Privacy? There’s an AI for That. It’s Google’s
Photo by Firmbee.com on Unsplash
Apple are the most valuable company in the world, but they really struggle with innovation these days.
Sure, they’re good at the polished presentation. They know how to be smug and confident because of course they do. But this week they’ve gone from think different to think Gemini, and the change hurts anyone who ever saw the “old” Apple in action.
Because Siri is now going to be Google Gemini powered (but at least it might work).
It’s an Expensive Shame
Your $1,200 phone will soon be whispering AI-powered sweet nothings straight from Mountain View, rather than Cupertino. It’s like seeing Ferrari subcontract design to Toyota because suddenly reliability seems the thing that’s the “North Star” this week.
Apple’s “slow and careful” approach to AI now looks more like “slow and nowhere” as their progress seems to have ground to a halt. Siri has moved from a joke to annoying, back to a joke that will open Wiki on your phone at the drop of a hat.
Apple have gone into full pragmatic mode, and while that’s something it’s not a great approach for top-end premium devices. It’s certainly not good for Apple who promised us the best experience by owning the whole value chain end-to-end.
Don’t get me started on privacy. Apple are now sending your data down the wire to another behemoth company, and even if you trust Apple with your most important data that doesn’t mean you trust Google with it.
The Real Red Flag
Most iPhone users just want the newest trinket to show their friends how stylish they are, and that they can oh so easily spend $1200 on the latest phone every year. The company that runs the backend AI is, to them, simply another implementation detail.
It’s like explaining to your product manager why having a single point of failure is a bad idea, or to your designer why “limiting friction for the user” is going to make the flow so complex that it will take 6 months to deliver this feature.
The thing is, as Apple work to destroy their own dominant market position perhaps we should fear for the mobile developers caught up in this. When everyone is using a small AI device we’ll ask what Apple did to destroy their market dominant position. Arrogance. Oh, and poking regulators.
Because you think the EU’s going to sit back and say “Oh sure, just merge your brains, sounds legit”?
Google already paid Apple $26 billion in a single year just to stay the default search engine. Now, it’s their AI too? Sounds like a “duopoly” and antitrust bait to me.
The Developer’s Angle
From where I sit, the interesting part isn’t privacy or partnership. It’s what this says about Apple’s internal culture.
Apple used to be legendary for building everything in-house and worked to create best-in-class solutions. AI changed all of that, and Apple started from a position way back in the field. They’ve been unable to catch up, and declined the Microsoft route of shipping a half-baked solution (and I don’t think they should have gone this way) but have decided to pay to copy Google’s homework.
If I know anything about copy-pasting it’s from Stack Overflow, it’s that you need to pay attention to your context and not just put in someone else’s solution blindly. But I fear this is exactly what Apple are doing with this strategy, ignoring the privacy imperative and the value owning the system end-to-end brings. Apple are in danger of losing themselves, and when they do I’m concerned with who they might bring down with them.
Tech is moving so fast that even Apple can’t keep up without help. I guess we can all take some comfort from that.
About The Author
Professional Software Developer “The Secret Developer” can be found on Twitter @TheSDeveloper.
The Secret Developer outsourced most of their thinking to ChatGPT sometime in 2023. Atrophy is now well in progress.