Artificial Intelligencce – Page 11 – Life on the Wicked Stage: Act 3

WWDC 2024: Things I’d Like To See

Bring in the new and shiny, but fix the old and buggy too.

The Internet is filled with wish lists of things Apple fans would like to see announced next week at WWDC. New things. New capabilities. New all round. The majority of those wishes are the same and focus ahead. Nothing wrong with that. We’re always advancing. Or so we’re told.

Perhaps I’m stuck in the past, but I’d rather see Apple devote time to correcting some longstanding issues that bug me. Many of these issues are part of the glue that holds Apple’s ecosystem together, or what Apple calls iCloud and I call the unnamed operating system, iCloudOS. So, I’ve compiled a list of things I’d like Apple to fix, repair, or at least pay some real attention to.

Chances are better than good that you won’t hear much about any of this next week or in the weeks that follow. Many of these issues have existed for a few years now and seem to be such a low priority that Apple must be content to let them exist. Quite a bit of this could be considered small in comparison to the bigger challenges brought on by adding new features that bring new complexity. But one of the reasons so many prefer Apple’s way of doing things is the attention to detail in both design and practical matters. When it’s good it’s great and often magical. When Apple loses focus and doesn’t pay attention it can be like watching a magician pull a dead rabbit out of a hat.

For me these issues are rough enough and present enough inconsistency to diminish that attention to detail. The longer they are ignored or put off the more they point to glaring weaknesses in Apple’s process and I think we get farther away from that “magical” or “it just works” lore.

It’s apparent that not enough others feel the same or have the same experiences to pressure Apple into devoting the resources necessary to address these annoyances. That’s not a surprise. New always takes precedence in a market driven by delivering something new each year. And AI is the big new thing this year and Apple has assigned all hands on deck to ready what most expect to be the newly christened Apple Intelligence ship to sail.

Yes, we’ll hear quite a bit about AI. I’m also sure we’ll hear about things like emoji, flashy Messages and other novelties that show well in demos. Many of those I consider trivial or “meh” features that will be forgotten shortly after all of the reviews are written. Though the money I spend on Apple products is a small drop in Apple’s buckets of cash, I’d much rather see it spent putting resources into fixes for these annoyances. The list below certainly isn’t a complete one, but these are the things I’d love to see Apple address.

What’s the Problem with Politically Incorrect AI? These Scores Feel Much Like Most of the News

Politically Incorrect AI? Where’s the problem?

Artificial Intelligence is taking its beatings as it weaves its way into just about anything we think might give us a leg up. Recent misfires from Google and Microsoft after big announcements shed light on just how, to this point, reliably unreliable your AI of choice can be. On one hand it’s entertaining. On the other it’s concerning. If there was a third hand I think it would shake towards irony.

MSNBC ran a recent report highlighting inaccuracy scores when AI chatbots were asked political questions and came up with an average of 27% incorrect responses.

It seems to me that a 27% inaccuracy rate is probably within the ballpark of what we hear on any normal day from traditional news sources, social media, and folks sitting at the counter at the local diner. While there are certainly problems, it feels much like AI is doing what it’s designed to do: spit back the nonsense we feed it and it feeds on.

Frankly, I don’t think humans can design any piece of software that will outstrip our human capacity for ignorance that gobbles up the increasingly large amounts of garbage already available. As long as folks can make money from feeding us the fake alongside the real the churn will continue.

Addendum: After posting this I noticed this article in my feeds:

Google and Microsoft’s AI Chatbots Refuse To Say Who Won The 2020 US Election. I guess not answering is one way to avoid an inaccurate answer.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. You can also find me on most social media using my name.

WWDC 2024: Apple Needs To Do Some Serious Work With iCloud

iCloud OS: Apple’s Unnamed Operating System. The second in a series heading into Apple’s WWDC 2024.

WWDC is designed to highlight future directions for Apple’s increasing number of operating systems and how they work together. The OS list is long and getting longer, but there’s actually one that Apple has never mentioned as an operating system, yet it’s the one that glues every other piece of the ecosystem together. I call it iCloudOS. Like any glue it can fasten and bind, but apply it without care and you can end up with a sticky mess. iCloudOS is a bit of both.

If you use multiple Apple devices iCloud ties them all together creating a supposedly fluid connection between devices and services. That’s the attraction of the ecosystem. When it works as designed it can feel magical. Copy and paste between devices, universal control, handoff, shared Notes and Reminders and others all make Apple computing life more productive and often more fun.

When things don’t work it reminds every parent of raising a child. There are moments of sheer wonder and joy, but you know at some point the kid is going to shit the bed. There’s too much of the latter to ignore.

I’ve written extensively about my iCloud woes (here, here, here, here, and here). I’ve had numerous conversations with Apple tech support personnel. What I’ve discovered is that there are ongoing iCloud backend issues that Apple hasn’t been able to solve. They keep trying, but they keep getting put on the back burner once Apple gears up to roll out its next big new thing, as is the case with this year’s now well predicted AI announcement. Things reach a point when a “wait until next year” mandate takes hold that would test even a Chicago Cubs fan’s patience.

In my most recent adventures into the backend of iCloudOS it has been acknowledged that all of the work we were doing to pin down the issues I and others have been seeing has been put on hold until after whatever is coming next in the various operating systems due to be announced next week. All well and good, I suppose, but here’s the problem with that. That approach essentially makes all users of the ecosystem beta testers. I do not run betas on my devices but I’ll suffer through the numerous summer releases and whatever changes Apple makes on the backend during the summer beta season. That will continue with each point release throughout the year. Keep in mind, we’re all, always at the mercy of the backend.

I’ve already seen this begin to happen and the betas don’t roll out for a week or so yet. One of the early warning signs(and there are quite a few) that things are happening in iCloudOS is when notifications for Apple’s Reminders app get out of sync between my macOS devices and iOS devices.

WWDC 2024: iCloudy Forecasts Ahead Amidst Dampening Expectations

iCloudy Forecast Ahead for Apple at WWDC

Here it comes. Apple is heading into its annual World Wide Developer’s Conference (WWDC) with announcements of its next big things beginning June 10th. By all accounts, this year those next big things will center on AI which is short for Artificial Intelligence. There won’t be any shortage of AI in a tech world that has grown both AI crazy and AI fearful, putting Apple is in the unusual position of playing follow the leader in more obvious ways than in the past.

There will be other new features announced for iPhones, Macs, Apple Watches, perhaps even the Vision Pro, but as always the focus will be on what’s new. Even though a goodly portion of what’s new and exciting each year often ends up being a bit “meh” in the end. Either “meh” or rolled out and forgotten as Apple shifts its attention to what next year’s next big things will be. That seems to be what’s happening this year as Apple has turned most of its focus to AI.

Apple is also unfortunately positioned to have to work harder in making its splashy announcements splashy and dodging seemingly already diminished expectations on a number of fronts. Most anticipate Apple’s AI announcements to be less than sexy and the iPad faithful/hopeful seemed to be poised to continue piling on the criticism (some necessary, some not) that greeted newer iPads less than a month ago.

So, on two big fronts, AI and iPadOS, Apple has some tougher challenges ahead than it usually does this time of year. And bad timing is at the root of both.

The iPad Issue Is Touchy

On the iPad front, for whatever reason Apple went more than a year before releasing new iPads. When they did debut them last month they surprised everyone by including new M4 chips in the new Pro lineup, upsetting every pundit’s attempts at trying to assign a predictable timetable to the continued Apple Silicon evolution. Coming just weeks ahead of WWDC, and without any new operating system software to accompany it, Apple opened up a slew of doors for the salivating pundit class to rush through, cranking up the complaints about iPadOS not taking advantage of very powerful and much loved hardware. And, as always, the married at the hip debates about being able to run macOS on an iPad or adding a touch screen to the Mac tagged along as noisy bridesmaids.

It’s a bit frustrating for a regular and religious iPad user. While the issues are genuine, they negatively dominate the conversation given that they come from the influential voices that helped turn the iPad into a success in the first place. I know the issues are long simmering, well intentioned, and come from the heart of those who love the device, but the recent sudden crescendo was deafening enough to fire up a Loud Environment warning on an Apple Watch. With WWDC just around the corner everyone knew the new devices alone were not going to offer anything remotely close to a new and different iPad experience. It just seemed premature to me. If they were meant as a warning to Apple, then I would call it not only premature, but a misfire given the timing.

Those debates and complaints probably aren’t going to end in the foreseeable future as entertaining and exhausting as they can be. Between manifestos, and well thought through lists of what some desire on iPads, there was some general vitriolic piling on. It heralds a tough year ahead for Apple and its iPad lineup.

My prediction is that no one is going to be remotely satisfied with this year’s iPadOS release. Most rumors say not much of consequence will be announced. It’s certainly going to be interesting to follow the commentariat class as they wrestle with how many different ways they can say the iPads are great devices but Apple keeps holding them back for another year.

Perhaps this year changes things, but typically big OS changes come to the iPhone first with iPads and Macs bringing up the rear in the year or years that follow. Given Apple’s push into AI as this year’s big iPhone tent pole, if the iPad doesn’t get included it will add even more to those complaints and increase the volume.

Sunday Morning Reading

Secret octopi, culture wars, convictions, and reading between the letters. In this week’s Sunday Morning Reading.

Life is beginning to settle in after the big move, although there’s parts of it we still can’t figure out which box we packed some of it in. Perhaps we need some sort of A.I. bot to help us figure that out. But we’ll get there. In the meantime here’s some Sunday Morning Reading to share.

Speaking of AI, WTF is AI? That’s the question posed with some attempted answers by Devin Coldeway. It’s a decent primer on the topic. Watch out for secret ocotopi.

A couple of pieces on AI from Nico Grant at the NY Times shows just how unknown and perhaps reliably unreliable this fast evolving tech territory is. First up is Google’s A.I. Search Leaves Publishers Scrambling. Follow that up with Google Rolls Back A.I. Search Feature After Flubs and Flaws. I wonder how AI will spit all of this back at us once articles like these are trained in. I also wonder when publishers will start to standardize whether or not we’ll write it as AI or A.I.

Some think The AI Revolution Is Already Losing Steam. I happened to agree with Christopher Mims, the author of this piece.

Even in the midst of moving it’s been tough to ignore the political comings, goings and convictions in the news. Check out David Todd MCCarty on Bedtime for Bonzo, Or Nothing To See Here. Even after 34 convictions for the orange dude, this piece holds up.

This piece from July of 2021 by John Pavlovitz resurfaced in my feeds in the last week. The Sadness of Sharing A Country With Trump Supporters is worth a re-read in the wake of this week’s news. Somehow I think it will remain relevant for quite some time.

With all that is going on in the political world, it’s a good idea to always remember there is so much more going on behind the scenes than we ever want to realize. Check out Ken Silverstein’s look behind the curtain in Off Leash: Inside The Secret, Global, Far-Right Group Chat. You might be sorry you did.

I hope The Wonkette is writing you visit often. There’s an excellent serial novel there called The Split by Ellis Weiner and Steve Radlauer. It’s up to Chapter 30. It’s terrific and worth your time.

There’s a new book worth highlighting and highlighted by Laura Colliins-Hughes in the NY Times. James Shapiro’s The Playbook chronicles the history of The Federal Theatre Project. The subtitle teases well: A Story of Theatre, Democracy and The Making Of A Culture War. A great story from back in the day when live theatre was actually something folks believed was dangerous enough that it could change minds.

And to close out this week’s edition check out Natasha MH’s Writing The Unpretentious Prose. Don’t just read the words. Look between the letters.

If you’re interested in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here. You can also find more of my writings on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.

The iPad Pro Ad Apple Should Have Released In The First Place

Less Crushing. More Creative Fun.

Just before this year’s World Wide Developer Conference debuts Apple has released a new ad for the iPad Pro. It’s probably the one it should have released in the first place, instead of the now infamous Crushed ad. It’s better than the previous ad in a lot of respects. Certainly it better shows off the iPad Pro’s capabilities, but I’m not sure it’ll ever erase the crushing response from that first ad. CleanShot 2024-06-01 at 07.53.37@2x.

You’ll remember that furor visited on Apple after releasing Crushed featuring all sorts of musical instruments and other creative tools being crushed by a hydraulic press into an iPad Pro. I for one wasn’t that upset about the ad, but quite a few folks thought Apple misread all sorts of rooms and moments. Given how the creative classes are a bit squeamish about AI possibly replacing artists and crushing the human element out of the act of creation it lit a spark that eventually led to a rare Apple apology.

This new ad shows off what the new iPad Pro’s can do featuring three different artists creating three different backgrounds while actress Sofia Wylie dances around in front of a green screen. Even the Apple Pencil gets some screen time.

Here’s the new ad called Worlds Made on iPad. Better to make than crush.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.

Sunday Morning Reading

Sunday Morning Reading is back while we continue to unpack. The environs are different, but everything remains the same.

Everything changes and everything remains the same. We’ve completed the Big Move and are now in our new abode. Heads sleep on the same pillows, coffee is sipped from the same mugs, but we’re still living out of boxes and unpack others. That’ll be the state of things for a bit still. That’s life on the home front as everything has changed but remains the same. That seems to be the case in the world in this week’s Sunday Morning Reading.

Kicking things off is an excellent series of articles from The New Republic. What American Fascism Would Look LIke is a collection of essays by a collection of writers, each one worth your time. Start with Ruth Ben-Ghiat’s The Permanent Counterrevolution, but check them each out.

The Roberts Supreme Court continues to show its true colors witih all sorts of flag flyiing controversy from Samuel Alito. Blaming your wife is becoming a thing also. Check out Alitio and Thomas Aren’t Really Jurists. They’re Theocratic Leninists by Michael Tomasky.

There was lots of big news on the Artificial Intelliegence front. There was also not much new in much of that news. LLMs still bung things up. Microsoft, Google, and OpenAI pushed their newest in a race that feels very much like the runners keep tripping over themselves. Nico Grant in the New York Times points to the ongoing snafu in Google’s A.I. Search Errors Cause a Furor Online. At some point this is all going to end up like the streaming entertainment wars. Once all the players are on the field there will be consolidation. There will still be problems. Those new subscription prices will rise. And everyone will complain.

Even so, Steven Levy says It’s Time to Believe The AI Hype.

Naveen Kumar takes a quick look at how AI might be worming its way into live performance in AI Is Getting Theatrical.

David Todd McCarty takes on the contradictions of believing that more than one thing can be true at the same time in An Angel With An Incredible Capacity for Beer.

NatashaMH pens a nifty piece about how the act of writing gives a teacher a window into the mind of her student in Writing The Unpretentious Prose.

And while we were busy moving, Apple released new iPads. Not surprisingly everything changed and everything remained the same. The new software that may or may not yield potential changes is due to roll out in a few weeks, but until it does, those iPads remain behind the software curve while setting the hardware pace. Or at least that’s the accepted line in Apple circles. Federico Viticci penned an excellent summary of what he feels iPads are still missing in Not an iPad Review: Why iPadOS Still Doesn’t Get the Basics Right and Steve Troughton-Smith also put out The iPad Pro Manifesto (2024 Edition ).

Closing things out this weekend as I try to get these old bones moving again to unpack some more boxes, check out Margaret Dean’s A Mutiny of Bones about recalcitrant bones and aging and how it’s not just the joints that stop bending. The one constant as everything changes around and within you, some things just don’t work the same as they once did.

But the Demos Aren’t Lying

Steven Levy has seen enough AI demos to think we should believe the hype. I’m still in wait and see mode.

Call me curious. Call me skeptical. Two sides of the same coin. The tech industry is dancing on the edge of a coin called Artificial Intelligence waiting to see which side lands face up. As they dance, we also dance, because the promise/hope/hype/hyperbole is that the technology will make lives better, fill lots of coffers, and set us all free (except for that sure to increase every year subscription price) to enjoy more of life.

Artificial intelligence new technology science futuristic abstract human brain ai technology cpu central processor unit chipset big data machine learning cyber mind domination generative ai scaled 1 2048x1366.

Steven Levy has apparently seen enough demos that he has penned a piece telling us that It’s Time to Believe the AI Hype. It’s a well reasoned piece, as usual from Levy, and worth a read if you’re trying to follow what all of this means. But the moment that caught me was this quote:

Skeptics might try to claim that this is an industry-wide delusion, fueled by the prospect of massive profits. But the demos aren’t lying.

“But the demos aren’t lying.” They may not be. It all might come true. Or some of it. Or enough of it to matter. Even so, I’ve been around enough blocks too many times to stake anything on any demo for any product. Some do pan out. Too many do not. Given the pace of things in tech these days, I’m guessing that once the inevitable explosion yields to the equally inevitable contraction, there’s a better than average chance that we’ll be eyeing some other piece of universe altering tech within a year or two.

The reality is what’s coming in AI is coming. We’ll all get a taste. The proof wil be in how we digest whatever tech related nutrional value it offers.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.

What Happens to Ads with AI Summaries of Web Pages?

Will AI summarize web ads into submission?

Artificial Intelligence is still the dominate tech craze of the moment. Big announcements are expected within the next several weeks from Apple, Google and just about anyone else who can prompt an AI generated press release into being. I’m sure AI will continue to be on the tips of most digital tongues.

Or will it all just be summarized?

One of the trends I’m seeing predicted is how users will take advantage of Artificial Intelligence to summarize web pages. That sounds like a useful, perhaps noble idea but it raises questions. The web relies so much on advertising to generate revenue. AI is supposed to help ad creators and marketers do better and more efficient designing and targeting. What happens when users stop visiting web pages and just rely on summaries? That’s a genuine question I have and would love to read some possible answers.

It’s not that I’m a big fan of ads, but I remember back in the heyday of RSS that there was all sorts of tension regarding losing ad impressions between web publishers and web users that relied on RSS readers. Then RSS feeds of web articles got truncated into teasers to send users clicking. Then ads got inserted into RSS. Will the same thing happen with ads being inserted into AI summaries? How would that work with something like an AI Pin or the Rabbit R1? (Although I doubt those devices will be around for us to find out.)

Given that one of the other predicted AI trends is being able to verbally converse with whatever AI machine you choose, how would that work with advertising? Will a user need to listen to ads before getting a response to their prompt? There’s already a lag in compute capacity resulting in delays delivering responses to queries with most current AI engines. I don’t imagine waiting for an ad insertion will help improve on that.

Again, these are sincere questions that I’d love to hear some thoughts on. Just don’t summarize them.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.

Sunday Morning Reading

Some serious stuff in our world this week, but we must dance on. Here’s some Sunday Morning Reading to share.

The world is a very serious and uncomfortable place based on what I’ve been reading this past week, so the topics for this edition of Sunday Morning Reading will lean that way. Good writing all around that meets the seriousness we’re all dancing around.

The United States Supreme Court is about to alter the world we’ve all thought we’ve lived in. Rick Wilson of Everything Trump Touches Dies fame writes:

“The Supreme Court will delay Trump’s case and then make the most cataclysmic legal mistake in American history.

We’re not talking Dred Scott bad, Plessy bad, and Korematsu bad.

We’re talking about previously unimagined levels of bad.”

He’s correct. Check out The Red Court Strikes Again.

Bryan Tannehill says The Court Just Sealed Everyone’s Fate, Including It’s Own. Again, correct.

While this may be a bit less current than most articles inlcuded this week, Brian Gopnik reminds us that it takes more than one man to turn the world upside down in The Forgotten History of Hitler’s Establishment Enablers.

Wars, protests and political shenanigans about those wars abound. Mo Husseni has laid out his thoughts about what’s happening in the Middle East and our reactions to it on Threads and published them as an essay on Medium. Well worth your time to read his piece titled Hmmm… do I need a title?

A few topics on the tech front, the mechanism that one way or the other bring us all this news and writing about that news, Edward Zitron tells us about The Man Who Killed Google Search.

Craig Grannell tells us to Just Say No: Not Every Piece of Tech Needs Subscriptons and AI. He’s correct and he nails the reason why this is becoming pervasive.

I don’t agree with everything Allison Johnson says in The Walls of Apple’s Garden Are Tumbling Down, but she makes good points and provides a piece of the necessary frame around this unfolding story.

Changing the subject, it is tough to laugh given all that is swirling around us. But laugher is crucial. Always. As unprovoked a release of emotion it is, laughter does take on different forms and come from different places. Christie Nicholson takes on The Humor Gap between men and women. Hat tip to David Todd McCarty for this excellent piece.

A Summer Place by Natasha MH reminds us that whatever we’re mired in, we should always dance on and quoting Neil Gaiman we should

Face Your life

It’s pain,

It’s pleasure,

Leave no path untaken.