Apple throws its hat into the AI-generated image ring

gatorguy

It's fairly obvious that Apple is rushing out at least a half-baked something in order to claim "we do AI too, just like those other guys," and for the silliest of reasons: Prop up a stock price.

Apple the corporation doesn't get a cent more if the stock goes up, or a penny less if it goes down. But Cook and the rest of the upper management team certainly does, with much of their pay coming in the form of company stock rather than cash. Thus we have these kinds of kneejerk things announced by them now instead of the slow and steady development without broadcasting the internal baby steps that we typically expect from Apple.

It's silly when Samsung/Google/random tech company, responds to some new Apple service or product with "Hey, look what we're working on, it's just as good!" and equally as silly when Apple turns around and does the same thing.

StudioSoup

gatorguy said:

It's fairly obvious that Apple is rushing out at least something in order to claim "we do AI too, just like those other guys," and for the silliest of reasons: Prop up a stock price.

Apple the corporation doesn't get a cent more if the stock goes up, or a penny less if it goes down. But Cook and the rest of the upper management team certainly does, with much of their pay coming in the form of company stock rather than cash. Thus we have these kinds of kneejerk things announced by them now instead of the slow and steady development without broadcasting the internal baby steps that we typically expect from Apple.

It's silly when Samsung/Google/random tech company, responds to some new Apple service or product with "Hey, look what we're working on, it's just as good!" and equally as silly when Apple turns around and does the same thing.

This is kind of a silly take for a publicly traded company.  The executive team has a fiduciary responsibility to help maximize shareholder value.  Doing so requires them to carefully consider long-term vs short-term costs and gains resulting from their actions as they navigate the ship, and t's the very reason why much of their compensation is tied to long-term stock value.  Doing so helps maintain alignment of their personal financial incentives with positive long-term performance for shareholders.

Additionally, Apple has been working on AI for years... They have simply chosen to refer to it as "machine learning" instead.  These have been the baby steps, as you call them, and it's unfounded to now say they're doing anything knee-jerk or just started putting resources into AI only recently.  And putting out something open source before integrating it into their products, as outlined in this article, is also part of their baby steps.  

Apple reacts to changes in market demands and technological advances just like any other organization which doesn't want to become a technological dinosaur.  They would be doing the brand and shareholders a disservice if they didn't put significant resources into AI pursuits and there's no reason to think the fruits of those pursuits will not ultimately be integrated into their product line in thoughtful and useful ways.  Nothing about this is silly.