Apple AI Better Be Baller

Meanwhile, Robinhood gets into the credit card game and the Instagram co-founders might not shut down their side project after all.

Author

Adam Hardej
March 27, 2024

Unless Tim Cook announces that he’s a robot I don’t see how WWDC can be anything besides a let down. Ship freaking AI Siri for god’s sake. This is getting ridiculous. Meanwhile, Robinhood gets into the credit card game and the Instagram co-founders might not shut down their side project after all.

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Apple announces its big annual conference, where it could reveal its AI strategy

“Cook said Apple was “investing significantly” in AI and teased an AI-related announcement “later this year” that many analysts believe will come at the Worldwide Developers Conference.”

Robinhood’s new credit card goes after Apple Card with ability to invest cash-back perks

“Gold Card users can earn 3% cash back on all categories, including restaurants and groceries, and 5% cash bank when booking travel at Robinhood’s new travel portal. That cash back can be transferred to brokerage accounts, which can go toward making investments like stock purchases, the company says”

Instagram co-founders’ AI-powered news app Artifact may not be shutting down after all

“It takes a lot less to run it than we had imagined,” Systrom confirmed to TechCrunch, adding that it’s just himself and Krieger running Artifact right now. “It will still likely go away, but we’re exploring all possible routes for it going forward.” (Perhaps an exit deal is at hand?)'

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I’m not sure how this is relevant yet, but I feel like it will be somehow.

Letters From The Editor

Misc. (short for miscellaneous)

Apple AI Strategy

The reality here is that they don’t have to lead. If they launch something comparable to GPT-4 that’s native to my iPhone, it’s going to get used. Given their complete ownership of distribution there I can see why they’re not out trying new things. Might as well wait for other people to spend the money experimenting and screwing up. It’s not very exciting, but I guess it’s good business.

Unless they do launch something and it sucks. In which case, Apple is just a monopoly that can’t innovate and doesn’t have to.

Part of me hopes that figure it out and we all get great AI on our iPhones in a way that’s better than me opening the GPT app. The other part of me wants them to be exposed as a very well designed and well lit monopoly that caught resting on their lead.

Robinhood Credit Card

I’m not a points/reward nerd so honestly I don’t really care that they launched a new card. Generally, new credit card schemes always strike me as a pure cash grab and the idea of using the word “innovation” or “disruptive” in/around the launch is a disservice to stuff that actually moves the needle.

I saw someone on Twitter say something along the lines of “This is awesome. I’m not sure how they make the numbers work, but I love it.” and it struck me as pretty naive. It’s like not understanding how you pay for free social media. They make the numbers work by sneakily making more money off of you. You’re the product. Maybe Ken is involved. Probably.

I’m not anti-credit cards. I’m just anti sneaky monetization.

Poll Results - Microsoft Avoids Regulation - Vol. 2

Are you surprised Microsoft is able to get away with their dominance of AI while other Big Tech cos get sued?

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Yes (18)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ No (10)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Not sure (5)

Led the witness here a bit with the wording of this question. Also, I’m not sure I’m “surprised” considering this generally seems to be the way the game is played.

Talk soon,
Adam

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