🗣️ Apple CEO Tim Cook Tells Staff AI Is ‘Ours to Grab’ in Pep Talk
Something in this piece by Mark Gurman about Craig Federighi speaking at an internal meeting caught my eye:
Federighi explained that the problem was caused by trying to roll out a version of Siri that merged two different systems: one for handling current commands — like setting timers — and another based on large language models, the software behind generative AI. “We initially wanted to do a hybrid architecture, but we realized that approach wasn’t going to get us to Apple quality,” Federighi said.
[...]
“The work we’ve done on this end-to-end revamp of Siri has given us the results we needed,” the engineering executive told employees. “This has put us in a position to not just deliver what we announced, but to deliver a much bigger upgrade than we envisioned. There is no project people are taking more seriously.”
That's a bold claim. Apple has had many years to improve Siri, with very little to show for it, and I don't see generative AI being the solution.
Although, I guess it depends on how you define "solution" in this case? LLMs are great at telling people what they want to hear and providing an answer 100% of the time (setting aside the quality or accuracy of the response, of course). That makes them seem great at a glance, and that might be all Apple wants. If Siri seems great, or even improved (not a high bar, to be sure), does that count as a win for them even if the results don't stand up to scrutiny?
I hope not. I hope this new Siri is somehow actually better and not built with a generative AI foundation. I hope it can provide accurate answers. I hope it can do math. I hope it can tell me how many L's are in the word supercalifragalisticexpealidocious. Time will tell.
Then there's this from Tim Cook:
“All of us are using AI in a significant way already, and we must use it as a company as well,” Cook said. “To not do so would be to be left behind, and we can’t do that.”
I really wish this kind of FOMO wasn't a major motivating factor for the CEO of Apple, but here we are. I also wish AI was allowed to succeed or fail on its own merits instead of being shoved down employees' throats. Alas.
Also, being left behind is a good thing if others are headed in a terrible direction.