The AI, moving in so fast, has already collected quite a bit of negative press in the mainstream media - from unforeseen and uncontrollable data leaks to outright apocalyptic scenario. Therefore, I think Apple might have made a tactical mistake of only enabling their AI model on their latest devices. Instead they could have blended the current “deficient” Siri with ChatGPT (both of which could function in their current online mode) and let it run, impressing people and getting them more comfortable. They could then introduce the on-device model over the next few years, once the hardwire of most people catches up. We shall see.
Apple would no doubt have liked to have it on all devices immediately. But it was not an option to wait until capable devices are available. For better or worse, Wall Street forced Apple’s hand on this, as did its competitors.
I should note that since Apple’s offering is not yet on any consumer device, we have no idea what risks it poses as opposed to what we’ve seen on the others. I would say that of all the others, though, it appears to be the best thought out and least ambitious (which is probably a good thing).
MS Copilot seems to want to just step in and be Jarvis. And it’s not ready enough for prime time to do that And although Microsoft’s idea for continuous screen capture has some obvious merits, it’s the implementation that was seriously flawed (not encrypting the captures), requiring its removal.
Gemini had the issues with obvious over politicization of its image output.
Apple, which sometimes seems plodding and behind the times, benefits from seeing the mistakes made by their competitors and adjusting accordingly. We’ve seen this time and again.
This stuff is here to stay. Apple’s objective is to make sure it’s deployed in a meaningful way that actually benefits its customers and isn’t just a gimmick, while making sure it lives up to its own privacy and security standards. It strikes me that how they have said they are going to do this stands the best chance of doing that.
As it is, this is going to be a slow, and sometimes frustrating, rollout. They couldn’t wait another year to do something more than a chirpy chatbot. Apple’s biggest advantage is owning the entire stack - software and hardware and the benefits that brings that the others largely don’t have (save perhaps the Google Pixel phones). They had to move now or risk falling behind irretrievably.
