Decoding Apple/Meta Earnings Commentary
The future of products is intelligent, personalized, and invisible.
Hello readers!
I’m Khuze Siam. You are reading This Week in Products (TWIP for short) - the rebranded version of Siam Sixers, my weekly newsletter on all things products.
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🔍Decoding Apple/Meta Earnings Commentary
The future of products is intelligent, personalized, and invisible.
I strongly believe that technology can never operate in silos. The true potential of any technology is realized when it is put to work in a system that solves a problem.
My belief was validated during Meta's Q1 earnings call when Mark Zuckerberg expressed his views on the interconnectedness of artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR).
Zuckerberg said, “In addition to our work on AI, our other long-term focus is the metaverse. It’s been interesting to see how these two themes have come together.”
🕶️He was referring to the the recently launched Ray-Ban glasses powered by ‘Meta AI with Vision’, which allow users to ask questions and get answers about their surroundings, showcasing the potential of GenAI integration into wearables.
“This is clearest when you look at glasses. I used to think that AR glasses wouldn’t really be a mainstream product until we had full holographic displays, and I still think that will be awesome and is a mature state of the product. But now it seems pretty clear that there’s also a meaningful market for fashionable AI glasses without a display. Glasses are the ideal device for an AI assistant because you can let them see what you see and hear what you hear, so they have full context on what’s going on around you as they help you with whatever you’re trying to do. Our launch this week of Meta AI with Vision on the Glasses is a good example where you can now ask questions about things you’re looking at.”
💡Zuckerberg asserts that Meta AI, powered by Llama 3, is now the most intelligent AI assistant that one can freely use.
“The 8B and 70B parameter models that we released are best-in-class for their scale. The 400+B parameter model that we're still training seems on track to be industry-leading on several benchmarks. And I expect that our models are just going to improve further from open source contributions.”
Reflecting on these developments, I realize that it’s the AI assistants that are making the ‘metaverse’ or the wider extended reality universe a compelling place to be in and easier for users to get started, which until a couple of years ago was proving difficult to achieve.
Apple, not to be left behind, is also taking a similar approach.
Even though Tim Cook remains tight-lipped to investors’ questions about when, if, and how GenAI assistants would make it to Vision Pro headsets, it’s easy to guess it would be sooner rather than later.
Here’s Cook’s commentary during Apple’s earnings conference call.
“We continue to feel very bullish about our opportunity in generative AI. We are making significant investments, and we're looking forward to sharing some very exciting things with our customers soon. We believe in the transformative power and promise of AI, and we believe we have advantages that will differentiate us in this new era, including Apple's unique combination of seamless hardware, software, and services integration, groundbreaking Apple's silicon, with our industry-leading neural engines and our unwavering focus on privacy, which underpins everything we create,” Cook said to investors.
I suspect what Cook means here is that Apple is secretly cooking up a supercharged Siri for all its devices including the Vision Pro.
When it comes, the AI assistant will be packaged in Apple’s fully integrated closed model, where their hardware, software, and services work together as one.
For Apple, getting to a better Siri means making those models as fast as possible and making sure they’re everywhere. And it’s no secret that in iOS 18, Apple also plans to have all its AI features run on an on-device, fully offline model.
But if you want to see the biggest, most ambitious AI thing going on at Apple, you need to know about Ferret.
Ferret is a multi-modal large language model that can take instructions, focus on something specific you’ve circled or otherwise selected, and understand the world around it.
🚀Ferret is the future Siri that can understand what you want, can be paired with a device that can see and understand everything that’s happening on your display, and is a phone that can literally use itself!
It’s designed for the AI use case of asking a device about the world around you, but it might also be able to understand what’s on your screen, help you navigate apps, answer questions about App Store ratings, describe what you’re looking at, and more.
This has really exciting implications for accessibility but could also completely change the way you use your phone, your Vision Pro and/or smart glasses if Apple builds one someday.
We’re getting way ahead of ourselves here, but you can imagine how this would work with some of the other stuff Apple is working on.
The Dawn of a New Product Era
Just like the first smartphones ushered in a wave of app development, the convergence of AI and VR promises a new explosion of product innovation.
Here's what product leaders and developers should be thinking about while designing products for the AR future:
🎯Personalized Experiences: AI excels at understanding individual needs and preferences. Imagine products that adapt to your user’s behavior, predict desires, and curate meaningful experiences. This could be anything from a fitness tracker that personalizes workouts based on a user’s goals and fitness level to a travel app that recommends destinations they'll truly love.
📱Frictionless Interaction: AI assistants like the ones discussed will become ubiquitous, anticipating our needs and completing tasks proactively. Imagine a world where your smart home adjusts the temperature as you walk in the door, or your car pre-programs the navigation system based on your calendar.
👁️The Rise of the ‘Invisible’ Interface: VR and AR promise to eliminate the need for physical buttons and screens altogether. Even everyday products will become more intuitive and responsive to voice commands, gestures, and eye movements.
💡Focus on Value Creation: As AI handles the mundane, product developers will be freed to focus on creating truly innovative and valuable experiences. Think products that solve complex problems, enhance creativity, or even blur the lines between the physical and digital worlds.
This is just the tip of the iceberg.
Remember, the future of products is intelligent, personalized, and invisible.
So, if you are a product leader, you should be asking yourself:
How can AI personalize the user experience for my product?
Can VR or AR enhance the way people interact with my product?
What invisible interfaces could make my product more seamless and intuitive?
How can I leverage AI to create a product that solves a real problem or fills a unique need?
Answering these questions will keep you prepared for the virtual world that BigTech is building for us.
📺Bonus: Hear what Mark thinks about Llama 3, Legacy, Metaverse & More
Watch this video where Mark Zuckerberg discusses the advancements of Meta AI, specifically Llama 3, which he considers the most intelligent AI for free use. He also discusses the development of Meta's AI wearables, the Ray-Ban smart glasses, and his vision of a full field-of-view hologram experience in the metaverse.
Zuckerberg is excited about the future of neural interfaces and controlling devices with neural signals. He reflects on his legacy and focuses on living and building, while also sharing his personal experiences outside of Meta and AI, including his injury during MMA training and his admiration for Conor McGregor.
I hope you enjoyed this week's curated stories and resources. Check your inbox again next week, or read previous editions of this newsletter for more insights. To get instant updates, connect with me on LinkedIn.
Cheers!
Khuze Siam
Founder: Siam Computing & ProdWrks