[ggm]

What's their backup plan if the AI world doesn't pan out? What if it turns out people want base compute capability and lots of RAM for filestore cache and programs?

Maybe this strategy works, even in that world.

Remember when we all thought (were told we thought) the world was heading to 3D views of our 2D lived experience like a solid Cube of GUI we could rotate around and live inside? Well Apple took the simple 2D square pane of virtual desktops and .. made it a SONY strip. One variable: sideways.

So here we are being told AI is the future. Apple seems to be saying "yes but it will run local" which might be a safe bet if AI comes true but I wonder how many of us want the AI outcome, which is morally speaking the 3D immersive GUI cube here: what if we don't want that?

[atonse]

I can't imagine any world where we put this AI stuff back in the box. It is simply too useful and too powerful. And as we start seeing all his upheaval where models are getting banned, etc, I can even see the appeal of on-device AI increasing for a lot of use cases.

So I think Apple has the right instinct. In fact, I've had the thought multiple times that I really want a lot of workflows just running on my device. Workflows like fast vector search (already fast on the m4, but I want it more common place), or realtime transcription and summarization to be even faster, on device, etc.

[enos_feedler]

To me AI is on par with the internet and what made it so powerful was piracy and porn and just the wide spectrum of things that are possible when you connect machines together. We are going to need the same thing again. Freedom to use any model that does any thing we want.

[LtWorf]

If it happens it's because of china but it will be forbidden in USA.

[simianparrot]

Yeah because China never censor anything.

[jghn]

The worst case scenario is that we're at a plateau and LLMs max out around here. And it'd stand to reason that if that happens we'd see local models catch up at least to some extent. Compared to 5 years ago, that's a pretty good world.

[olalonde]

AI already has massive, growing adoption, whereas "3D immersive GUI cubes" never really had any.

[LtWorf]

It has at the current subsidised prices.

[khalic]

AI isn't going anywhere, this is akin to the .com bubble. It burst, but the internet didn't go anywhere. While companies can fail, this technology is with us for the long run now, short of societal collapse.

[jimbokun]

Without AI everyone’s computing needs were pretty well satisfied with current phones and laptops. LLMs are the one thing that could drive new demand if they can run locally.

[notatoad]

this is the backup strategy. the "AI doesn't pan out" scenario is basically if claude and openai go bankrupt, we continue running local models on our hardware.

there isn't a future where we all just decide that nah, we don't want AI anymore. usefuly things don't disappear.

[seanmcdirmid]

AI was the only reason I bought a new computer (a refurb M3 max with 64GB). Without AI, no idea what we should bother with, it depends on what application comes out to drive local computing power (maybe better games? Yawn).

[znpy]

> What's their backup plan if the AI world doesn't pan out? What if it turns out people want base compute capability and lots of RAM for filestore cache and programs?

I think reducing the die area dedicated to ai stuff is not going to be a problem.

And in fairness apple already has essentially ai-less hardware in the form of the MacBook neo and it’s been an astonishing success.

I have one and it’s a very good laptop, particularly for the price i paid it.

[zombot]

> what if we don't want that?

Do we have a choice? It's being forced upon us by folks who have the power to distort any market they want. Energy prices are rising, and the PC industry is about to be destroyed by component prices. It will be dumb clients that run the software our feudal overlords of the data centers will have the grace to grant us. And the government lets it happen because it furthers their interests.