Apple has totally failed to deliver interesting AI experiences so far ... and I still think they're going to be the dominant provider of AI in 5 years. We're just one or two advances in chips / models / both away from being able to run very good local models for free on mid-tier Apple devices. The privacy, cost, and latency story there will be too much for OpenAI/Anthropic/Google to beat.

Just writing this down so I can be praised/mocked in 5 years.

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ceroxylon a few seconds ago | parent | next [-]

I don't mind the subtle ML integrations that they have put in the photos app: plant ID, recognizing faces, removing background, OCR text search (even for handwriting!), etc.

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_verandaguy an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I'm perfectly happy with Apple not becoming an "everything we do is AI-centric" business.

I'm fatigued by it all at this point. It's streamlining the interesting and fun parts out of my job (by practical necessity of use there), and if I used it half as much outside of work I'm sure it'd do the same there too.

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operatingthetan 36 minutes ago | parent [-]

>I'm fatigued by it all at this point.

This is the prevailing opinion of people even outside of tech.

	▲	_verandaguy 26 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		I know public opinion polling supports that, but the parts of my social circle which are outside of tech seem to be, at worst, apathetic (and at best enthusiastic, though that's not a big fraction). That said, I think it's a good thing that this sentiment is coming to the forefront.

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ingenieroariel an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I wrote: "we should all be buying a fully loaded Mac Studio (128GB of ram, 20 CPU cores, a lot of GPU and Neural cores.)" April, 2023

We are both late and early.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35527692

	▲	bigyabai 38 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		You should not buy a fully loaded Mac Studio for AI unless you absolutely NEED macOS. You will be wasting so much electricity idling on prefill while your GPU pulls 150-250w from the wall. Buy an Nvidia Spark, then whatever cheap Mac you want to use as a thin client. There's no reason to force Apple Silicon's round peg into a square hole like AI inference.

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dabbz 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I suspect we'll see a hybrid before an all or nothing. Local models for computer control or delegating, online models for things that need strong reasoning, planning, and knowledge access. Again, I'd be more than happy to be wrong. I just see models growing faster than the hardware can.

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thesurlydev an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Did you mean 5 months? :)

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ransom1538 an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

"Apple has totally failed to deliver interesting AI experiences so far ..."

You think this is a mistake...

	▲	nvme0n1p1 27 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		https://www.crikey.com.au/2025/01/08/apple-new-artificial-in... Of course. Do you think this was on purpose? All part of Apple's brilliant master plan?

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xyst 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Apple has failed to live up to the Steve Jobs era and initial iPhone hype. It's not just "AI experiences", it's computing in general. Maybe the consumer sector is just dead/dying. Maybe consumers are just running out of cash because filthy VCs are destroying communities and forcing the 99% into poverty.

The one thing that is marginally exciting: the Apple SoC or M series chips.

It's unfortunate they are locked behind crappy macOS and other proprietary apple crap.

	▲	overfeed a few seconds ago \| parent [-]
		> it's computing in general. Apple seriously thought the iPad could replace computers in their "What is a computer?" af campaign era. Now they are sticking phone chips in laptop chassis.

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QuercusMax 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I'm also of this opinion, but also that it doesn't have to be Apple (but they are well positioned). What I've seen with running local models on my 48GB M4 MBP is really impressive - it's not the same level as hosted stuff, but it's better than what I was using a year or two ago.