Apple Intelligence is A.I. Without the Buzz
Launch day will be a transformative moment that may feel like an intuitive next step and no big deal. And that, my friends, is huge.
This issue of Social Signals was written to a bunch of songs by The Association, whom I just discovered based on the double meaning of Along Came Mary.
🍎 Apple Intelligence is A.I. Without the Buzz
There’s been so much hype around generative AI for the past couple of years that we might forget that although almost all Americans surveyed have heard of generative AI, just barely half (53 percent) have used it (source: Adobe).
And of those who have tried it, many have had an uninspiring or unimpressive experience. The tools aren’t set up to teach, train, and equip. And it turns out there’s a learning curve. Especially when it comes to utility.
So, this week when Apple used its developer conference to announce that it’s bringing AI capabilities into the native phone operating system of the world’s most popular smart phone, you can imagine why it may have been received with some skepticism and descriptions of being “more cautious than expected.”
And yet here we are, finding ourselves in a countdown until generative AI tools are sitting natively inside our email, text messages, notes, Siri voice assistant, and a wealth of other applications we probably can’t even fathom right now. It’s a transformative moment, and it just seems… well… intuitive and natural.
Apple has done it again.
Just as spellcheck integrated itself into all of our systems and became both widely embraced and normalized, we will see Gen AI similarly embraced, adapted, and adopted into our ongoing daily communications with work, friends, family, and marketing. I think so. Confidently.
And you’ll notice that Apple did not use the word AI in the above presentation; instead, they used the words Apple Intelligence. Very clever, Apple. Because just as the word metaverse was incredibly buzzy and you might think the buzz went away, in truth, there’s a utility and an application of the metaverse in our world that has transcended the buzz.
Right this minute, there are millions of young people hanging out in metaverse worlds called Roblox, Minecraft, and Fortnite, but they’re not using the word “metaverse;” they’re just hanging out with their friends. It’s just… normal.
Moving from buzzword to utility as Gen AI is normalized
And so also will the term generative AI move from a buzzword full of skepticism and overhype into utility and practicality. Hopefully it creates worth, improvement to our lives, increased creativity and commerce. And maybe some fun stuff, too…
I thought Josh Tyrangiel’s op-ed in The Washington Post summarized this well:
Apple believes that much of the conversation around AI these past few years has been categorically insane. “We’re trying to help people in their daily life,” John Giannandrea, Apple’s senior vice president of machine learning and AI strategy, told me after WWDC wrapped. “We’re not trying to make a sentient being or some nonsense. Talking about AI as a new species” — as the CEO of Microsoft AI recently did — “seems like complete nonsense to me. This is a technology, and we’re trying to apply it in the most practical, helpful way.” …
[Apple is] going to use AI to be the life hacker that improves emails and saves time and makes little generative delights that take users ever deeper into their Apple devices. It’ll be safe, profitable, inevitable — so inevitable that all friction will be removed. It won’t even be called artificial intelligence.
Educating through simple, direct language that’s believable
I’ve done a lot of signal sourcing here in the last year about the lack of education and context given for generative AI for normal people. I strongly recommend scrolling through how Apple is unpacking Apple Intelligence on this website to do both, using terms like:
“help you find just the right words virtually everywhere you write”
“new ways to express yourself visually”
“protect your privacy at every step”
It sounds pretty straightforward. It’s not sexy. And we’ve heard a lot of this before, but never before this simplified and utilitarian. That’s the key here. Apple is great at this.
But Apple wasn’t first in A.I., Greg! They don’t deserve early adopter credit!
It doesn’t matter. They didn’t invent smart phones or smart watches either. They waited until both the market and their product set were ready. And they simplified, messaged, and merchandised.
I think my friend Jason Culbertson said it best here:
I think it's easy to dismiss what Apple presented as "simple", "behind the curve", or "copying".
What these commenters fail to realize is that the majority of the world has never experienced ChatGPT, Claude or other models. They have no idea what is possible, only that Apple suddenly has given them, for free, something magical that makes their lives easier.
It doesn't matter if Apple is a "follower" to those in Silicon Valley - to millions of consumers worldwide who just want to find a photo, email message, or make a fun gif, Apple will be known as a leader in AI.
Apple Intelligence will be free for users, and launch in beta as part of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia this fall. Many of these more innovative features won’t work on older phones, but they will work on all devices moving forward.
Launch day of Apple Intelligence will be a transformative moment that may just feel like an intuitive next step and no big deal. And that, my friends, is huge.
📲 When We All Have Pocket Telephones
A prediction published in The Mirror from 1919 turned out to be surprisingly accurate via Amy Webb.
🔥 Curating Culture
Why do you subscribe to Social Signals?
I hope it’s because you appreciate not just a random bunch of links, but the 20+ years of experience I bring to keeping a pulse on what’s happening in the digital+social+technology world, how it affects culture, AND what to do about it.
A few people sent me this piece in The New Yorker: The New Generation of Online Culture Curators: “In a digital landscape overrun by algorithms and A.I., we need human guides to help us decide what’s worth paying attention to” with a note that this is the kind of value they find in this exercise called Social Signals that I put into the world semi-weekly. Awww.. you guys….
Some key quotes in that piece that resonated with me:
We are in a transitional phase of digital culture, and thus more in need than ever of friendly faces, personable human guides... to help us navigate this treacherous ground...
Guided by their own cultivated sense of taste, they bring their audiences news and insights in a particular cultural area, whether it’s fashion, books, music, food, or film...
Perhaps the best way to think of these guides is as curators; like a museum curator pulling works together for an exhibition, they organize the avalanche of online content into something coherent and comprehensible, restoring missing context and building narratives.
They highlight valuable things that we less-expert Internet surfers are likely to miss...
Back over here at Social Signals, longtime subscribers may not have noticed I turned on paid subscriber support late last year. Access to the full archives is the key benefit, but I will tell you that reader support incentivizes me to keep curating and writing this newsletter atop a full-time job, family, and tending to my fax machine. In fact, it’s helping offset the cost of my weird fax experiment.
And hey, if supporting this newsletter financially isn’t your thing, that’s totally fine. Your readership, comments, replies, and shares are great. I need them. This whole thing is part of my own process and honing my own skillset and instincts. This isn’t an NPR telethon, and I’ll probably send this out either way. Probably. 🎷
⚡️ Social Signals
As predicted, the anti-A.I. movements are gaining traction, and this week’s news will only accelerate that trend. Brian Merchant has a good write-up in The Atlantic on this emerging trend, Creators Are Fighting AI Anxiety With an ‘LLM-Free’ Movement: Made by a human is the new 100% Organic. Key quote:
Writers and media outlets are slapping disclaimers and “No AI” declarations on blogs and websites; an organization called Not by AI offers a downloadable badge that anyone can use (it claims that 264,000 webpages currently do so). A classical radio station in Omaha issued a “No AI” pledge, and the Perth Comic Arts Festival put out a statement banning AI-generated media from its event.
Hashtags such as “#noai,” “#notai,” and “#noaiart” are deployed by users on Instagram—a modern take on the #nofilter trend that suggested that an image was presented without digital enhancements. The tech-journalism outlet 404 Media describes itself as AI free: “Media for humans, by humans.”In a digital ecosystem overwhelmingly controlled by monopolistic tech companies such as Google and Meta, each of which is bent on deploying new AI products whether users want them or not, even these small declarations are ways to register a protest, signal discontent, and wave the flag for other AI skeptics to rally around.
Consumer drones are taking a big hit in the U.S. Here’s what you need to know about the DJI drone ban. And yes, I guess I’m going to have an illegal drone now. Which isn’t saying a lot because our new house is aligned with an air strip and I can’t fly it at home anyway. Here’s another good read on this signal: China’s dominant drone industry is a step ahead of Congress.
Apple’s next big project could be harder than building a car — making a smart AI robot that can figure out how to navigate my house.
BeReal, the app known for its fleeting photo sharing window, has been acquired. Add me at @gregswan. And I think we can assume we’ll see some ads and marketing products soon.
United Airlines is starting to serve passengers personalized ads on seat-back screens: “There is the potential for 3.5 hours of attention per traveler, based on average flight time,” United said.
MIT Technology Review has a really great piece called, It’s time to retire the term “user” and here’s my favorite quote: “If we are designing for people, why not call them that?” — it’s enough for me to rethink my terminology, that’s for sure.
Trade Read of the Week: How Mars Is Using Generative AI to Accelerate Product Development and Personalization
Reel of the Week: Jaime Schmidt has a really great explainer on Mr. Beast’s Feastables I can’t recommend enough.
LinkedIn of the Week: How experts in the year 1950 predicted we would live in the year 2000.
McSweeney’s of the Week: A Roomba’s Positive Affirmations
I am free of the boxes people put me in.
I am plugged in.
I am fully charged.
I am unstoppable.
I am running into a chair.
I am running into a chair.
I am running into a chair.
I am running into a chair.
I am running into a chair.
I am running into a chair.
I am running into a chair.Tool of the Week: Hemingweather: A real-time weather forecast written and spoken by an AI version of Ernest Hemingway. And you can call it from any phone. Just dial (423) 558-2203, enter a US zip code, and you'll hear AI Hemingway read you a real weather forecast. Or try it online here. Finally.
Instagram of the Week: The LASER SYNTH — 1 beam per note.
Survey of the Week: Only 14% of Inhouse Lawyers ‘Never’ Use GenAI.
YouTube of the Week: Sub-15 burrito speedrun.
TikTok of the Week: Lasagna cells. I’m going to power my house with these during the next thunder storm.
See you in the future! 🚀
Greg
"If you are designing for people, why not just call them that?" - because all people are not your user, and it's a business problem to think so. That's one of those arguments that I think is valuable to make and keep in the back of the mind, but "designing for all people" and "designing for the small subset of the global population that might use your software" are very different things.