Apple reportedly planning executive shake-up to address Siri delays

Apple is looking to right the ship after a major Siri delay.

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[...m...]

...if apple's rollout at least crosses the threshold of fundamental usability they'll be one step ahead of every other AI-burdened platform which already beat them out of the gate...

 

[Lorentz of Suburbia]

Please, Apple ... take your time and release it when it's both good AND privacy hardened. Siri has sucked for so long, what's another year. We can wait.

 

[Louis XVI]

Pretty wild that this leadership change leaked before it was even announced internally. That’s going to make for some awkward days ahead for Mr. Giannandrea.

 

[thawking]

i wil never, ever share my ETA with Chad

 

[wrosecrans]

Being "behind" on AI is absolutely the best thing that has happened to Apple, and it seems to be one of the most enthusiastic reasons people pissed off about Gemini and Copilot being shoved down throats still like Apple products.

 

[ThatEffer]

They'd show some real vision if they'd announce that this generative shit is a bunch of clout chasing and they're going back to just focusing on ML like they had been.

 

[Jackattak]

Who are these folks who are hotly anticipating AI?

Everyone I know and work with in tech couldn’t care less.

Edit: never mind I just answered my own question.

 

[J.C. Helios]

Pretty wild that this leadership change leaked before it was even announced internally. That’s going to make for some awkward days ahead for Mr. Giannandrea.

Maybe he'll count his blessings: Daring Fireball argued that Tim Cook should viciously berate everyone on the team, Steve-Jobs-style!

In May 2011, Fortune published an extraordinary look inside Apple by Adam Lashinsky, at what we now know to be the peak, and (alas) end, of the Steve Jobs era. The piece opens thus:

... “Can anyone tell me what MobileMe is supposed to do?” Having received a satisfactory answer, he continued, “So why the fuck doesn’t it do that?”

For the next half-hour Jobs berated the group. “You’ve tarnished Apple’s reputation,” he told them. “You should hate each other for having let each other down.” The public humiliation particularly infuriated Jobs. Walt Mossberg, the influential Wall Street Journal gadget columnist, had panned MobileMe. “Mossberg, our friend, is no longer writing good things about us,” Jobs said. On the spot, Jobs named a new executive to run the group.

Tim Cook should have already held a meeting like that to address and rectify this Siri and Apple Intelligence debacle. If such a meeting hasn’t yet occurred or doesn’t happen soon, then, I fear, that’s all she wrote. The ride is over. When mediocrity, excuses, and bullshit take root, they take over. A culture of excellence, accountability, and integrity cannot abide the acceptance of any of those things, and will quickly collapse upon itself with the acceptance of all three.

(To be clear: I disagree with Daring Fireball's management advice here.)

 

[deet]

Take the time to do it right and make something differentiated. The best disruptor right now would be an assistant that isn’t yet another funnel cake of happy horseshit. I’m plenty happy with boring in the meantime.

 

[muddledzen]

I'll happily give my future smartphone money to the next company that focuses on actual hardware innovation instead of just following the industry trend of charging batshit money for very minor hardware changes + MOAR AI

Until that happens give me whatever 3-year old iPhone I can find on clearance, because it's fundamentally no different than the latest $1000 slab of glass and metal.

 

[Emon]

Amazing how they blame a department head for fundamental limitations of AI.

This change won't do anything. What Cook wants is literally impossible and he doesn't understand that. Just the typical executive "get angry and replace someone" crap.

 

[ergonomicBagel]

Honestly, while I sound like a pre-motor vehicle individual wanting “a faster horse” - I realize I just want Siri to be a bigger pile of “if” statements.

 

[fkaOld_one]

The problem, IMO, is that the hypetrain for AI contradicts highly publicized Apple corporate values. Like, e.g., user privacy or making gadgets that solve user problems, rather than pushing up the stock price. To satisfy those values, Apple AI functionality has to be local, which will always limit it in basic ways.

 

[Kaitlyn_ec]

I guess if the goal is to get an MVP (minimum viable product) out the door, then the guy who brought us the Vision Pro is the way to go. The answer to a question no one was really asking and hit the ground with a thud upon release. Have to recoup those AI dev costs somehow, I suppose.

 

[Spud Spudly]

A lot of hubbub for something I'm going to immediately disable the moment my phone updates.

 

[Carewolf]

How dare you not release useless crap that cost us money. We want you to release useless features and lose money like all the cool kids!!

Did I understand that right?

 

[PopeOfChiliTown]

...if apple's rollout at least crosses the threshold of fundamental usability they'll be one step ahead of every other AI-burdened platform which already beat them out of the gate...

Based on what we’ve seen of Apple Intelligence so far, I’m not optimistic.

Maybe we should have checked to see if this technology can reliably do even a single useful thing before trying to put it in everything.

 

[Tremelune]

This is what they scrutinize the execs for? Who's clamoring for this anyway?

 

[Colm]

I'd hope he'll tell them to stop reenabling it when you update iOS but I know that'll never happen.

 

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Maybe he'll count his blessings: Daring Fireball argued that Tim Cook should viciously berate everyone on the team, Steve-Jobs-style!




(To be clear: I disagree with Daring Fireball's management advice here.)

What seems like it is worth a berating isn't so much the implementation team; but whoever decided to go full hypebeast well before the product was even in rigged-demo condition.

Apple sitting back and waiting until they think something is suitably ready before releasing a product is 100% normal. Apple getting up and trying to make blatant vaporware the centerpiece of a phone launch is...much less normal.

 

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

This is what they scrutinize the execs for? Who's clamoring for this anyway?

The shareholders; the people who matter.

 

[ergonomicBagel]

This is not how LLMs and their offspring work.

I was not talking about how an LLM should be implemented in Siri at all.

 

[advisoray]

Please, Apple ... take your time and release it when it's both good AND privacy hardened. Siri has sucked for so long, what's another year. We can wait.

Or just…don’t. Real users are not clamoring for this technology.

 

[case_ratchet]

Based on what we’ve seen of Apple Intelligence so far, I’m not optimistic.

Maybe we should have checked to see if this technology can reliably do even a single useful thing before trying to put it in everything.

my employer (software, big) just announced a requirement that all employees document that they are using generative AI to improve efficiency or risk disciplinary action.

we've all been using it to a degree, as senior management never shut the fuck up about it, but now we need to show results. they refuse to accept that there might not be much "there" there.

there's an expectation that generative AI should completely transform the world among the management class and i just don't get it. this shit is just not that good at most things it's applied to.

 

[effgee]

... generative AI features are key to the strategy at most large technology firms.

Strategy? What strategy is this, particularly if we're talking end-user features?

Trying to make $20 per month and user by wasting ungodly amounts of compute- and with those, natural resources on the hallucinations of a bunch of gobbled-together code that's (mostly) been trained on unlicensed source material?

Pretty much the entire B2C portion of this preposterous AI bubble is little more than a circlejerk of a bunch of tech bros hell-bent on lining their already obscenely over-stuffed pockets by pulling the wool over unsuspecting users' eyes, trading them a steaming pile of hooey in return for their hard-earned money.

 

[Snark218]

Or just…don’t. Real users are not clamoring for this technology.

Real users have been clamoring for a Siri that functions intuitively and as expected for a decade now. Yes, people want this. They just want it done right.

 

[JerryFritschle]

My first Mac purchase happened during the Copland hype (not that that was a factor). It wasn't long before that house of cards came tumbling down. I remember an undisciplined company that was chasing every shiny--and somehow was still managing to make a rather good product in spite of itself. I don't want a return to that. As to AI, I hang on to my devices as long as they're supported, or longer, and only have one that can run this stuff anyway.

 

[PopeOfChiliTown]

Real users have been clamoring for a Siri that functions intuitively and as expected for a decade now. Yes, people want this. They just want it done right.

LLMs are almost certainly not the way to deliver this functionality.

 

[squiggit]

I'm surprised Apple is worrying so much over this. Do they really think AI Siri is going to move that much product?

The reaction I've seen from most apple heads I know has largely been to let them take their time, especially given the constant stream of problems with other AI assistants right now. I know people who want siri AI, and are excited about it, but not necessarily pressed up for it or chomping at the bit to switch to Google's ecosystem instead.

Ars is probably one of the worst places to go for AI excitement, but even for places that have more positive feelings about the software I'm not seeing this existential threat that Apple executives seem to be envisioning.

I guess they probably have more data than me, but it feels odd from over here.

 

[Snark218]

My impression these days is that Apple needs to take a cycle or two, stop frenetically updating the hardware, and spend some serious time cleaning up the UI, getting the AI features working as promised (or eliminate them), and generally sweating the details. The hardware is fucking awesome. iOS, on the other hand, shows every hallmark of an OS that has features strapped onto it as fast as they can be coded, but with insufficient attention to intuitiveness, flow, and discoverability.

 

[Snark218]

LLMs are almost certainly not the way to deliver this functionality.

Right, which makes it a good thing they're not.

 

[effgee]

Line go up.

I get your meaning and the thought behind it. However, atm nobody is making any kind of meaningful money from AI, esp. not the scam artists firms trying to hawk B2C portions of the AI business.

Example: Generating $5,000,000,000.00 losses on $3,700,000,000.00 revenue ≠ "Line go up"

 

[Erbium68]

I'll happily give my future smartphone money to the next company that focuses on actual hardware innovation instead of just following the industry trend of charging batshit money for very minor hardware changes + MOAR AI

Until that happens give me whatever 3-year old iPhone I can find on clearance, because it's fundamentally no different than the latest $1000 slab of glass and metal.

Just remember that with the exception of electronic controls every single aspect of internal combustion engine technology had been invented by 1945, since when it has only been incremental improvement. I think at this point with phones hardware innovation is pretty much done and for much the same reason - having the good ideas is relatively easy, getting the technology to accomplish them is the bit that takes all the time.

 

[s73v3r]

Amazing how they blame a department head for fundamental limitations of AI.

This change won't do anything. What Cook wants is literally impossible and he doesn't understand that. Just the typical executive "get angry and replace someone" crap.

I would absolutely blame the department head for that. If AI isn't there, which is isn't, then don't fucking shovel it in your products.

All that time could have been spent on something that actually worked, and users enjoyed.

 

[Erbium68]

my employer (software, big) just announced a requirement that all employees document that they are using generative AI to improve efficiency or risk disciplinary action.

Dear boss,
Last week I asked generative AI how I could improve my work and it said "Don't use AI, use real intelligence."

 

[s73v3r]

This is not how LLMs and their offspring work.

Then it's the wrong tool for the job.

It's the wrong tool for the job almost always.