“Apple could turn into BlackBerry!” (It won’t)
In a re run of 2014’s Trip Chowdhry comedy, self-styled “top Apple analyst” *insert wink* Marco Arment has hot wired his entire media distribution network to warn that Apple could ‘turn into BlackBerry’, because, well, you know, because AI is the future and Apple isn’t ready for it and Google is and all the usual shill.
I don’t think he’s right. And I think Apple’s gonna prove it. But it’s nice to see people turn in some comedy gold. It would be far more constructive to consider how unregulated AI without privacy will transform our world.
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Remember all the people who praised Google for being so “innovative” with the Google Glass, and how far behind Apple was in producing a similar ugly computer that you wear on your face?
Now, no one ever mentions Google Glass any more when they want to praise Google. ;-))
Google Glass — it was not a consumer product, but Google’s folly is it thought it was.
VR — with or without headsets — has its use cases — some really good ones, such as:
Medical procedures, doctors can use them to share assets, record movements, conference call on complex cases.
Law enforcement, for obvious reasons and probably already happening.
VR in the future smart car — best use of which currently is from Orange, the WayRay system…. BUT….
When I look at what Google is doing (and Samsung — remember its attempt at a ‘smartwatch’?) is that they seem to just race to beat Apple to whatever it is rumoured to be doing, and then claim the innovation crown.
I think that’s a huge disservice, not just to people like you and me, technology customers, enterprise or consumer; but also to themselves.
Surely Steve Jobs taught us that while it is fine to ensure you have bases covered, the best ideas come from those you follow with passion, rigour and vigour?
That’s why when people try to see an Apple Car as proof Apple is not working on AI, they miss the entire point of the exercise. This is about joining the dots, creating the infrastructure, of a smart and connected planet. Within this, Apple is also fighting to maintain the privacy we all enjoy. Google offers little of the latter ‘for your convenience’; Apple strives to deliver both convenience and protection. I know which of those I want in the AI I will use.
Google is an ads company with a huge collection of data. I think its attempts at AI will reflect a data centric, data mining approach to things, and while there is a case for that I see true AI as seen within Watson and neural learning systems, and while I know Google claims to be working on those, I’ve a feeling its inherent code won’t be as smart as the company wants us to think it is — it’s data is its gold. And that data is for sale, so where’s the competitive advantage?