I think this is mostly just a problem of not having good reasons to sell AI products to consumers in the first place.
I recently saw some Ray Ban Meta glasses ads.
One of them had a guy ask the glasses to describe what was in front of his face, and then he remarked “wow that’s accurate” (there are people skateboarding). The guy wasn’t blind. His use of the glasses made little sense.
Another ad has a young man asking his glasses how to dress for fall and then blindly following the suggestions like they’ve never dressed themselves before. It was embarrassing to watch.
A third ad has someone ask their glasses how to decorate for a disco theme party, and then they implement the very mediocre suggestions.
None of these things required AI, it’s just kind of “there”, and companies are like “idk maybe people will use our AI to like… dress themselves? or something?”
No way! There are definitely legitimate use-cases for all of the features demoed in these ads, but Apple's marketing took a darker path.
Email to boss: could've been someone who had a genuine struggle with language using it to finally get their boss to notice the effort they put into their work.
Remembering a name: could've used it to get the name and left it at them being impressed rather than making it a lie.
Summarizing email: could've used it when in a hurry at work whilst someone sent an extremely long email.
Video memories: could've used it for two people to share a nostalgic moment together without making it a lie.
The fact that lying is a core element of the ads is what makes them so gross to me.
The guys says he's surprised she remembers him. She could just look straight at the camera, say what can I say, I'm very intelligent, wink, and it wouldn't be gross.
If I try to watch a technical review on a smartphone, they’ll still talk about camera megapixels, screen size/brightness, corners, etc. No one talks about scroll sensitivity and jankiness, [bad] position of buttons on screen and on the frame, sensor nuances, how it feels in a pocket, can it work as a display, notification sounds and sound level separation, etc.
All marketing, including third-party based, focuses on absolutely basic features for abstract people who do nothing and have no problems to solve apart from taking pics of themselves and other two-digit iq activities. I guess it’s only logical for this image to walk into a skate park and ask their glasses about what these guys are doing.
> One of them had a guy ask the glasses to describe what was in front of his face, and then he remarked “wow that’s accurate” (there are people skateboarding). The guy wasn’t blind. His use of the glasses made little sense.
On the other hand, this is a pretty common scenario: user is surprised when AI gets something right :) Not sure it’s the best showcase of a product, though …
> mostly just a problem of not having good reasons
I disagree, I think this is bad ethics, and bad marketing people, working for Apple...what other explanation - same people crushed musical instruments and books, human craft-work -- using a hydraulic press, in a recent Apple advert.
Advertising certainly can show outrageous ways to behave, and it's "okay". Calling someone and simply shouting WAZZZAAAAAAP! into the cell phone, for the famous Budweiser advert during the superbowl...derives into a crew of 3-5 people shouting AAAAAAAAAAAZZZAAA into their phones, oddly. That was cute ....
However this is about enabling through lying. In one ADVERT it makes a Manager believe an Employee is more engaged than they truly are, rewriting their unprofessional language using the new "Professional" button, reasonably leading to a future misallocation of resources by the manager to the irresponsible seemingly under-skilled or simply lazy unethical employee.
What's worse is the people who are NOT using Apple products to lie. The Employees who did not lie about their grip on written language now have to compete with AI, wielded by their ill-behaved coworker. It stratifies society into Idiocracy.
This is a TERRIFYING series of advertisements chosen by Apple.
The signaling value of knowing how to writey words good is dead. More dead even than a coffin-nail, and assuredly that of a door (thanks, Dickens).
Signaling through speaking will become even more important. Get thy children to debate club, seminar-based classes (hope you're rich!), theater, and hell, I dunno, ToastMasters Junior or whatever.
But millions of people have been using Grammarly, et al. for this for years. Managers have actually paid to deploy tools like this to their employees. The ship you're talking about has already sailed.
Nonsense. Are people who use spell checkers also lying when the computer helps them not sound like an illiterate 5th grader? What about Word’s pre-AI grammar correction?
Further, it’s pretty clear from the watching the commercial that the boss is not fooled by this. The humor of the commercial is supposed to derive from the absolute contrast between the well established and known behavior of the employee and the content of their email. Humor doesn’t always land for everyone to be sure but this sounds like the same sort of handwringing over tech replacing human effort we’ve seen for years. Calculators would let people bad at math sneak their way into jobs where you need math, IDEs will let people bad at coding sneak their way into places where you need to code. Now it’s “ai grammar editing” will allow people bad at writing professionally sneak into places where they need to edit professionally.
Yesterday I was walking in Greece and saw a sign I couldn't read so asked my Meta glasses and it gave me a translation and short explanation quickly, which was very helpful.
But generally, yes the uses aren't there. In the Apple AI video, the worst is that the 'more professional' text, actually reads much less professional.
If someone in a business situation sends you an AI generated email (and it's obviously AI it's so easy to tell) it makes it seem like they are unable to write English properly, giving the opposite impression than intended.
> Yesterday I was walking in Greece and saw a sign I couldn't read so asked my Meta glasses and it gave me a translation and short explanation quickly, which was very helpful.
Like other attempts at AI wearables like the Rabbit and Humane pins, I think that falls under "maybe useful but why wouldn't I just do the same thing with the phone that I'm carrying anyway".
> In the Apple AI video, the worst is that the 'more professional' text, actually reads much less professional.
The original text is:
> Hey J,
> Been thinking, this project might need a bit of zhuhzing. But you're the big enchilada.
> Holler back
followed by the sender's first name in lower case surrounded by flexed bicep emoji.
The AI rewritten text keeps the "Hey J,". It changes the rest to
> Upon further consideration, I believe this project may require some refinement. However, you are the most capable individual to undertake this task.
> Please let me know your thoughts.
> Best regards,
followed by the sender's first name capitalized and with no emoji.
I don't see how the second could be considered less professional than the first.
From the other comments here it seems like some people may be seeing different ads when they follow the links, possibly depending on their location. The text above is what was in the ad I get to from the link in the article. Are you getting something different?
Honestly I wouldn’t hesitate to steal and break any meta ray bands I see on the street in real life. I don’t want to see that creepy always recording without permission kind of shit normalised.
This is what always happens when you have a technology and then desperately try to find problems to solve with it. Rather than starting with a problem and then applying the most appropriate technology to solve it. The exact same thing happened with Blockchain, but "AI" has about 100x more hype behind it.
I think people present day do not understand how to really use AI.. understand how it can benefit their life. The commercial the OP speaks and the ad agency sounds lame as they arent helping.
Personally Ive been enjoying wearing my Ray Bans for the past year and have used them to do things no other glasses can like...
- Translate.... was in Canada recently and a sign about Jasper the town i was in was in French. I asked Meta to translate it... it took a pic and audibly translated it for me.
- Was in Harpers Ferry WV on an overlook ..looking down into the town of Harpers Ferry which has a huge church which i have no idea it's name yet ask Meta what church is that over there. Took a pic and told me.
- Was in line at HersheyPark up on a platform and my friend wondered how many people you think are in line so i asked Meta and it took a pic and gave me an estimate.
The problem with "AI" is that when it is well integrated, and useful, it is often invisible to the user. Many people, for example, benefit from automatic (and instant) transcriptions in live Zoom meetings. This is pretty much complete magic -- and yet, boring. You don't notice it. You focus on the result, which you need, rather than the fact that it's "AI."
This is my current belief as well. Ive designed many features with AI models and it wasn't until we recently branded those features with an AI personified name that users (and wall street) noticed.
Sounds like a repeat of blockchain hype. Biggest threat here is replacing the cultural zeitgeist of "let me google that for you" with "let me GPT that for you".
I feel the ads I've seen are precisely what you say. I will say this though I have a kid on the spectrum and if I could teach her how to integrate her thoughts with the glasses it may help her in social settings. But for others who simply already know I, like you, don't see the value.
We've been working with it for over a year now and I'm of the mind that AI, in it's current state, really isn't a tool meant for an end user to interact with.
It feels like it's the most useful when it's transparent and you -- as an end user -- don't know that there's an LLM in the process. The best use cases seem to be those that don't require an end consumer to directly interact with an AI, but their journey through some process is assisted by an AI instead.
The problem is that a lot of the marketing -- like these examples and Google's very misguided "Write me a letter" to an Olympian -- exists because companies keep trying to make "fetch" happen; the AI becomes the journey instead of being an assistant in that journey.
Amazon's Rufus is a prime example. It's tucked away as a button that one has to activate explicitly. But it would almost be better if it could just clean up the search results when I do a search and a bunch of junk is returned.
But it seems like Apple could make "fetch" happen in the past. Their ads were very aspirational, almost like you could become an Olympian if you just owned a Macintosh. These ads though, they're not about "you can do more". They're about "you can care less".
These ads feel like YouTube Short sketches. A little absurd, and a bit of a fantasy land. Would people really interact this way - word for word?
I think being aspirational with AI can feel a bit in-humane. A lot of people seeing this experience a bit of cringe when the topic of AI is brought up. Maybe they’re worried about their job, that technology is too pervasive - whatever it is, they’re uncomfortable. It’s an easier pill to swallow if I can laugh at it. Apple seems to be picking up on that in these ads.
Eh, I mean Apple has had its flops over the years like any company.
Their ads were good, but all of their successful products were of high quality when evaluated objectively, in addition to having been marketed well.
There's basically two places where I see it as being useful -- as part of an automation pipeline where you need some translation layer from natural language to structured data or vice versa, and when the user knows it's an LLM and _wants to interact with an LLM_. I never want to see LLM generated content as an end user when I haven't specifically asked for it.
The use case our startup is working is one more that I think really works well: why are you showing me these results?
Our product basically takes any search output and uses our internal knowledge graph for our clients to "explain" to the customer "why these results for this query/question?"
We use the same knowledge graph to then extend our client's native search results with much more relevant results using the LLM to better match results to the semantic intent of the question.
It's all quite nifty and transparent; the user wouldn't know that there's an AI involved without labeling it as AI generated.
Yeah, a really basic and relevant example might be if I have a meeting coming up on my calendar, an agent can pull info from my LinkedIn about the participants, check their socials (so I can make small talk and chat), research info about some of the topics in the meeting (e.g. pull stats, recent articles, etc.) and summarize it to prepare me for the meeting.
Like, that's actually useful but probably not super sexy.
I absolutely despise rufus. I used to be able to search questions and reviews instantaneously. Now I need to wait for rufus to poorly summarize everything, tap at least 2-3 times, and then get to see the search results. Talk about piss poor UX.
Reminds me of Austin Powers where he has a TV in his car in the 70s to talk with his boss then wakes up in modern times (the 90s) and has shitty, fractured streaming video. "Skating where the puck is going" is a great strategy for businesses - not so much for end users.
You're not alone. I search questions and reviews all the time. Rufus is terribly slow and doesn't serve the same function as my specific keyword search I'm looking for.
This article is a prime example of why tech literate people aren’t inherently strong marketers for tech.
What does the Ubuntu ad say to the user? How does it capture someone’s attention? None of the ad tells me why this is something worth paying attention to versus other distros or OSs, it doesn’t even tell me it’s about the OS at all unless I already know what Ubuntu is.
Contrast with the Apple ads that tell you exactly what they want in the same time frame. Apple ads have always been tongue in cheek, and have always had a portion of people rubbed the wrong way because they took it too literally.
But at the end of the day, barring the few missteps like the crush ad, they seem to work for the target audience.
I find a lot of technical folk seem to struggle with “I don’t like it therefore it must be bad” and would have failed basically any media analysis class in college as a result. Similarly, the author falls into the “I like Ubuntu and this ad” and hasn’t stopped to think about how it plays to anyone but himself. It’s a really self centered outlook and one that means they’d never be able to market to others.
I remember iPods being advertised as, like, very cool. Remember all the ads with, like, the silhouettes dancing on colorful backgrounds? I can see thinking these ads were a bit over the top and silly, like a corporate ad exec’s idea of what is cool, but they definitely intended to be cool.
The people in these new ads are lame and clearly Apple intends to portray them as lame.
Apple have a range of ads to appeal to a range of people.
Even back then they had the Mac vs PC or a variety of other ads too that weren’t “cool” but were funny. Tongue in cheek ads have been in their DNA since forever.
Take for example the new Mac mini ad which is cute
One could argue that they’ve not had anything as iconic as the silhouette commercial. I’d agree with that, but I disagree with the position that their ads today don’t show cool people or that ads back then didn’t show “lame” people.
> What does the Ubuntu ad say to the user? How does it capture someone’s attention?
Exactly. Contrary to the article, it doesn't tell a story at all. It's just some slick-ish graphics with a few words overlayed on top. They're nice words. But they didn't really embrace "show, don't tell".
> it doesn’t even tell me it’s about the OS at all unless I already know what Ubuntu is.
Try watching the iPhone ads assuming you don't know what Apple does nor what an iPhone is. They make absolutely no sense.
Ads are targeted at a market, and these in particular assume some degree of familiarity. I guess the Ubuntu one in particular is to celebrate the 20 years, so it's a different vibe from a sheer call to action spot.
Which iPhone ad can you point me to that doesn’t have a story around a feature at the least?
Also since you bring up familiarity, does that Ubuntu ad tell you which version it’s about? What’s it telling even a seasoned Ubuntu veteran?
And lastly, there’s a much larger percent of the population that knows what an iPhone is but even if they didn’t, it’s in the name. The ads end with iPhone, by Apple and show the product.
Based on that ad, what is Ubuntu? A desktop? An OS? A computer company?
> barring the few missteps like the crush ad
Ideally I should be one of the people offended but the ad but I actually liked it and the concept. Of course ymmv
I've learned not to trust my taste in marketing for the same point you make in your first sentence.
While watching those ads i considered a kids perspective. It bugs bunny looney tunes stuff. Its silly, cartoonish, and sticky. Its a very good ad.
Side-point: imagine if this clearly cartoonish ad did encourage "cheating at life". whats the downside? Those people are still putting in as much effort as they would have regardless. only now maybe they have read an example of a good email or a summary which could encourage them to learn more later. or maybe its just fun having a world where lazy people are trying to skate by a la The Dude
Yeah, I think the Apple ads also reveal changes in the meta level of human communication. You cannot know for certain, that the other person is "being real", if that makes sense.
That Ubuntu commercial left me with a weird akwardness, not knowing what or who it was for. It said "For you", which was the best part and I think it means I am in control of things, but that message might be lost with everybody not familiar with IT/Linux/Open Source. I don't know what certificates it was talking about though.
> I’ve watched that little animation several times, and they tell a better story in a minute twenty-five than all of Apple’s AI commercials combined.
If I showed that video to someone who isn't steeped in decades of Linux, I suspect they'd ask me what an Ubuntu is. As compared to the "schlub writes an email" video, which was compelling, funny, and actually shows the product they're marketing.
> As compared to the "schlub writes an email" video, which was compelling, funny
OP is right, though. What you're calling "compelling" and "funny" seems very much also like messages telling you to that it's ok to lie to everyone around you including your family and friends. That's not a funny message to me. It's an appalling one.
Absolutely nobody is going to see these ads and to "Ah, well, now that I have seen this ad I will start lying".
That person is already lying about stuff. We've all done it.
I think the real indictment against Apple (and AI more broadly) is that this is the best use case for their supposedly revolutionary technology that they could come up with.
> What you're calling "compelling" and "funny" seems very much also like messages telling you to that it's ok to lie to everyone around you including your family and friends.
Eh, "lovable but lazy dumbass forgot something and has to lie their way out of it" is a pretty standard trope of boomer sitcom humour.
Just imagine these ads, but the person using AI was Homer Simpson.
Right—what "story"? "The appearance of desktop computers has changed over the period of time that Ubuntu has existed"? What does this thing do for me? Especially, what does it do for me that other platforms don't, or that I might not expect it would do for me?
It was exactly like every other enterprise animated product video. Random words with some electronic music. I was actually expecting "synergy" to pop up.
The most annoying part when I worked in marketing was explaining to people that it’s not about the their opinion, it’s about profit. One person’s take is worthless.
Can I just point out the self gazing nature of this post?
Short form: I made an Advertisement in AI, I promote it by making shitting all over Apple (get more viewership using Apple) and then finish off to say I watched my own video in amazement 5 times.
What a beautiful self promotional world we live in.
It's funny the video is celebrating 20 years of Ubuntu yet the editing style and music choice feels like it should have been for the 10 year anniversary. Real early-2010s chic.
I think the write up seems to bring the indirect point that AI has limited use cases currently. So instead of taking the traditional Apple approach with showcasing the technical aspects of the product (an example being Apple has highlighted photography and video a lot in the last few generations of iPhone), instead Apple falls back on cheeky ads, which to be fair, are also not new to Apple marketing.
I do think that Apple's "white lies" series of ads are awkward, however. Apple has seemingly paused ads around privacy and security and are now targeting Apple Intelligence - they seem to be somewhat at opposite ends of the target market in a way.
It does feel as though Apple is conflicted here and I'm curious to see how it plays out for them. I'm, personally not a fan of the current generation or implementation of AI and do not want to use it. If AI could hook apps for more hands free operations at a deeper level I could see usability improvements for hands free environments which might be nice. Beyond that I really don't want it.
> I'm, personally not a fan of the current generation or implementation of AI and do not want to use it.
Why not? It gives vastly better than human performance across a wide range of problems. Just this morning I asked Chat GPT to find me the smallest set of positive integers whose median is 2 and whose average is 3.75, and it just spit out the correct answer instantly. That would have been an enormous pain in the ass to figure out how to do manually, but instead I got it done while in the middle of packing my kids' lunches for school.
...the target audience, it wouldn't work. Same with the AI stuff.
Show that to someone with no understanding of Apple and it's products, or AI, and you'll have someone equally confused.
The understanding here is that in both cases the marketing is targeted at a certain group.
More interestingly, you admit that one story promotes interest in the product, while the other promotes the viewer being, as you put it, a schlub.
Maybe you can explain why you being a schlub is better than wanting to learn more about a product (or how quickly you try to pretend like that's not what you mean/said and move the goal post, lol)?
> Show that to someone with no understanding of Apple and it's products, or AI, and you'll have someone equally confused.
Apple is selling a magical button that unprofessional idiots can press to be perceived as professional. Who in the world is going to be confused by that?
Forget about lying, this is just amorally stupid and pandering.
I find the hypothetical universe where that guy is going to get anywhere good suggesting what his boss should “undertake” unbelievable. (Also not a good demo).
And we’ve been in this GPT world nearly 2 years. The boss is obviously supposed to be smart, he’s a black guy in a suit after all. Is this the first time he’s ever received something that was obviously from an AI. What’s he confused about?
> The boss is obviously supposed to be smart, he’s a black guy in a suit after all. Is this the first time he’s ever received something that was obviously from an AI. What’s he confused about?
Ironically, you're doing the same thing as the actor in the skit - pretending to be confused, for effect.
Obviously, the boss is used to receiving unprofessional responses from the employee in question. Obviously, the boss is thrown as a result. Obviously, this is a contrived situation for the purpose of humor that in real life wouldn't go like this.
I just get a sense from all this AI marketing hype is that AI is yet another grifter tool. The Ubuntu video was meh and I dont think it worked well to describe the story. A better video would be to show perhaps someone getting their kid an ubuntu laptop and how it shaped their mindset and future. Or Ubuntu on your grandma's computer and now we can enjoy coffee instead of fixing computers... etc etc.
I was already bothered by the Apple Watch marketing. The messaging there is total fear. Buy an Apple Watch or literally die. Also, get them for your children or they will die too.
The messaging that AI is for lying is another big yikes. Apple marketing department has lost the magic.
As someone whose watch called 911 for me when I was in an accident, and who got a call when my mother fell, fear or not there are real, tangible benefits that probably can't be overstated.
I just wish they would cut down on false positives though. As a volunteer firefighter, I don't think I've responded to an "Apple Crash Detection" that was an actual car crash or fall or something...
To be fair, since the Apple Watch introduced heart rate monitoring and other "medical" features, there have been numerous reported cases of it saving a persons life, from detecting heart conditions to detecting falls.
Apple's ecosystem is all about replacing other products, devices, and services with features of Apple devices. See: all those photos of "here's all the devices an iPhone replaces" from like 15 years ago.
I'm not sure how else they advertise that now your Apple devices replace OnStar and Life Alert, than advertising kinda the same way that those did (but less lame, hopefully).
>The messaging there is total fear. Buy an Apple Watch or literally die. Also, get them for your children or they will die too.
Is there a specific advertisement you're referring to here, or just all apple watch advertisements? I haven't really seen any ads for the apple watch, and I am curious if this is an exaggeration.
I'm assuming by "literally" you meant "metaphorically", but I'd like to look up which ad you are referencing to get an idea of what you mean.
Edit: I've watched the ads. They are not in great taste, in my opinion, however they also did not tell me I would literally die if I don't buy an Apple Watch.
I remember people expressing similar frustrations with the crash detection features on iPhones, and I still don't understand the issue. These new safety features are helpful and have helped save lives. Scaling back the ad copy to "maybe you'd want to use this, just in case, though it's not a guarantee of anything, so whatever," as it seems the complaints are indicating, is not how any other life-saving features on any device have ever been sold. Those old LifeAlert "I've fallen and I can't get up" commercials didn't pull their punch and say "Eh, maybe you'll want this for your grandparent."
The blog entry suffers from congratulating the mediocre Ubuntu ad, but it's right about the vile Apple ads.
The Apple ads are dystopian and revulsive. She really pulls out her phone while talking to a person and then lies to her face. A wife and mother forgets dad's birthday and smugly "gifts" him 50 auto-playing photos, as shown on her phone screen?
Ubuntu nothwistanding, I found the Apple ads quite offensive.
Ads tell you what the company thinks about it's target audience and clearly Apple thinks we're all just a bunch of bumbling fools that can't do anything without our phones.
Compared to this Samsung Galaxy S24 FE, which frames everything as something that can help you out and is fun and quirky: https://youtu.be/GZ-xGBTvtO4
I've been using Mac as my workhorse my entire career, switched from Android to iPhone recently. These ads are actually making me reconsider what my next hardware upgrades are going to be.
The consumer use cases of "AI" right now are mostly about cheating at work that one is still really supposed to do themselves.
Maybe the ad people tried to come up with relatively palatable ones?
Note that no one is cheating on their school homework, which is a huge consumer use case category. And no creative work was detectably plagiarized (art, code). Though they still did do employment slacking/incompetence gaining advantage, by increasing deceptive and time-wasting noise for everyone else.
Or maybe that's the actual use cases of their target audience?
If you get work done while using AI you clearly aren’t cheating, that’s what they pay you for, not for the drudgery it involves. If my employee can be more productive with AI so be it.
The really funny thing about the "lies about birthday present" one is that the wife asks the AI to make a Woodworking Memory Video, and while they're watching it, it looks like a beach vacation photo is included in the mix.
For a second I forgot where I was, and thought she'd be found out, then remembered it's an ad, and everyone is impressed.
Maybe the image is actually related to the woodworking? But I couldn't help but think, "that's about right - a random, ill-fitting photo"
>the wife asks the AI to make a Woodworking Memory Video, and while they're watching it, it looks like a beach vacation photo is included in the mix
What's funny is that google photos sorta makes these sort of random little videos all the time for you and asks if you want to see them. It also suffers from the issue of not really understanding the context from some of the pictures it pulls in. But this is a thing that's been around for a few years, like a lot of things, apple is late to the game but pretending they invented it.
I love google photos little albums and creations. I am the kind of person that almost nevers looks at pictures on their own, so when I get a google photos notifications I always get watch them and get to remember cool memories.
Readit News
I recently saw some Ray Ban Meta glasses ads.
One of them had a guy ask the glasses to describe what was in front of his face, and then he remarked “wow that’s accurate” (there are people skateboarding). The guy wasn’t blind. His use of the glasses made little sense.
Another ad has a young man asking his glasses how to dress for fall and then blindly following the suggestions like they’ve never dressed themselves before. It was embarrassing to watch.
A third ad has someone ask their glasses how to decorate for a disco theme party, and then they implement the very mediocre suggestions.
None of these things required AI, it’s just kind of “there”, and companies are like “idk maybe people will use our AI to like… dress themselves? or something?”
Email to boss: could've been someone who had a genuine struggle with language using it to finally get their boss to notice the effort they put into their work.
Remembering a name: could've used it to get the name and left it at them being impressed rather than making it a lie.
Summarizing email: could've used it when in a hurry at work whilst someone sent an extremely long email.
Video memories: could've used it for two people to share a nostalgic moment together without making it a lie.
The guys says he's surprised she remembers him. She could just look straight at the camera, say what can I say, I'm very intelligent, wink, and it wouldn't be gross.
With Apple Intelligence, now you do.
If I try to watch a technical review on a smartphone, they’ll still talk about camera megapixels, screen size/brightness, corners, etc. No one talks about scroll sensitivity and jankiness, [bad] position of buttons on screen and on the frame, sensor nuances, how it feels in a pocket, can it work as a display, notification sounds and sound level separation, etc.
All marketing, including third-party based, focuses on absolutely basic features for abstract people who do nothing and have no problems to solve apart from taking pics of themselves and other two-digit iq activities. I guess it’s only logical for this image to walk into a skate park and ask their glasses about what these guys are doing.
On the other hand, this is a pretty common scenario: user is surprised when AI gets something right :) Not sure it’s the best showcase of a product, though …
I disagree, I think this is bad ethics, and bad marketing people, working for Apple...what other explanation - same people crushed musical instruments and books, human craft-work -- using a hydraulic press, in a recent Apple advert.
Advertising certainly can show outrageous ways to behave, and it's "okay". Calling someone and simply shouting WAZZZAAAAAAP! into the cell phone, for the famous Budweiser advert during the superbowl...derives into a crew of 3-5 people shouting AAAAAAAAAAAZZZAAA into their phones, oddly. That was cute ....
However this is about enabling through lying. In one ADVERT it makes a Manager believe an Employee is more engaged than they truly are, rewriting their unprofessional language using the new "Professional" button, reasonably leading to a future misallocation of resources by the manager to the irresponsible seemingly under-skilled or simply lazy unethical employee.
What's worse is the people who are NOT using Apple products to lie. The Employees who did not lie about their grip on written language now have to compete with AI, wielded by their ill-behaved coworker. It stratifies society into Idiocracy.
This is a TERRIFYING series of advertisements chosen by Apple.
Signaling through speaking will become even more important. Get thy children to debate club, seminar-based classes (hope you're rich!), theater, and hell, I dunno, ToastMasters Junior or whatever.
But millions of people have been using Grammarly, et al. for this for years. Managers have actually paid to deploy tools like this to their employees. The ship you're talking about has already sailed.
Further, it’s pretty clear from the watching the commercial that the boss is not fooled by this. The humor of the commercial is supposed to derive from the absolute contrast between the well established and known behavior of the employee and the content of their email. Humor doesn’t always land for everyone to be sure but this sounds like the same sort of handwringing over tech replacing human effort we’ve seen for years. Calculators would let people bad at math sneak their way into jobs where you need math, IDEs will let people bad at coding sneak their way into places where you need to code. Now it’s “ai grammar editing” will allow people bad at writing professionally sneak into places where they need to edit professionally.
But generally, yes the uses aren't there. In the Apple AI video, the worst is that the 'more professional' text, actually reads much less professional.
If someone in a business situation sends you an AI generated email (and it's obviously AI it's so easy to tell) it makes it seem like they are unable to write English properly, giving the opposite impression than intended.
Like other attempts at AI wearables like the Rabbit and Humane pins, I think that falls under "maybe useful but why wouldn't I just do the same thing with the phone that I'm carrying anyway".
Yes AI algorithms are behind it, but hardly something new to brag about in 2024.
The original text is:
> Hey J,
> Been thinking, this project might need a bit of zhuhzing. But you're the big enchilada.
> Holler back
followed by the sender's first name in lower case surrounded by flexed bicep emoji.
The AI rewritten text keeps the "Hey J,". It changes the rest to
> Upon further consideration, I believe this project may require some refinement. However, you are the most capable individual to undertake this task.
> Please let me know your thoughts.
> Best regards,
followed by the sender's first name capitalized and with no emoji.
I don't see how the second could be considered less professional than the first.
From the other comments here it seems like some people may be seeing different ads when they follow the links, possibly depending on their location. The text above is what was in the ad I get to from the link in the article. Are you getting something different?
“no big deal. get it done. steve”
Personally Ive been enjoying wearing my Ray Bans for the past year and have used them to do things no other glasses can like...
- Translate.... was in Canada recently and a sign about Jasper the town i was in was in French. I asked Meta to translate it... it took a pic and audibly translated it for me.
- Was in Harpers Ferry WV on an overlook ..looking down into the town of Harpers Ferry which has a huge church which i have no idea it's name yet ask Meta what church is that over there. Took a pic and told me.
- Was in line at HersheyPark up on a platform and my friend wondered how many people you think are in line so i asked Meta and it took a pic and gave me an estimate.
https://youtu.be/zvbTDUSz8Cc?si=IdlMNjydYgbZH_6n
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Why not highlight those in the ad rather than the useless stuff?
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We've been working with it for over a year now and I'm of the mind that AI, in it's current state, really isn't a tool meant for an end user to interact with.
It feels like it's the most useful when it's transparent and you -- as an end user -- don't know that there's an LLM in the process. The best use cases seem to be those that don't require an end consumer to directly interact with an AI, but their journey through some process is assisted by an AI instead.
The problem is that a lot of the marketing -- like these examples and Google's very misguided "Write me a letter" to an Olympian -- exists because companies keep trying to make "fetch" happen; the AI becomes the journey instead of being an assistant in that journey.
Amazon's Rufus is a prime example. It's tucked away as a button that one has to activate explicitly. But it would almost be better if it could just clean up the search results when I do a search and a bunch of junk is returned.
I think being aspirational with AI can feel a bit in-humane. A lot of people seeing this experience a bit of cringe when the topic of AI is brought up. Maybe they’re worried about their job, that technology is too pervasive - whatever it is, they’re uncomfortable. It’s an easier pill to swallow if I can laugh at it. Apple seems to be picking up on that in these ads.
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The use case our startup is working is one more that I think really works well: why are you showing me these results?
Our product basically takes any search output and uses our internal knowledge graph for our clients to "explain" to the customer "why these results for this query/question?"
We use the same knowledge graph to then extend our client's native search results with much more relevant results using the LLM to better match results to the semantic intent of the question.
It's all quite nifty and transparent; the user wouldn't know that there's an AI involved without labeling it as AI generated.
Like, that's actually useful but probably not super sexy.
What does the Ubuntu ad say to the user? How does it capture someone’s attention? None of the ad tells me why this is something worth paying attention to versus other distros or OSs, it doesn’t even tell me it’s about the OS at all unless I already know what Ubuntu is.
Contrast with the Apple ads that tell you exactly what they want in the same time frame. Apple ads have always been tongue in cheek, and have always had a portion of people rubbed the wrong way because they took it too literally.
But at the end of the day, barring the few missteps like the crush ad, they seem to work for the target audience.
I find a lot of technical folk seem to struggle with “I don’t like it therefore it must be bad” and would have failed basically any media analysis class in college as a result. Similarly, the author falls into the “I like Ubuntu and this ad” and hasn’t stopped to think about how it plays to anyone but himself. It’s a really self centered outlook and one that means they’d never be able to market to others.
The people in these new ads are lame and clearly Apple intends to portray them as lame.
Even back then they had the Mac vs PC or a variety of other ads too that weren’t “cool” but were funny. Tongue in cheek ads have been in their DNA since forever.
Take for example the new Mac mini ad which is cute
https://youtu.be/JjpGvjy0Gxk?si=Gk1cU80FiJX2KYbC
Or just scrolling through their YouTube channel now to find a few over the years
Find your Friends https://youtu.be/yk6UVnMn9ts?si=UIqblUwbbONPFyRR
The Greatest https://youtu.be/8sX9IEHWRJ8?si=NhRVcMZyOlU7-PfC
HomePod ( probably my favorite of the bunch. Directed by Spike Jonze, starring FKA Twigs. Imho one of the best ads they’ve done) https://youtu.be/k70OczvX45k?si=4cKP63L4UwdP1vaW
AirPod pros https://youtu.be/DpcXUXtZ4CU?si=AqWofXEOu7ejTCA0
One could argue that they’ve not had anything as iconic as the silhouette commercial. I’d agree with that, but I disagree with the position that their ads today don’t show cool people or that ads back then didn’t show “lame” people.
Exactly. Contrary to the article, it doesn't tell a story at all. It's just some slick-ish graphics with a few words overlayed on top. They're nice words. But they didn't really embrace "show, don't tell".
Try watching the iPhone ads assuming you don't know what Apple does nor what an iPhone is. They make absolutely no sense.
Ads are targeted at a market, and these in particular assume some degree of familiarity. I guess the Ubuntu one in particular is to celebrate the 20 years, so it's a different vibe from a sheer call to action spot.
Also since you bring up familiarity, does that Ubuntu ad tell you which version it’s about? What’s it telling even a seasoned Ubuntu veteran?
And lastly, there’s a much larger percent of the population that knows what an iPhone is but even if they didn’t, it’s in the name. The ads end with iPhone, by Apple and show the product.
Based on that ad, what is Ubuntu? A desktop? An OS? A computer company?
While watching those ads i considered a kids perspective. It bugs bunny looney tunes stuff. Its silly, cartoonish, and sticky. Its a very good ad.
Side-point: imagine if this clearly cartoonish ad did encourage "cheating at life". whats the downside? Those people are still putting in as much effort as they would have regardless. only now maybe they have read an example of a good email or a summary which could encourage them to learn more later. or maybe its just fun having a world where lazy people are trying to skate by a la The Dude
That Ubuntu commercial left me with a weird akwardness, not knowing what or who it was for. It said "For you", which was the best part and I think it means I am in control of things, but that message might be lost with everybody not familiar with IT/Linux/Open Source. I don't know what certificates it was talking about though.
If I showed that video to someone who isn't steeped in decades of Linux, I suspect they'd ask me what an Ubuntu is. As compared to the "schlub writes an email" video, which was compelling, funny, and actually shows the product they're marketing.
OP is right, though. What you're calling "compelling" and "funny" seems very much also like messages telling you to that it's ok to lie to everyone around you including your family and friends. That's not a funny message to me. It's an appalling one.
That person is already lying about stuff. We've all done it.
I think the real indictment against Apple (and AI more broadly) is that this is the best use case for their supposedly revolutionary technology that they could come up with.
Eh, "lovable but lazy dumbass forgot something and has to lie their way out of it" is a pretty standard trope of boomer sitcom humour.
Just imagine these ads, but the person using AI was Homer Simpson.
Short form: I made an Advertisement in AI, I promote it by making shitting all over Apple (get more viewership using Apple) and then finish off to say I watched my own video in amazement 5 times.
What a beautiful self promotional world we live in.
I do think that Apple's "white lies" series of ads are awkward, however. Apple has seemingly paused ads around privacy and security and are now targeting Apple Intelligence - they seem to be somewhat at opposite ends of the target market in a way.
It does feel as though Apple is conflicted here and I'm curious to see how it plays out for them. I'm, personally not a fan of the current generation or implementation of AI and do not want to use it. If AI could hook apps for more hands free operations at a deeper level I could see usability improvements for hands free environments which might be nice. Beyond that I really don't want it.
Why not? It gives vastly better than human performance across a wide range of problems. Just this morning I asked Chat GPT to find me the smallest set of positive integers whose median is 2 and whose average is 3.75, and it just spit out the correct answer instantly. That would have been an enormous pain in the ass to figure out how to do manually, but instead I got it done while in the middle of packing my kids' lunches for school.
...the target audience, it wouldn't work. Same with the AI stuff.
Show that to someone with no understanding of Apple and it's products, or AI, and you'll have someone equally confused.
The understanding here is that in both cases the marketing is targeted at a certain group.
More interestingly, you admit that one story promotes interest in the product, while the other promotes the viewer being, as you put it, a schlub.
Maybe you can explain why you being a schlub is better than wanting to learn more about a product (or how quickly you try to pretend like that's not what you mean/said and move the goal post, lol)?
Apple is selling a magical button that unprofessional idiots can press to be perceived as professional. Who in the world is going to be confused by that?
That video specifically: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m0MoYKwVTM
I find the hypothetical universe where that guy is going to get anywhere good suggesting what his boss should “undertake” unbelievable. (Also not a good demo).
And we’ve been in this GPT world nearly 2 years. The boss is obviously supposed to be smart, he’s a black guy in a suit after all. Is this the first time he’s ever received something that was obviously from an AI. What’s he confused about?
Ironically, you're doing the same thing as the actor in the skit - pretending to be confused, for effect.
Obviously, the boss is used to receiving unprofessional responses from the employee in question. Obviously, the boss is thrown as a result. Obviously, this is a contrived situation for the purpose of humor that in real life wouldn't go like this.
The messaging that AI is for lying is another big yikes. Apple marketing department has lost the magic.
After a while it feels like crying wolf...
On the other side of the coin of more widespread and continuous monitoring is always the concerns of increasing false positives
I'm not sure how else they advertise that now your Apple devices replace OnStar and Life Alert, than advertising kinda the same way that those did (but less lame, hopefully).
Is there a specific advertisement you're referring to here, or just all apple watch advertisements? I haven't really seen any ads for the apple watch, and I am curious if this is an exaggeration.
I'm assuming by "literally" you meant "metaphorically", but I'd like to look up which ad you are referencing to get an idea of what you mean.
Edit: I've watched the ads. They are not in great taste, in my opinion, however they also did not tell me I would literally die if I don't buy an Apple Watch.
Or a similar crash detection feature in iPhone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWBFF9R3VmU / https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsAL36M8bwE
I think they are correct in their use of "literally".
https://youtu.be/8C4Sb9TpfM4?si=39Os2aBHL1mpSygy
The Apple ads are dystopian and revulsive. She really pulls out her phone while talking to a person and then lies to her face. A wife and mother forgets dad's birthday and smugly "gifts" him 50 auto-playing photos, as shown on her phone screen?
Ads tell you what the company thinks about it's target audience and clearly Apple thinks we're all just a bunch of bumbling fools that can't do anything without our phones.
Compared to this Samsung Galaxy S24 FE, which frames everything as something that can help you out and is fun and quirky: https://youtu.be/GZ-xGBTvtO4
I've been using Mac as my workhorse my entire career, switched from Android to iPhone recently. These ads are actually making me reconsider what my next hardware upgrades are going to be.
He's out of line, but he's right.
Maybe the ad people tried to come up with relatively palatable ones?
Note that no one is cheating on their school homework, which is a huge consumer use case category. And no creative work was detectably plagiarized (art, code). Though they still did do employment slacking/incompetence gaining advantage, by increasing deceptive and time-wasting noise for everyone else.
Or maybe that's the actual use cases of their target audience?
For a second I forgot where I was, and thought she'd be found out, then remembered it's an ad, and everyone is impressed.
Maybe the image is actually related to the woodworking? But I couldn't help but think, "that's about right - a random, ill-fitting photo"
What's funny is that google photos sorta makes these sort of random little videos all the time for you and asks if you want to see them. It also suffers from the issue of not really understanding the context from some of the pictures it pulls in. But this is a thing that's been around for a few years, like a lot of things, apple is late to the game but pretending they invented it.