Apple's UI Event in the Age of AI
Are you WWDC'd out yet? No? Good, because I do think my chat with Alex Kantrowitz on his Big Technology Podcast is a pretty good listen.
Obviously I'm beyond biased here, but I think Alex and I hit on a few tangential topics that are a bit outside the usual boxes – in particular around the ongoing productization of AI and how no one has yet nailed it outside of OpenAI with ChatGPT. And that actually might leave Apple with a real opportunity here, even after the internal AI fiasco (don't let them gaslight you otherwise), provided they can get their house in order. Still, there's a concern that they may just not have the right mentality (guided by the right leadership) to build in the Age of AI.
And that AI itself may change the nature of what it means to build great products. What if – hear me out – AI is the new UI? What if having a unified intelligent layer woven across a concert of devices matters more than a set of consistent interfaces and interactions?1 I think it's worth thinking about, especially if you're Apple and the latter has been your leverage.
Still, the decision to focus on their historic strength in UI even as rivals triple-down on AI meant it wasn't a total loss of an event for them. (Or is the new 'Liquid Glass' UI bad? I know many people seem to think so right now, but I suspect that will change with time, as it always does.) And the subtle doubling down on the leveraging of ChatGPT seems smart given the state of Siri. (Ultimately perhaps doomed by their early success, much like Amazon.) Do they ultimately need to bring a company like Perplexity in house? We'll see. As we will about the decision to "Mac-ify" the iPad...
Is Apple doomed or at they just not reading the room? Certainly, all these leaks seem to point to some internal issues – and there are plenty of external ones too. Overall, the vibe around this event just feels "off".
I do think that one day, Apple will be able to launch the technology to get your mom safely home from the airport. At the very least, with the upgraded Phone app, she should be able to call you to come pick her up.
1 At the same time, what if shoving all of this historical memory into AI ends up being a mistake?