To take one example, at 14m30s, the CEO is shown using the device to book a trip to London. This is presented as a live demo, but it's clearly simulated.
But, he does imply that you can book from the device, which is completely insane. How do you deal with flight selection with multiple layovers? Seat choices? DOBs? KTNs? Phone numbers? Frequent flyer number? Payment? Travel insurance? Disability accommodations?
What could possibly be the overlap of people who travel enough that this is all worth setting up, who don’t already have their own personal assistant?
A certain degree of smoke and mirrors to generate hype around ground-breaking tech is the norm, not the exception. This doesn't necessarily mean that the product itself is a scam.
I feel like that's a little different. The Macintosh demo was obviously a "sizzle reel", not an example of how the machine would normally behave in use. No one would have watched the demo and expected the computer to talk to the user when turned on.
A more interesting reference point might be the iPhone intro, which wasn't "fake", but did rely on a carefully orchestrated sequence of events to avoid known bugs.
When the r1 address replies to him, it attaches a new spreadsheet, and he opens it on-stage. But the spreadsheet it sent, that they then show on screen, has not filtered any candidates to LA-only. (The column next to their names shows labels on screen like "NYC", "Austin", "Miami", "Seattle", etc)
https://youtu.be/22wlLy7hKP4?si=tBt9szqE_AbJPRqW&t=1169 (exact timestamp)
Little did he know two developers were sweating their nuts off as everything on his screen was coming from an old PC stuffed in a closet in a bedroom thousands of miles away, fed down a ratty cable modem.