ijeffApple may be quiet on AI, but it’s also the biggest buyer of AI companies
Apple may be quiet on AI, but it’s also the biggest buyer of AI companies - Lemdro.id
Cross-posted from [email protected] [/c/[email protected]]
rivermonsterWe need to spend the next 3-4 decades breaking up all these monoplies and duopolies. And then not allow it again, since this will be the second time we’ve had to do this.
AatubeHow do you not "allow" it? I'm pretty sure we also had to break things up during the gilded age?
The state has the power to prevent mergers, the problem is that courts have been captured and half of the time the governments are run by people that are perfectly fine with neo-feudalism.
These startups just wouldn’t exist at all then.
They start up with the intention of being bought out by a bigger fish.
Not a loss. You can make an AI startup with the goal of being profitable yourself.
You can, but it’s not what people generally do. Not have they since the web was created. Starting a website or tech startup to get bought out has been a thing since at least the dot com bubble.
So what you’re saying is that it’s a win for everyone except some borderline scammers then?
I think the current startup scene leads to some pretty perverse incentives, as we’ve seen. However, I agree with you, and something needs to fill the void. A number of these startups have a very hard to no path to profitability but the ideas they come up with and execute on aren’t happening at larger corps.
I think maybe with less of a monopoly/duopoly/etc we can move past the “you have to own the whole market or it’s not worth it”-mindset. That’s one thing I hate so much about SV/startup culture. You’re either a unicorn or you’re a failure, which is total bullshit but when VCs and the like are involved those are the only 2 options.
I have my own side business, it’s small right now but it could grow to support me fully. It will never be a billion dollar idea, it will never “change the world”, but it’s an honest job and over time if I keep growing it I could go full time on it. I wish more people aimed for something like that.
I’ll also get up on my soapbox and talk about how things like UBI, universal healthcare, and similar programs would make this path 10000x easier for people. Having a safety net and not having to pay a second mortgage for healthcare would be nice.
bob_wileyThe only reason this is the case is companies, particularly Google, have used ads to fund all their consumer facing services for “free”. Which means starts up only have a few options.
I use Kagi, which is a paid service competing with free services. It’s still relatively new and not something the average person on the street is aware exists yet. I hope they make it, and if they do, they’ll be a unicorn in the startup space, as the entire market pushes against the idea that anything can cost money, which is death to startups that are trying to get to profitability in a world where “free” is the status quo.
If these giant companies didn’t exist to fund free services with their cash cows, there would be a much more level playing field for startups.
It’s been this way forever. Long before Google even. My uncle made millions during the dot com bubble by starting up a website, getting some traffic, then selling it off a bigger company. He did that 2 or 3 times and then retired in his 30s lol.
Hell that’s what the dot com bubble was in the first place. A million startups all trying to get bought by a bigger player.
The fact that it was a bubble should tell us that’s not a good sustainable model. Those people were just looking for a quick cash grab. The crypto bros of the era.
And we’re currently in one for “AI”. That’s kind of my point. All of these AI companies are in it to sell off before the bubble pops. They have one little seed of good idea but no fully fleshed out path because they’re hoping for their idea to be bought out.
It’s how it is, how it’s been, and how it will always be in the early stages of any new technology. You will always have small startups/inventors trying to get one idea bought up to get their big payday.
The situation I was talking about never really stopped after the dotcom bubble. Of course Google Ads was started in 2000, which meant we never had a chance to see what other business models might look like at scale.
I know one thing, siri couldn't possibly get worse.
“I am sorry Aeternum, I can’t let you do that. Your outstanding Apple fees mean I am unable to process your request. Please rectify your finances before asking me an other question”
The truth is that apple is buying because it has been unable to keep up with competition.
Focus of Apple has never been innovating, it has always been recognizing innovation from others with huge market potential, and invest to sell it to mainstream market.
This is what it is doing with ai as well. It has always been their business model, they are the best at it, so they’ll keep doing it.
Agreed. Apple is rarely first to use a technology, but they sort of “perfect it”, or release a version that works for a large amount of the populous. Obviously they don’t always hit home runs but very often when they release a product it sets a new baseline of what to expect out of that type of thing.
And then sue the crap out of anyone that has anything somewhat similar
They aren’t quiet on it, they just don’t use “AI” as a buzzword to try and sell stuff. They always say machine learning, and they’ve use it all over the place. They have a dedicated engine for it on their custom chips to do on-device ML. It’s being used for their new keyboard, Photos app, camera, personal voice generation, and all kinds of stuff.