Linked List: May 8, 2024

Wednesday, 8 May 2024

Mark Gurman, writing at Bloomberg, posits that John Ternus might be the leading candidate to succeed Tim Cook as CEO:

“Tim likes him a lot, because he can give a good presentation, he’s very mild-mannered, never puts anything into an email that is controversial and is a very reticent decision-maker,” says one person close to Apple’s executive team. “He has a lot of managerial characteristics like Tim.” Christopher Stringer, a former top Apple hardware designer, called Ternus a “trustworthy hand” who’s “never failed with any role he’s been elevated to.” Eddy Cue, the Apple executive known as Cook’s closest confidant, has privately told colleagues that Ternus should be the next CEO, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

I wouldn’t have linked to this if not for the above line about Eddy Cue. If Cue is telling people that, that means a lot. No executive at Apple is more juiced-in company-wide than Cue. Cook’s first action as CEO was to promote Cue, and Cue was arguably just as tight with and trusted by Steve Jobs.

Apple’s ‘Crush’ Ad for the New iPad Pros Is, Well, Getting Crushed ★

Todd Spangler, writing for Variety:

An Apple commercial for the new iPad Pro tablet showing an industrial press literally crushing a TV, musical instruments, books and more ignited an angry backlash among many in Hollywood and other creative industries.

The ad, titled “Crush!”, shows an array of various objects — including a record player, a piano, a guitar, an old TV set, cameras, a typewriter, books, paint cans and a classic arcade game machine — getting compressed into (voila!) the new iPad Pro. The spot is soundtracked to Sonny and Cher’s “All I Ever Need Is You.”

But the ad has been interpreted more as a visual depiction of the tech industry’s devastation of cultural industries. “The destruction of the human experience. Courtesy of Silicon Valley,” actor Hugh Grant commented on X.

Personally, I didn’t think twice about this spot when it ran during the keynote yesterday. I didn’t love it, but I didn’t hate it either. I sort of like seeing things get smashed, run over, or, best of all, dropped from rooftops, and that’s really all I took from it at the moment. But a lot of people find the spot unpleasant, if not downright disturbing, not because they’re bothered by seeing stuff get smushed but because of the implied message. To wit, as Grant quipped, that technology not only replaces analog instruments and objects of artistic expression, but destroys them.

Thought about that way, it’s clearly a mistake — the vivisection of technology and liberal arts.

The best response is this “fixed it for you” version from filmmaker Reza Sixo Safai, simply running the commercial backwards (and choosing a better Sonny and Cher song). Same message, but emphasizing creation rather than destruction.

‘Slop’ as a Neologism for Mindlessly Spewed AI-Generated Content ★

Simon Willison:

I’m a big proponent of LLMs as tools for personal productivity, and as software platforms for building interesting applications that can interact with human language.

But I’m increasingly of the opinion that sharing unreviewed content that has been artificially generated with other people is rude.

Slop is the ideal name for this anti-pattern.

Not all promotional content is spam, and not all AI-generated content is slop. But if it’s mindlessly generated and thrust upon someone who didn’t ask for it, slop is the perfect term for it.

Endorsed.

Marvel Studios Announces ‘What If…? — An Immersive Story’, Exclusively for Vision Pro ★

Marvel:

Marvel Studios and ILM Immersive announce What If…? — An Immersive Story, the first-ever interactive Disney+ Original story coming exclusively to Apple Vision Pro. Fans will be invited to step inside the Multiverse like never before and have the chance to dive into an immersive, narrative-driven and innovative story in mixed reality. Connected to the critically acclaimed Disney+ Original animated series What If…?, Marvel.com was given a first look at the hour-long experience, diving into what fans can expect when it is released soon as a new app for Apple Vision Pro.

WSJ: Apple Is Developing AI Chips for Data Centers ★

Aaron Tilley and Yang Jie, reporting for The Wall Street Journal (News+):

Apple has been working on its own chip designed to run artificial-intelligence software in data-center servers, a move that has the potential to give the company an advantage in the AI arms race.

Over the past decade, Apple has emerged as a leading player designing chips for iPhones, iPads, Apple Watch and Mac computers. The server project, which is internally code-named Project ACDC — for Apple Chips in Data Center — will bring this talent to bear for the company’s servers, according to people familiar with the matter.

Project ACDC has been in the works for several years and it is uncertain when the new chip will be unveiled, if ever.

Another rebuttal to the whole “Apple is behind on AI” discourse. Apple is just doing things their own way, at their own pace, and they’re not going to talk about any of it in advance. Custom chip development is slow, expensive, and indicates an extreme commitment.

As for the “ACDC” codename, if I didn’t know any better, I’d half wonder if Jim Dalrymple took a job on Apple’s silicon team.