Will AI be the iPhone killer?

[WebHead]

Apple owns the stack but not the AI

Rivals own the AI but not the stack

Both are rushing to play catch-up in each other's area

Given Apple's historical advantage has been its WIMP design and hardware-software integration, can it maintain its dominance in a post-smartphone world?

 

[MacGizmo]

The only thing AI is going to kill is brain cells.

 

[Sami13496]

It’s not AI. Many smartphone companies market their newest features as “AI,” but in many cases they are better described as advanced software with machine learning components. These systems do not think, make independent decisions, or act on their own goals. They only perform specific tasks they have been designed and authorized to do. If they were truly autonomous AI, they would be able to decide what to do without relying entirely on predefined rules, user input, and strict limitations.

So the right question is:

Will AI advanced software with machine learning components be the iPhone killer?​

 

[Le_Chiffre]

Apple will be at the forefront of on device ai.

There the only ones that can. 😂

 

[maflynn]

Tbh, its too early to tell how this will all shake out, and it will impact mobile phones.

I chafe under the terms iphone killer, because there is no single product that will kill an established popular product. Lots of little mistakes, and lack of innovation will do that. Apple's current AI implementation has been fraught with mistakes and missteps, and that has hurt them, whether they can make up ground is anyone's guess.

I'm just not sure how AI will transform mobile phones to a degree that apple will be left behind. Personally I'd rather not see AI baked into an operating system, be it ios, or macos.

 

[chrono1081]

No. AI is largely junk, yes Claude included.

 

[Atog]

No, AI is software. The iPhone will be a hardware tool designed for a future, AI-oriented version of the OS. So AI i not only here to stay, but it will shape how we navigate with our UI. Therefore I think iPhone will be HW tool from which you will summon your AI agent/helper. So Apple is safe for now but needs to top up their AI to keep with competitors. Theoretically you can have Open AI phone but will it be so advanced as a top Android flagship or iPhone Pro? I don't think so.

 

[boswald]

I think it will eventually change how we interact with our phones, but I think the iPhone is unmatched as far as the all-in-one experience. Android has some nice phones too, and even they will eventually adapt to the new AI paradigm.

 

[jb310]

I think people need a device to run AI on, and a people who post a lot about AI on social media seem to be running agents on their MacBooks and (mostly) using iPhones. Which doesn't really make sense to me, since I'd think AI would be platform-agnostic, but for some reason that seems to be the state of things.

 

[Mousse]

AI is a tool with no built in safety features. Making in available to the general public is down right irresponsible.

AI advice gave someone a 19th century illness.😬
AI advice contributed to a teen suicide.
AI + mental illness = murder/suicide.
Another reason not to trust AI.
Y'all heard about xAI's MechaHitler.🫣
AI telling landlords to break the law.😄

AI ain't ready for public consumption. It's a tool that should only be in the hands of those train using in safely, even then it's dangerous. AI is no threat to the iPhone. It's a threat to the general public.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

Why do people keep assuming there will ever be, at least in the near future, a post smartphone world?
Steve Jobs and Tim Cook both yammered on about the post PC world back in the early 2010s, both predicting it would happen relatively soon. It’s been over 16 years since the first iPad was introduced, the product both claimed was the start to a post PC world, and it… has not happened.
More laptops are still sold annually from all laptop companies combined than iPads/tablets.
Also, whenever these AI companion devices are brought up, there’s the biggest feature of smart phones that everyone likes to leave out, content consumption. Are you really going to spend hours scrolling through your AI companion speaker to watch a YouTube video? Or, you know, the phone that already exists in your pocket that is perfect for content consumption because it has a big screen on the front of it.

 

[klasma]

AI won’t be a smartphone killer. People still want a display for mobile use.

 

[WebHead]

AI won’t be a smartphone killer. People still want a display for mobile use.

I'd love smartphone zombies to be a thing of the past. Maybe a wearable AI assistant with voice interface?

(Yes, a screen - or smart glasses head-up display - will still be necessary in some cases, but it would be good to see its use minimised)

It’s not AI. Many smartphone companies market their newest features as “AI,” but in many cases they are better described as advanced software with machine learning components

True. Apple was calling it Machine Learning until "AI" became all the rage.

 

[Sosab123]

No. A.I will still /need/ some kind of interface and iPhone is that.

 

[WebHead]

The flipside is, AI will just become another expected feature and won't benefit any particular vendor over another (except those that don't have it)

 

[H_D]

AI is a tool with no built in safety features. Making in available to the general public is down right irresponsible.

There is something to this. I have seldomly seen a new technology embraced by the wider public so fast, even the early versions of ChatGPT were on everyonés phones, when hallucinating was a real widespread phenomenon. But it always felt more like a novelty toy. I get clients choosing colors with it or writing scripts for video promotions as well as a friend’s kid using it to interpret a poem for school. It’s everywhere and the adoption rate is faster than smartphones or the internet or streaming has been. And why not, even the simplest use as chat bot and text machine is a game changer, especially for regular folks to whom asking for information feels more natural than research with a browser and various tools.

At the same time I am surprised how weirdly people think about AI. Apart from the fact that the term itself now means something quite different and our original idea of genuine artificial intelligence had to adapt new terminology like AGI, I am always surprised when folks come up with examples for “stupid” ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude. And it invariably is a question or task the LLM, even now, cannot do, just as a pocket calculator was not a camera. Questions outside the time scope of (earlier) LLMs without browsing capabilities. Questions that have no real answer, even for a human. Tasks that would need deep system integration. And so on. Creative tasks better left to humans, ideas of capabilities that are yet outside of what the tools can do. People trying to get into real dialogue with GPT when the voice model was not capable of handling interruptions.

So the question maybe isn’t if AI is ready for the public but rather if the gen pop is ready for AI. Or if we’re all using our calculator to take photos.

 

[JamesMay82]

I love ChatGPT and do pay £20 a month for it but I like contained in an app. I don’t like the idea of it having access to my system wide data and info about me.

Can you switch off Apple Intelligence in the new iOS ?

 

[Atog]

I love ChatGPT and do pay £20 a month for it but I like contained in an app. I don’t like the idea of it having access to my system wide data and info about me.

Can you switch off Apple Intelligence in the new iOS ?

I don't have iOS version of a new Siri but on Mac yes, you can turn off Siri from the menu.

 

[baconcat_8964]

For mobile phones, I don't see any companies whose AI implementation can be considered as a "killer feature". So iPhone should be fine.

For dedicated AI hardwares, you saw Humane AI Pin and uncountable AI glasses/companions, they won't affect iPhone or any mobile phone.

What I am expecting is when the technology can provide sufficient computational power to run AI locally, on devices like Humane AI Pin or smart glasses. That would be the devices that diminish iPhone.

 

[Atog]

For dedicated AI hardwares, you saw Humane AI Pin and uncountable AI glasses/companions, they won't affect iPhone or any mobile phone.

Exactly, bc people like to hold their note pad equivalent in their hands. That's why iPhone is killer feature but AI pin is flop. People like to interact with book-like devices.

 

[963852741]

You, people, watch too much Star Trek.

 

[ayephoner]

Apple is right at the doorstep of a new horizon.

They haven't even launched their 'smart siri' and/or fully integrated AI yet.
They are integrating cameras into their airpods, and making a camera lapel pin (?).
They are launching some sort of smart glasses, with AR glasses likely to follow.
And (on a smaller, separate front), launching their first foldable.

All of these could be successful or complete failures. I don't think AI will single handedly have a huge impact on Apple's future, but all of these new fronts combined very well could.

 

[Siliconguy]

I think people need a device to run AI on, and a people who post a lot about AI on social media seem to be running agents on their MacBooks and (mostly) using iPhones. Which doesn't really make sense to me, since I'd think AI would be platform-agnostic, but for some reason that seems to be the state of things.

Exactly. the AI isn't going to be a hologram hovering in front of you. You need to communicate with it.

Yes your own personal Tardis Emergency Interface would be nice, especially if it looks like 26 year old Jenna Coleman, but I'm afraid not. If it did exist it would probably be just as snarky. 😉

 

[capamac]

If we had real AI then every software company in the world would go bankrupt, including Apple.

What we have now, the LLMs, is frequently wrong, not actually intelligent. I think of it as a Zork interpreter combined with an enormous (stolen) database of information, combined with a search algorithm combined with a gnat's brain worth of neural network. It's so frequently and confidently incorrect. It can't write code well. It can't write normal text very well.

 

[ReadyPosterOne]

How? Even if AI tools do eventually become financially viable (which all signs are pointing towards being unlikely), people still need to access those tools on something. Without AI, your iPhone is still a great device. Without your device, AI might as well cease to exist. We've seen device after device flop as they attempt to turn an iPhone app experience into a standalone device. It ain't happening.

This isn't even an "Apple is cool and strong and powerful" take, AI companies are just exceptionally bad at making products (and money), famously the two things you need to succeed.