I hate when people say Apple’s losing the “AI race”

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Doakie
Doakie
Arena Master
• 3mo ago
↵DomtheCuber said:

Really, it’s one of the laziest takes you can make right now because it requires no critical thought aside from buying into the narrative the AI industry wants you to. There is no “AI race” because generative AI is a product with no use case, and it takes an enormous amount of energy (and stolen content) to run.


I have an iPhone 15 right now, so no Apple Intelligence. I don’t have ChatGPT, Gemini, or any other AI apps installed. For anyone with an Android phone right now, what generative AI features are you actually using and why? I’m not talking about asking Gemini something that Google Assistant could do just as easily; I don’t mean making AI “art”. What generative AI features does your phone have that actually make your life easier? I doubt there are any.


And I haven’t even talked about the impacts of people using all of these AI “features” because all of them require way more data centers than we have right now. Right now, cities like Memphis are being polluted by these data centers just so you can chat with Gemini or whatever AI app you’re using.


Normally I hate it when people say stuff like “old Apple would never do this”, but I think it’s true here. Really, I don’t even think 2015 Apple, or 2018 Apple, or even 2021 Apple would make anything like Apple Intelligence. Not out of the goodness of their hearts obviously (this is the same company that uses slave labor in the DRC to mine cobalt for their iPhone batteries), but because it’s just a stupid thing to do, both from a financial and a PR perspective. 


And similarly, I don’t think Apple stopped focusing on AI as much and “losing the AI race” because they now care about the environment, or how new data centers are being disproportionately built in Black and low income communities, or even because they want to make sure new features aren’t half-baked before they roll them out in the future. I simply think it’s a business decision to focus on making better products that people actually want rather than buying into the AI hype.


I’m not asking anyone to applaud Apple for making a business decision. But I want everyone to think about who’s really winning the AI race: the people, or the AI companies that need us to keep their hype machine going?

Apple has literally signed a contract with Google to have Gemini be the brains behind the new Siri. So you're wrong Apple is behind in the AI race. They are turning to their competitor for the AI brains behind their once lauded Siri. Just like when Apple had to go make a contract with Samsung because their screen tech was so far behind Samsung. Apple is no longer the end all be all. Android manufacturers are passing it up in certain fields.

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broken1981
broken1981
Arena Apprentice
• 2mo ago
↵DomtheCuber said:

Really, it’s one of the laziest takes you can make right now because it requires no critical thought aside from buying into the narrative the AI industry wants you to. There is no “AI race” because generative AI is a product with no use case, and it takes an enormous amount of energy (and stolen content) to run.


I have an iPhone 15 right now, so no Apple Intelligence. I don’t have ChatGPT, Gemini, or any other AI apps installed. For anyone with an Android phone right now, what generative AI features are you actually using and why? I’m not talking about asking Gemini something that Google Assistant could do just as easily; I don’t mean making AI “art”. What generative AI features does your phone have that actually make your life easier? I doubt there are any.


And I haven’t even talked about the impacts of people using all of these AI “features” because all of them require way more data centers than we have right now. Right now, cities like Memphis are being polluted by these data centers just so you can chat with Gemini or whatever AI app you’re using.


Normally I hate it when people say stuff like “old Apple would never do this”, but I think it’s true here. Really, I don’t even think 2015 Apple, or 2018 Apple, or even 2021 Apple would make anything like Apple Intelligence. Not out of the goodness of their hearts obviously (this is the same company that uses slave labor in the DRC to mine cobalt for their iPhone batteries), but because it’s just a stupid thing to do, both from a financial and a PR perspective. 


And similarly, I don’t think Apple stopped focusing on AI as much and “losing the AI race” because they now care about the environment, or how new data centers are being disproportionately built in Black and low income communities, or even because they want to make sure new features aren’t half-baked before they roll them out in the future. I simply think it’s a business decision to focus on making better products that people actually want rather than buying into the AI hype.


I’m not asking anyone to applaud Apple for making a business decision. But I want everyone to think about who’s really winning the AI race: the people, or the AI companies that need us to keep their hype machine going?

Apple lost get over it. That's why they have a billion dollar deal with Google for Gemini

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brucecoll.i
brucecoll.i
Arena Apprentice
• 2mo ago

Apple did not lost the "AI race". Is is way behind, so far from the main scene that it appears beyond redemption. Apple suffers from the poison most perfectionists do, that make them stall and cannot finish what they are supposed to do because they think it's "imperfect for release". This is the company that took 10 years to release a calculator for its tablets and only in 2025 released an iOS version of WhatsApp. Incapable of releasing a foldable phone because it's never "perfect" per their standards, while Samsung is already in the 7th generation with a Flip AND a Fold that evolved significantly over the years. AI does not evolve only in labs, it is when it's released "into the wild" with real people using it in ways that even a skilled team of brilliant minds would never be capable to imagine and control.

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00looper00
00looper00
Arena Apprentice
• 2mo ago

AI is a bubble that's not sustainable. Look at the huge spend on gfx cards, the thing about them is they are a consumable, in less than a year we'll need to replace them all, and even if they somehow manage to develop cards that are more efficient (debatable given the slowing of progress in that area) they still need to scale indefinitely to win the AI war. There's limited use cases as you say; evidence is mounting up that productivity gains are offset by having to nitpick errors and hallucinations in the outputs, and the benefits that ARE legitimate aren't of a high enough value to make the cost of AI sustainable financially. Never mind the ecological and human costs.

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DemonicAnahka
DemonicAnahka
Arena Apprentice
• 2mo ago
↵DomtheCuber said:

Really, it’s one of the laziest takes you can make right now because it requires no critical thought aside from buying into the narrative the AI industry wants you to. There is no “AI race” because generative AI is a product with no use case, and it takes an enormous amount of energy (and stolen content) to run.


I have an iPhone 15 right now, so no Apple Intelligence. I don’t have ChatGPT, Gemini, or any other AI apps installed. For anyone with an Android phone right now, what generative AI features are you actually using and why? I’m not talking about asking Gemini something that Google Assistant could do just as easily; I don’t mean making AI “art”. What generative AI features does your phone have that actually make your life easier? I doubt there are any.


And I haven’t even talked about the impacts of people using all of these AI “features” because all of them require way more data centers than we have right now. Right now, cities like Memphis are being polluted by these data centers just so you can chat with Gemini or whatever AI app you’re using.


Normally I hate it when people say stuff like “old Apple would never do this”, but I think it’s true here. Really, I don’t even think 2015 Apple, or 2018 Apple, or even 2021 Apple would make anything like Apple Intelligence. Not out of the goodness of their hearts obviously (this is the same company that uses slave labor in the DRC to mine cobalt for their iPhone batteries), but because it’s just a stupid thing to do, both from a financial and a PR perspective. 


And similarly, I don’t think Apple stopped focusing on AI as much and “losing the AI race” because they now care about the environment, or how new data centers are being disproportionately built in Black and low income communities, or even because they want to make sure new features aren’t half-baked before they roll them out in the future. I simply think it’s a business decision to focus on making better products that people actually want rather than buying into the AI hype.


I’m not asking anyone to applaud Apple for making a business decision. But I want everyone to think about who’s really winning the AI race: the people, or the AI companies that need us to keep their hype machine going?

Wow, what a wall of Strawman.


So, things that I use AI for:


Churching up the email to my supervisor


Finding that old video or picture from months ago by using keywords to search my gallery, e.g. 'video with birds on the water'


Quick summary of long email (automatically at the top when I open an email)


Quick summary of those fifteen new messages in the group chat that popped off while I'm driving


Context sensitive quick text message responses


Photos get auto sorted into folders based on who is in them (all the pictures of my wife or each of my kids are all in one place)


Family photo where someone blinks but otherwise it's the perfect picture? AI fixes it using other photos of them as a reference.



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skalamanga
skalamanga
Arena Apprentice
• 2mo ago

I thought apple were collaborating with Google to add Gemini to Siri?

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DomtheCuber
DomtheCuber
Arena Apprentice
Original poster
• 2mo ago
↵DemonicAnahka said:

Wow, what a wall of Strawman.


So, things that I use AI for:


Churching up the email to my supervisor


Finding that old video or picture from months ago by using keywords to search my gallery, e.g. 'video with birds on the water'


Quick summary of long email (automatically at the top when I open an email)


Quick summary of those fifteen new messages in the group chat that popped off while I'm driving


Context sensitive quick text message responses


Photos get auto sorted into folders based on who is in them (all the pictures of my wife or each of my kids are all in one place)


Family photo where someone blinks but otherwise it's the perfect picture? AI fixes it using other photos of them as a reference.



When I first started reading your comment, I thought you were gonna reveal some niche, useful case for AI that I hadn't thought about, and not the same tired list of crap that every tech company has been talking about for the last 2 years. Let's go through these one by one:


"Churching [I'm assuming you meant churning] up the email to my supervisor"

Is it really that hard to write a simple, concise email? Like it's a pretty simple task that most people are capable of doing without the help of AI.


"Finding that old video or picture from months ago by using keywords to search my gallery"

Non-AI versions of this have existed for years on both iOS and Android. Google Photos did it in 2015, literally two years before "Attention is All you Need" was even published. And Google's new AI photo search is arguably worse than its non-AI counterpart.


"Quick summary of long email"

Just read the email, it's not that hard. And especially if it's for something important like work, you really don't want to miss any info from the email that the AI summary didn't catch or got wrong.


"Quick summary of those fifteen new messages"

Fifteen. Fifteen messages and you're too lazy to read them. Come on.


"Context sensitive quick text message responses"

Or you could just type a few words like a normal person. I feel like this is a laziness problem more than anything.


"Photos get auto sorted"

Again, this is not a new photos feature. Google has had this since 2015. Just because they made it worse with Gemini doesn't mean the concept of photo sorting is now a generative AI feature.


"Family photo where someone blinks"

This one is less objective and more personal preference than the others, but I feel like family photos are for memories, not making the most clean and "perfect" output. So I'd rather have a photo where someone blinks than a fake one where someone's face is AI-edited. Also, you can just take another photo if someone blinks the first time.


It's genuinely insane to me how people like you would rather outsource your critical thinking skills and destroy the environment rather than be inconvenienced by things like having to read one email or write a text.

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ErikOiseaux
ErikOiseaux
Arena Master
• 1mo ago
↵DomtheCuber said:

When I first started reading your comment, I thought you were gonna reveal some niche, useful case for AI that I hadn't thought about, and not the same tired list of crap that every tech company has been talking about for the last 2 years. Let's go through these one by one:


"Churching [I'm assuming you meant churning] up the email to my supervisor"

Is it really that hard to write a simple, concise email? Like it's a pretty simple task that most people are capable of doing without the help of AI.


"Finding that old video or picture from months ago by using keywords to search my gallery"

Non-AI versions of this have existed for years on both iOS and Android. Google Photos did it in 2015, literally two years before "Attention is All you Need" was even published. And Google's new AI photo search is arguably worse than its non-AI counterpart.


"Quick summary of long email"

Just read the email, it's not that hard. And especially if it's for something important like work, you really don't want to miss any info from the email that the AI summary didn't catch or got wrong.


"Quick summary of those fifteen new messages"

Fifteen. Fifteen messages and you're too lazy to read them. Come on.


"Context sensitive quick text message responses"

Or you could just type a few words like a normal person. I feel like this is a laziness problem more than anything.


"Photos get auto sorted"

Again, this is not a new photos feature. Google has had this since 2015. Just because they made it worse with Gemini doesn't mean the concept of photo sorting is now a generative AI feature.


"Family photo where someone blinks"

This one is less objective and more personal preference than the others, but I feel like family photos are for memories, not making the most clean and "perfect" output. So I'd rather have a photo where someone blinks than a fake one where someone's face is AI-edited. Also, you can just take another photo if someone blinks the first time.


It's genuinely insane to me how people like you would rather outsource your critical thinking skills and destroy the environment rather than be inconvenienced by things like having to read one email or write a text.

I love your post.. and feel exactly the same way about all those ai “features”.


if you look thru all business emails and even non business ones - they’re literally 1 to 3 sentences long and are 90% attachments which do require for YOU to looked at.


summarizing using AI is hit or miss, where you end up having to double check what it missed - kinda defeats the purpose, doesn’t it?


and my favorite part of your post is the reality of the photos. If anyone ever sends me an ai corrected perfect photo - I despise it. I get a lot of AI photos of people now - and it’s beyond stupid. It was a fun the first time - it is absolutely annoying for the 20th time.


it was the same for videos - and drawings made with ai - fun when they started appearing, and got really old literally couple weeks later - and now, I’m hoping and praying for a AI blocker (akin to ad blockers we love to use).


my worst is when people use AI to generate opinions or summarization of Biblical text. There should be no place for AI there. Bible is there for each individual to discover and how God wants to talk to you thru scripture. That requires your own reading and thought process and application in your life - not some algorithm to calculate it for you.

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AndroidFANboi82
AndroidFANboi82
Arena Apprentice
• 1mo ago
↵DomtheCuber said:

Really, it’s one of the laziest takes you can make right now because it requires no critical thought aside from buying into the narrative the AI industry wants you to. There is no “AI race” because generative AI is a product with no use case, and it takes an enormous amount of energy (and stolen content) to run.


I have an iPhone 15 right now, so no Apple Intelligence. I don’t have ChatGPT, Gemini, or any other AI apps installed. For anyone with an Android phone right now, what generative AI features are you actually using and why? I’m not talking about asking Gemini something that Google Assistant could do just as easily; I don’t mean making AI “art”. What generative AI features does your phone have that actually make your life easier? I doubt there are any.


And I haven’t even talked about the impacts of people using all of these AI “features” because all of them require way more data centers than we have right now. Right now, cities like Memphis are being polluted by these data centers just so you can chat with Gemini or whatever AI app you’re using.


Normally I hate it when people say stuff like “old Apple would never do this”, but I think it’s true here. Really, I don’t even think 2015 Apple, or 2018 Apple, or even 2021 Apple would make anything like Apple Intelligence. Not out of the goodness of their hearts obviously (this is the same company that uses slave labor in the DRC to mine cobalt for their iPhone batteries), but because it’s just a stupid thing to do, both from a financial and a PR perspective. 


And similarly, I don’t think Apple stopped focusing on AI as much and “losing the AI race” because they now care about the environment, or how new data centers are being disproportionately built in Black and low income communities, or even because they want to make sure new features aren’t half-baked before they roll them out in the future. I simply think it’s a business decision to focus on making better products that people actually want rather than buying into the AI hype.


I’m not asking anyone to applaud Apple for making a business decision. But I want everyone to think about who’s really winning the AI race: the people, or the AI companies that need us to keep their hype machine going?

Sounds more like a case of “I’m going to straw man argue AI as only being generative and useless because it’s not on my iPhone 15 despite the fact that it is on other phones and can do more than do text command based generative photo. LOL Come on, now.

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30zpark
30zpark
Arena Apprentice
• 1mo ago

no I just think clean up isn't good they just need time for the amount it needs and also has to be more useful because they said AI for the rest of us but they need to follow it

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