Blackwhitepanda

avon b7 said:

All hands meetings are never a good sign.

This particular one simply cements what many have thought about Apple's AI efforts:

It was behind, late to reveal, and is struggling to deliver. 

Management changes, key members of staff leaving the company, and lately, evermore commentary on all of its AI failings.

Now, it is also very likely that staff morale is low and dissent within ranks is possibly rising. I believe that Gruber's piece simply gave a voice to the group within Apple that was dissenting. 

That is what probably led to this 'pep talk'.

Comments like this seem very out of place in mid 2025:

"Employees should push to deploy AI tools faster, and urge their managers and service and support teams to do the same". 

That would have been more appropriate four or five years. 

It's a bit of a mystery as to why Tim thinks AI is 'sort of' theirs to grab. Again, that would have been fine four or five years ago so it was wrapped up in the 'Apple is rarely first' nonsense and sidestepping the fact that everybody else is obviously already grabbing it. 

If that was the case there would literally be no need for an all hands meeting in the first place. It would be business as usual. Simply wait and deliver when fully baked. Clearly, something is very different here. 

Now, as the pieces slowly fall into place, we are seeing a picture that doesn't look great. 

After the original LLM AI fluster was out of the stalls, Apple chose to deliberately avoid using the term. 

The AVP was then 'pre-announced' (very unusual for Apple), possibly as a means of distraction. 

When AI was finally announced and branded as 'Apple Intelligence' it wasn't actually delivered. Also unusual. 

When it did finally start rolling out it was lacking. It still is. 

The cherry on the cake was possibly having to publicly delay the new AI Siri. 

Of course Gruber's piece probably hit hard with some Apple executives. 

I'm no fan of his but I applaud him for saying what he thought (with the 'risks' involved) and give him credit for very possibly speaking out on behalf of Apple employees who are effectively gagged. 

Years into the future all of this will no doubt become clearer as people within Apple begin to reflect on this period. I'm sure it's turbulent times within the walls of Apple Park. 


Apple is now saying that AI is possibly bigger than anything that came before. That realisation would have been better a decade ago. If they had realise then perhaps they would have been further ahead than they currently are and this situation could have been avoided. 

avon b7 said:

The US, or more specifically, certain China Hawks within the US administration, are in a permanent state if paranoia with everything 'China'.

Yes, some elements of technology will be dual use. That has always been the case. It will always be the case. It's time to get over it. 

Nearly six years after the Huawei ban, the Pentagon is still applying for waivers (and getting them) because it cannot adequately source technology without Huawei being somewhere in its supply chain.

Yet, as soon as the US gets a sniff of an 'ally' using technology it deems risky, all hell breaks loose and the threats come flying in. 

Just look at the noise created over Spain's use of Huawei's OceanStor systems for wiretap storage.

It would be far better if the US took a more pragmatic approach with a large dose of common sense before the paranoia leads to even more silly decisions like the Nvidia H20 ban which seems to have finally been walked back after Jensen made a very level headed argument against it, even though Huawei A3 (Cloud Matrix all optical) SuperPoDs have now hit the market to compete with Nvidia's best offerings so the damage was already done.

And now to top it all off, China is fighting fire with fire by giving the US a taste of its own medicine by questioning the security of Nvidia chips. 

Jensen must be fuming by the damage done to his business by US policy.