Furthermore, the challenge with AI is that even though it can deliver some shockingly impressive results, it also generates some bafflingly stupid responses, as well as answers that are seemingly correct but are never less wrong in ways that are hard to determine. Those hallucinations really shatter the illusion of quality and reliability, which ultimately undermines confidence in the functionality as a whole.
Given that, Apple is stuck trying to catch up to the rest of the products in the AI space while also realizing that everyday AI is nowhere near as polished as Apple would expect it to be. So the more Apple pushes AI, the more customers are likely to pick up on the errors and inadequacies of the product.
Even though other AI assistants suffer from the same fundamental problems, the ones from Apple Intelligence are going to seem more embarrassing because of Apple’s brand image.
Its doesn't mean that each product doesn't have something a bit special but competition caught up long time ago, sometimes went ahead (better batteries, bigger cameras etc). These days there is much more 'yawn factor', and its across whole industry.
Oh, of course. Like...? Nothing else has access to relevant data. That's like 95% of the pitch of siri.
Voice assistants are just fundamentally embarrassing to use, imo. The only exception of which I can think is while driving.
> Nothing else has access to relevant data.
Simply not true.
I don't remember them ever doing that. Usually they start with something lacklustre then incrementally improve it until it is strong.
Maps is a great example, it was poor on launch compared to Google Maps but has now got to a level where most people don't bother with Google on the iPhone.
Yes, the iPhone put it in everyone’s pocket, but if Apple had built a handheld device that was powerful enough to run any interactive mapping tool Google Maps was already the obvious choice.
It’s a minor quibble, but to say Apple played a majority role in Google Map’s success doesn’t ring true to me. In 2007 Google Maps was easily overtaking all other mapping tools with or without the iPhone.
Apple Maps is also pretty good here in Canada, although I would never trust it to tell me with any accuracy what a given business's hours are, or whether it even still exists. Google is much better at that.
What is saving them this time around is the way they have been priting money with iDevices.
Which are historically the hardest problems for engineering orgs to ship: precisely because they cut across team/org boundaries.
Suddenly the Maps team need to give a shit about the Calendar team, etc.
And both teams tend to exaggerate and say 'Sure, our side of the integration is finished... it must be a problem on their side.'
Ironically, Amazon-as-a-company probably has the most experience retooling this way -- from the Bezos API memo. Because that's what it will take.