[tedivm]

I don't think there's much mystery here. Apple has blocked their researchers from publishing and has a very siloed approach. Researchers don't like this, so they work for companies that allow them to publish and engage in the research community. As a result Apple can't hire the talent needed to execute in this space.

[Someone]

> Apple has blocked their researchers from publishing

Counterexamples: https://machinelearning.apple.com/research/

[tedivm]

Sort by oldest. They had two papers in 2017 and three in 2018. It was only in 2019 that they started opening up more, but you can't change decades of culture quickly. The AI researchers I know (and I know a lot, having been VPE at multiple AI companies) would rather work with groups that are more open.

[atonse]

They did start this but they were a few years late to the game, so they're probably having to play catch up.

Also they still have a streak of secrecy so I wonder if any researchers are skittish thinking that Apple might just arbitrarily stop them from publishing certain papers?

[3cats-in-a-coat]

As if xAI publishes a lot. But even they have models that work.

[tedivm]

As far as I can tell xAI doesn't publish because they don't have anything to publish. It seems to me like they aren't doing anything novel or state of the art, they're just consuming other people's research and implementing it.

[3cats-in-a-coat]

This invalidates your thesis that Apple is behind on AI because they can't hire talent. And that they can't hire talent as they don't innovate and publish papers.

xAI doesn't innovate, doesn't publish papers, and started literally a decade later than Apple into AI, and yet they're ahead of Apple in AI.

So the high order bit is something else. Apple seems consumed by its legacy dependencies, structures... people even. There's no one on top with focus. I'm not even saying "with vision" or "with competence" or "with expertise". I'm just saying "with focus". If Tim Cook wanted an LLM he'd have a top of the line LLM running in 6 months with the resources he has. He doesn't.

His focus is on making lots of the things he wants to sell, and he doesn't care, or understand what those things are. This is why they have warehouses full of unsold Vision Pro inventory now. He's a logistics guy. Blind to the rest.

And Apple was doing great with someone like him at the top for years. But now the backlog of products is over and they keep shipping duds, while their software work is nosediving.

They need someone who understands "product" stat. Someone with holistic instincts. Someone like Jobs. I mean at least a bit like him.