AI needs Apple, which is why time is on its side

Apple was behind on smartphones, until it wasn’t. It lagged the crowd in digital music players, until it didn’t. There was a time when it was woeful on wearables, until it that changed. It’s the same old story when it comes to Apple Intelligence, which critics say lags behind the industry; eventually, it won’t.

Think back a little longer than the Overton-allotted three news-cycles we are allowed to recollect these days, and you’ll see that in each of the above examples, Apple didn’t go for the industry jugular until it had a solution that did the job. The iPhone wasn’t Apple’s first phone; the iPod wasn’t the first excursion into music (pre-digital Apple had the Apple CD SC in ’87); and much in mobile harkens to the iconic Apple Newton (including Apple Intelligence). 

Do bang the drum

But success is about hitting the drums when the audience is most prepared to dance to the beat. And while some of the most vocal AI proponents on social media seem to think the technology is going to save the world, the vast majority of humans haven’t quite begun tapping toes to this tune. 

Hundreds of millions of people (i.e. humanity) who fear for their way of life, employment prospects, and the effort they’ve invested in their own and their children’s education may be threatened by AI, so they’re less enthused about the arrival of this new tech. They want to adopt these AI toys slowly and deliberately and aren’t at all inclined to move fast and break things — because they know, in essence, they are the “things” that will be broke. 

Like any good DJ, you have to read the floor. With that in mind, perhaps it matters less that Apple is allegedly behind some of its starry-eyed AI competitors? ChatGPT being 25% more accurate than Siri today might be a challenge, but it can be overcome.

Perhaps it’s actually best for Cupertino to move slowly with cool tools while letting others run headlong into regulation, litigation, and rejection by a humans that no longer believe technology can save us. 

What do they want?

While it is arguable that Apple’s high-risk strategy to market its new devices primarily on their capacity to run a tech that isn’t even shipping yet could be the equivalent of playing Milli Vanilli at a Taylor Swift party, Apple’s history shows it often plays the tunes its audience doesn’t even know its hungry to hear. So, what does the audience want? 

More specifically, what doesn’t it want to hear (other than Milli Vanilli)? 

A recent Stagwell National Research group survey tells us:

• 31% of Americans are concerned that there is too much AI-generated content on social media.
• 30% of people fret that AI might make decisions without consent.
• 30% are concerned about the impact of AI on personal data and privacy.
• 28% are worried AI makes it easier to spread misinformation.
• 27% think AI will be used and abused by criminals and fraudsters.
• 75% of people think apps should tell us when they use AI.
• 28% of users are put off by ads for smartphones with AI.
• 60% of smartphone users have already used an AI solution
• Men are more likely to purchase an AI smartphone than women.

There’s lots of other insights, and all of them challenge the gold rush toward wholesale adoption of AI tech in daily life. Consumers want this rush to be led by a credible company. 

They want a guide they can trust. Maybe Apple is that guide?

A guide to trust in AI

The company’s years-long commitments to security and privacy, and its decades of high consumer satisfaction mean it has that ethos — that credibility — to help guide the mass market to a more trusting embrace of AI. Apple has achieved this before — consider how global mobile payment leader Apple Pay managed to build trust even though many were suspicious of digital money when it was introduced.

It is the same when it comes to AI. People will resist being rushed at breakneck speed to an uncertain future led by unaccountable billionaire’s making nebulous “commitments” to some undefined “responsible” AI. They want the tech to also deliver trust.

Maybe that need for trust is why OpenAI agreed not to gather user data in order to win Apple’s Apple Intelligence integration deal? Perhaps Apple’s decision to create a circle of trust within which AI can be used while delivering highly specific services where it thinks it can make a difference matches the mood music people are hungry for. At Apple’s core, the fighter still remains. Let’s hope it does not squander consumer resistance on pockets full of mumbled promises.

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