Apple Shuffles AI Executive Ranks in Bid to Turn Around Siri

Re:Apple Shuffles AI Executive Ranks in Bid to Turn Around Siri by Spivak on Friday March 21, 2025 @09:38AM (#43435561)

Do people really think stuff like this makes you look cool? It's super cringe. The only way you get away with being that stupid and that much of an asshole to a room of adults is by being the CEO. This isn't some insightful observation, if the phone was waterproof the demo would have just looked silly as it sank despite having available room. Why did you even ask the question if you already decided the answer?

The engineers know that the phone isn't literally a solid brick of electronics and "can't be made smaller" is normal human speak for "can't be made smaller without time and money we don't have to do it." The smart thing would have been just saying he wanted the iPhone to be smaller, money and resources is no object and we're willing to dedicate time/people to this project to get proposals put together.

Jobs was very good at his… uhh job but stuff like this isn't an example of it.

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Re:Apple Shuffles AI Executive Ranks in Bid to Turn Around Siri by basisword on Friday March 21, 2025 @10:14AM (#43435965)

>> "can't be made smaller without time and money we don't have to do it."

If the CEO is telling you it is important to him, then he's telling you he'll give you the resources. Telling him it "can't be made smaller" when you admit it can is silly.

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Re:Apple Shuffles AI Executive Ranks in Bid to Turn Around Siri by viraptor on Friday March 21, 2025 @11:53AM (#43437133)

Either extreme is silly. A serious answer is: "if it's a priority, we'll produce estimates for size-vs-cost". Resources are never infinite, reasonable options are not always available. "just do it", "can't be done" is just cringe linkedin style drama.

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Re:Apple Shuffles AI Executive Ranks in Bid to Turn Around Siri by kccqzy on Friday March 21, 2025 @11:18AM (#43436720)

> The smart thing would have been just saying he wanted the iPhone to be smaller, money and resources is no object and we're willing to dedicate time/people to this project to get proposals put together.

That's just bland business-speak. Jobs had a knack for illustrating things in unexpected ways and this was it. I have no doubt that whoever saw the fish tank thing had the same takeaway as if Jobs simply said he wanted the iPhone to be smaller and there would be resources dedicated to it.

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Re:Apple Shuffles AI Executive Ranks in Bid to Turn Around Siri by freeamz on Friday March 21, 2025 @09:54AM (#43435744)

Not sure if he did it, but from what I heard from friends who worked with him, wouldn't be surprised if he did. Really love the guy as someone who combined creativity and tech, but these kind of things is one of least things I liked about him. It is one these Trumpisuqe quality playing hard ball, etc. Very US business like tend to be very off putting.

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Re:Apple Shuffles AI Executive Ranks in Bid to Turn Around Siri by rchaud on Friday March 21, 2025 @11:53AM (#43437140)

The Isaacson biography has a section where Jobs speaks to the CEO of Corning (glass screen vendor, CEO was a materials engineer) with absolute Trumpian ignorance ("You don't know what you're doing!"). Corning wanted the business and thus had to coddle him like a baby to get him to see reality.

It's tragic that so many business leaders in the US see this kind of bloviating as something to emulate. Reminds me of Altman telling TSMC to gear up to spend $7tn on fabs and them just snickering about his cluelessness [0].

[0] https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/tsmc-execs-allege...

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Re:Apple Shuffles AI Executive Ranks in Bid to Turn Around Siri by kthomson on Friday March 21, 2025 @12:50PM (#43438003)

Except this led to Corning repurposing a Kentucky plant and ramping manufacturing to meet the original iPhone launch. And Weeks (Corning CEO) has publicly praised Steve for helping him better assess risk as a leader.

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Re:Apple Shuffles AI Executive Ranks in Bid to Turn Around Siri by rchaud on Friday March 21, 2025 @03:43PM (#43440082)

Hence the 'coddled like a baby' portion of my comment. Zuckerberg, Cook and US tech leadership are doing the same to government currently, and chucking in $1 million each for good measure.

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Re:Apple Shuffles AI Executive Ranks in Bid to Turn Around Siri by Spivak on Friday March 21, 2025 @02:26PM (#43439326)

Well yeah, this kind of ass-kissing is what is expected of you if you want to keep their business. Our great leader is so wise and insightful. I don't doubt that Weeks could take some lessons from Jobs in the areas of business he was actually good at.

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