> But I learned something really basic

Same for me!

Also, just imagine being the group at Apple responsible for designing this section of the chip, starting probably almost a decade back – under the constant uncertainty of not knowing what direction ML workloads would develop in…

ML research was a rather known quantity, or the separate "Neural Engine" CPU explicitly aimed at existing ML pipelines wouldn't exist.

However, very few used it for anything, even within Apple. I feel like it was a huge wasted opportunity.

I'm all for compassion, but engineers knew the NE was empty when it sat idle for 10 years on our computers.

- when you're given no usecase for your engineering piece, apart from "detour characters in pictures". It's an exageration but AI's contributions in iOS aren't visible; Meanwhile Google has features that people actually notice like removing tourists from your holidays photos — worse: it's mostly a simple collage feature working on the main CPU, and it has the same social effect as green bubbles in iMessage ("ah. Tourists on your photos. iPhone user?")

- and you tout it as "16 Neural Engine cores" during the sales, with no associated software, no listed material feature, just hand-waving,

- Siri maxxes out at "There is no contact named 'What's the weather today' in your agenda",

Then can't really claim that Apple engineers' problem was really the bad luck that ML wasn't the determining part of the future. It's more like misreading the room for 5 to 10 years straight.

Apple engineering's excellence on vertical integration and supply chain control gave them absolute power over our world (with merit), it just failed at that particular project. Which occupies 40% of our CPUs.