It’s been about five minutes since we last checked so… how’s it going with AI?
Well, funny the Macalope should ask. It seems that at least in some circles, we’re starting to see some pushback. Take for example, Procreate’s proclamation anti-AI pledge posted to X:
“I don’t like what’s happening to the industry, and I don’t like what it’s doing to artists. We’re not going to be introducing any generative AI into our products,”
Procreate CEO James Cuda
[Long, sustained applause]
The Verge here mentions two concerns the creative community has about AI: that it’s generated using their content without permission and that it’ll reduce the need for artistic jobs. The Macalope thinks there’s a third one that’s equally valid: AI tends to generate generic results, all in the same vapid “style” that results when stealing everyone’s work, sticking it in a blender and pouring it into a plastic Arby’s cup.
Procreate could be trying to hold back the tide, or it could really be tapping into something. New studies show that customers don’t really want AI.
“‘Why do I need AI in my coffee maker?’ AI-labeled products can scare away customers, study finds”
The answer to “Why do I need AI in my coffee maker?” is, of course, because they want to sell you a new coffee maker, preferably one that will be obsolete in 15 minutes when their next generation AI comes out.
On the stealing aspect of AI, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently spoke at a conference at Stanford University where he told attendees to not worry about it. One of the things he suggested is making a TikTok clone and populating it by using AI to steal everything already on TikTok. If you become rich off of it, he said, you can lawyer up to the point you’ll be fine and if you don’t get rich, no one will care.
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The Macalope sometimes goes on flights of fancy so he feels he must point out that this is an actual thing that Schmidt actually said out of his actual speaking hole in his actual face. Please love our tech overlords who are simply better than us. They didn’t get where they are today simply by being the absolute worst, why would you say that?
(Remember Schimdt also once said that Android was more secure than iOS and that developers would soon publish on Android first. So, the guy’s not exactly known for being a font of rightness.)
There’s been a lot of talk recently about an AI bubble. If you can imagine. Some people say the bubble is bursting. Some say it’s going to burst soon. Some say there is no bubble, AI is great, I have a fetish for six-fingered women and I’ve never been happier than right here, right now, at this moment in history with my beloved six-fingered AI wife.
Some say that.
The Macalope is sure there are many genuine uses for AI (if we’re calling whatever improves Siri “AI” then that’s one right there), but as with so many technologies before it, AI has been treated like a new gold rush when it’s really more akin to finding your mom didn’t throw out your Chris Claremont X-Men comics after all. “I will make hundreds of dollars.” (May or may not be based on an actual story.)
So, while many have called Apple “late” to AI, its timing is actually pretty good. If a party is going to be mid, it’s just as well to show up late. And possibly leave early. Apple’s approach to AI has been somewhat at arm’s length and with good reason. Venture capitalists and tech bros and Wall Street all love to jump on the next big thing, hoping to land on the thing with long-term growth potential or at least make a quick buck before everyone else figures out it’s just this year’s netbooks or crypto or NFTs or having a child with Elon Musk. You might get something out of it, but it’s not going to be long-term and it might not be what you expect.
Author: The Macalope, Contributor
The Macalope is a longtime observer of the tech industry and Apple. In addition to being a mythical beast, the Macalope is not an employee of Macworld. As a result, the Macalope is always free to criticize any media organization. Even ours.