, shortly after it delayed the personalized Siri features that it previewed at WWDC last year.
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman today said that Vision Pro chief Mike Rockwell will be taking over the Siri team at Apple, which until now was led by Apple's artificial intelligence chief John Giannandrea. Apple CEO Tim Cook has apparently "lost confidence" in Giannandrea's ability to "execute on product development," but he will remain at the company for now to oversee artificial intelligence research and development in general.
Vision Pro hardware engineer Paul Meade will be succeeding Rockwell as the head of Apple's spatial computing efforts, allowing Rockwell to focus entirely on Siri, according to the report. In his new role overseeing the Siri team, Rockwell will report to Apple's software engineering chief Craig Federighi, the report added.
Apple plans to inform employees about the executive shakeup this week, according to the report.
Apple has been facing a lot of criticism after delaying its more personalized version of Siri, with some people upset that the company chose to preview new features that were merely conceptual, rather than fully functional. It is a widely held belief that Apple is lagging behind competitors like OpenAI in the generative artificial intelligence space, and it looks like Apple is attempting to right the ship with this executive shakeup.
Apple appointing Rockwell as its new Siri head is an interesting choice, as the Vision Pro has been described as a "commercial flop" and has faced criticism of its own. Nevertheless, the Vision Pro is certainly a technological feat, so Rockwell has proven experience and could be instrumental in improving Siri's underlying technologies.
Apple said it anticipates rolling out the more personalized Siri "in the coming year."
Even the current version of Siri has attracted a lot of criticism, including from some of the most devoted Apple fans, as it sometimes struggles to answer even the most basic questions. Rockwell certainly has his work cut out for him in his new role.
Article Link: Vision Pro Creator Taking Over Siri After Apple Intelligence Setbacks
HouseLannister
macrumors 68000
Picture of Mike Rockwell for those that don't recognize the name from the keynotes. He's the one on the right.
Naraxus
macrumors 68030
I remember reports of Bob Mansfield and Jony Ive being two of the most vocal critics of Forstall and once Jobs passed, Scott's days at Apple were numbered.
He's actually won 5 Tony Awards (the Broadway equivalent of the Oscars) for a couple plays he's produced.
surferfb
Contributor
Had no idea. Good for him!
ipedro
macrumors 603
You've mirrored my thoughts and concerns. It was Tim Cook who ultimately blew a decade head start on openAI. Steve Jobs left him Siri and Tim had no idea what Steve meant to do with it because he's a logistics guy, not a product visionary.
It was apparent the moment Steve died that this would eventually catch up to Apple. Steve left an 8-10 year road map and that ran out a few years ago. The problem is, if there were someone like Steve at Apple, Tim Cook would've already promoted them.
Rogifan
macrumors Penryn
John Gruber’s take is this was a turf war that Craig Federighi won. And that perhaps John Giannandrea is better leading research teams than ones responsible for shipping products.
It should be noted that previous Mark Gurman reporting said Federighi had voiced concerns about this stuff not working. It’s entirely possible it wasn’t his choice to announce them and market them in TV commercials that ran during NFL football games. It’s possible he was overruled by those who felt the company had to announce this to change the perception that they were behind in AI.
It should be noted that previous Mark Gurman reporting said Federighi had voiced concerns about this stuff not working. It’s entirely possible it wasn’t his choice to announce them and market them in TV commercials that ran during NFL football games. It’s possible he was overruled by those who felt the company had to announce this to change the perception that they were behind in AI.
Rogifan
macrumors Penryn
How do any of us know what Steve meant to do with Siri?
I mean Vision Pro is a tour de force so that’s good.
But any jd that has ‘fix Siri’ in it is going about it the wrong way.
Start again and get rid of the Siri branding or are Apple execs so much in a bubble that they don’t realise that Siri is the punch lines to jokes - and many swear words when it gets your timer wrong yet again.
But any jd that has ‘fix Siri’ in it is going about it the wrong way.
Start again and get rid of the Siri branding or are Apple execs so much in a bubble that they don’t realise that Siri is the punch lines to jokes - and many swear words when it gets your timer wrong yet again.
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Veinticinco
macrumors 68000
The phrase “poisoned chalice” springs to mind.
Naraxus
macrumors 68030
I stand corrected. He's won 12 Tony Awards. Five of them for producing Fun Home and eight for producing Hadestown.
bigandtasty
macrumors 6502a
Oh No, Hoping we're not DOOMED!
ipedro
macrumors 603
This 2 year old thread is proving fertile ground for I told you so's:
Apple's best move here would be to acquire former openAI CTO Mira Murati's new company and acquihire her and her team to rebuild Siri form the ground up. In the immediate term, they should license chatGPT or Anthropic to replace Siri while their new Siri team spends the next few years creating something in-house.
Apple's best move here would be to acquire former openAI CTO Mira Murati's new company and acquihire her and her team to rebuild Siri form the ground up. In the immediate term, they should license chatGPT or Anthropic to replace Siri while their new Siri team spends the next few years creating something in-house.
carrrrrlos
macrumors 65816
This reminds me of the Timbers. Change the players all you like - the results will be the same until you change the management.
I honestly don’t understand how Federighi is still in charge there. He is probably ultra well paid and since he is in charge of software, the whole ecosystem turned to crap. There is not a single feature that works as expected anymore.
Time Machine backups not completing, Bluetooth issues and sudden switching between car and AirPods, airdrop issues, maildrop issues, continuity/handoff/hotspot not working, issues switching Mac user accounts, the list is endless.
Vision Pro is not a commercial success because it’s a solution for a problem people don’t have. People don’t need it and people don’t wanna spend a fortune to buy one.
Apple is so good on hardware nowadays, but the software sucks. And I think what gave them a real edge in the past was decent hardware that looked good, combined with superlative software.
If Tim and co. can’t understand this, I think they are going to learn it the hard way.
Time Machine backups not completing, Bluetooth issues and sudden switching between car and AirPods, airdrop issues, maildrop issues, continuity/handoff/hotspot not working, issues switching Mac user accounts, the list is endless.
Vision Pro is not a commercial success because it’s a solution for a problem people don’t have. People don’t need it and people don’t wanna spend a fortune to buy one.
Apple is so good on hardware nowadays, but the software sucks. And I think what gave them a real edge in the past was decent hardware that looked good, combined with superlative software.
If Tim and co. can’t understand this, I think they are going to learn it the hard way.
The Vision Pro is far from being a flop if you consider visionOS. This is something that all others will just copy (and did). It's true that Siri is more about software, but they need someone who deliver, and I'm sure Rockwell did on both fronts. The good news is the new lead would be under Craig and not Time Cook directly.
Apple is reportedly shaking up its executive ranks, shortly after it delayed the personalized Siri features that it previewed at WWDC last year.
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman today said that Vision Pro chief Mike Rockwell will be taking over the Siri team at Apple, which until now was led by Apple's artificial intelligence chief John Giannandrea. Apple CEO Tim Cook has apparently "lost confidence" in Giannandrea's ability to "execute on product development," but he will remain at the company for now to oversee artificial intelligence research and development in general.
Vision Pro hardware engineer Paul Meade will be succeeding Rockwell as the head of Apple's spatial computing efforts, allowing Rockwell to focus entirely on Siri, according to the report. In his new role overseeing the Siri team, Rockwell will report to Apple's software engineering chief Craig Federighi, the report added.
Apple plans to inform employees about the executive shakeup this week, according to the report.
Apple has been facing a lot of criticism after delaying its more personalized version of Siri, with some people upset that the company chose to preview new features that were merely conceptual, rather than fully functional. It is a widely held belief that Apple is lagging behind competitors like OpenAI in the generative artificial intelligence space, and it looks like Apple is attempting to right the ship with this executive shakeup.
Apple appointing Rockwell as its new Siri head is an interesting choice, as the Vision Pro has been described as a "commercial flop" and has faced criticism of its own. Nevertheless, the Vision Pro is certainly a technological feat, so Rockwell has proven experience and could be instrumental in improving Siri's underlying technologies.
Apple said it anticipates rolling out the more personalized Siri "in the coming year."
Even the current version of Siri has attracted a lot of criticism, including from some of the most devoted Apple fans, as it sometimes struggles to answer even the most basic questions. Rockwell certainly has his work cut out for him in his new role.
Article Link: Vision Pro Creator Taking Over Siri After Apple Intelligence Setbacks
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Google’s AI does this all the time, change your search prompt a little and get the opposite LLM answer to the same question. Then you end up having to go through the search hits anyway - infuriating!
I’d rather wait and have Siri not be hallucinating half of the time…
IIGS User
macrumors 65816
Well, we've reached and passed peak Apple. What you're witnessing is the beginning of the fall. Or at least a downturn. The cracks have been small but noticeable for a while now, but I never expected them to widen this quickly.
Siri is worse than a failure at this point. It's a technological embarrassment. For one of the most valuable companies in the world to:
1: Not understand how bad this is. I mean it's B-A-D. You're supposed to be an innovative company driven to move technology and the way people interact with it forward in ways that amazes and excites people. You should be the best at EVERYTHING tech you do. There are NO EXCUSES.
2: Not identify how bad this is and to not devote "moon shot" levels of resources in the form of money and talent to it? This should be an absolute priority. PERIOD. everything else be damned. Cellular modem chip? It can wait. Vision Pro? Really neat product, but it's not driving the technology everyone uses daily forward. It's hardly the face of Apple.
This is a failure of the management structure of the company. They lack vision and insight. Siri is THE FACE and THE VOICE of Apple most people interact with. It's an integral part of the product that non tech savvy people use on an almost daily basis whether it's to ask for a song or send a text message and it's an almost complete failure at this point.
It may have happened all ready and I missed it. But it's only a matter of time before the "joke" becomes a part of mainstream culture and everyone is laughing at Siri at Apple's expense. An SNL skit that would be pretty funny is easy enough to whip up in my head.
The window to fix this is closing with alarming speed. The amount of "fixing" that needs to be done in the short period of time that it needs doing leads me to believe it's not going to happen in time. Whatever gets thrown out there will be undercooked and full of flaws and add flames to the fire. The real opportunity to fix this probably passed about 2 years ago.
Apple better get their management squared away or things aren't looking so good. Priorities are off and quality of the product (which is driven by the software and user experience which has shown serious flaws lately) doesn't seem to be a driving force.
Siri is worse than a failure at this point. It's a technological embarrassment. For one of the most valuable companies in the world to:
1: Not understand how bad this is. I mean it's B-A-D. You're supposed to be an innovative company driven to move technology and the way people interact with it forward in ways that amazes and excites people. You should be the best at EVERYTHING tech you do. There are NO EXCUSES.
2: Not identify how bad this is and to not devote "moon shot" levels of resources in the form of money and talent to it? This should be an absolute priority. PERIOD. everything else be damned. Cellular modem chip? It can wait. Vision Pro? Really neat product, but it's not driving the technology everyone uses daily forward. It's hardly the face of Apple.
This is a failure of the management structure of the company. They lack vision and insight. Siri is THE FACE and THE VOICE of Apple most people interact with. It's an integral part of the product that non tech savvy people use on an almost daily basis whether it's to ask for a song or send a text message and it's an almost complete failure at this point.
It may have happened all ready and I missed it. But it's only a matter of time before the "joke" becomes a part of mainstream culture and everyone is laughing at Siri at Apple's expense. An SNL skit that would be pretty funny is easy enough to whip up in my head.
The window to fix this is closing with alarming speed. The amount of "fixing" that needs to be done in the short period of time that it needs doing leads me to believe it's not going to happen in time. Whatever gets thrown out there will be undercooked and full of flaws and add flames to the fire. The real opportunity to fix this probably passed about 2 years ago.
Apple better get their management squared away or things aren't looking so good. Priorities are off and quality of the product (which is driven by the software and user experience which has shown serious flaws lately) doesn't seem to be a driving force.
For those calling for Tim Cook head your short sighted,
should Tim axe some one you get, and it should be internally very visible to remind people that failure does come at a cost.
he should also embrace the where we are publicly like Steve was forced to do, and in doing so have the apple team appologize to the apple family.
then lay out what steps he and the team are taking to execute to change
should Tim axe some one you get, and it should be internally very visible to remind people that failure does come at a cost.
he should also embrace the where we are publicly like Steve was forced to do, and in doing so have the apple team appologize to the apple family.
then lay out what steps he and the team are taking to execute to change
Vision Pro wasn’t a flop so much as it was an mis-marketed product. Apple was kidding themselves if they were expecting mainstream adoption. What matters here is how impressive the Vision Pro tech proved to be. If this guy was at the helm of making the technology that made people cry after using it I’m pretty confident he can do at least a semi good job here.