<story><title>Apple is struggling to become an AI powerhouse</title><url>https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/06/05/why-apple-is-struggling-to-become-an-artificial-intelligence-powerhouse/?utm_term=.7607d61ec928</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>pwython</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m one of the few in the &amp;quot;tech world&amp;quot; that isn&amp;#x27;t so much pro-privacy. Google can read my email, Apple can track my movements, my Amazon Echo can even listen in when it wants. The end result is a huge benefit to me. How is any AI supposed to know what I want, if I try to be an anonymous user? I prefer targeted ads. I prefer submitting my information to &amp;quot;robots&amp;quot; in the hopes that my user experience is tailored to what I want. I see all of these articles on HN on how to break free from Google or some other eco-system because they&amp;#x27;re &amp;quot;evil.&amp;quot; I dunno, I guess I don&amp;#x27;t have a CIA-level job that most of these commenters have where they need to be off the grid.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Alexa, play me that song I like. And while you&amp;#x27;re at it, order me a case of my favorite beer. Thanks.&amp;quot;</text></item><item><author>macinjosh</author><text>I am an Apple fanboy but I am also a privacy fanboy. As AI, IoT, and consumer tracking continue to invade our daily lives I think Apple will continue to do quite well if they maintain there pro-privacy heading. Privacy is a feature, it&amp;#x27;s something people want, and unfortunately its becoming a luxury. That is something that attracts Apple&amp;#x27;s customers.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>old-gregg</author><text>You are making two assumptions that aren&amp;#x27;t necessarily true. First, you&amp;#x27;re assuming that you have control over what kind of information is being collected and shared, and you&amp;#x27;re assuming it&amp;#x27;s always good for you.&lt;p&gt;Here&amp;#x27;s a fairly innocent scenario: if Amazon Echo can learn everything about you, they may discover that you&amp;#x27;re crazy about Paris and you have good income. Then they can sell this info to every travel website who&amp;#x27;ll put you into a pricing bucket which would guarantee that you&amp;#x27;ll overpay for your next trip.&lt;p&gt;But generally speaking, we take advantage of information asymmetry all the time: buying real estate, getting a new job, planning a vacation, etc. Sometimes you have the leverage, sometimes you don&amp;#x27;t. With massive information gathering by a handful of big players you&amp;#x27;ll most likely end up on the losing side in the future, especially when dealing with businesses&amp;#x2F;governments who can afford to buy a profile on you before engaging. Imagine if your religious beliefs and either you voted for Trump were available to anyone via an API call which takes your face image as the input and costs $0.02 to make.</text></comment>
<story><title>Apple is struggling to become an AI powerhouse</title><url>https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/06/05/why-apple-is-struggling-to-become-an-artificial-intelligence-powerhouse/?utm_term=.7607d61ec928</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>pwython</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m one of the few in the &amp;quot;tech world&amp;quot; that isn&amp;#x27;t so much pro-privacy. Google can read my email, Apple can track my movements, my Amazon Echo can even listen in when it wants. The end result is a huge benefit to me. How is any AI supposed to know what I want, if I try to be an anonymous user? I prefer targeted ads. I prefer submitting my information to &amp;quot;robots&amp;quot; in the hopes that my user experience is tailored to what I want. I see all of these articles on HN on how to break free from Google or some other eco-system because they&amp;#x27;re &amp;quot;evil.&amp;quot; I dunno, I guess I don&amp;#x27;t have a CIA-level job that most of these commenters have where they need to be off the grid.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Alexa, play me that song I like. And while you&amp;#x27;re at it, order me a case of my favorite beer. Thanks.&amp;quot;</text></item><item><author>macinjosh</author><text>I am an Apple fanboy but I am also a privacy fanboy. As AI, IoT, and consumer tracking continue to invade our daily lives I think Apple will continue to do quite well if they maintain there pro-privacy heading. Privacy is a feature, it&amp;#x27;s something people want, and unfortunately its becoming a luxury. That is something that attracts Apple&amp;#x27;s customers.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>LA_Banker</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m ceaselessly amused by the folks fearing Amazon Echos or Google Homes as though they&amp;#x27;re constantly listening microphones sent to the NSA. As though we don&amp;#x27;t already carry devices on our person everywhere we go that have mics (smartphones).&lt;p&gt;Also, while we trade our privacy to Google (or Amazon, or whomever) in exchange for customization and convenience (a social contract I&amp;#x27;m generally happy to sign off on), those companies have even more incentive to keep our data safe.&lt;p&gt;Google is one of the most valuable companies in the world precisely because it, and only it, has the AdSense knowledge (and whatever other knowledge Google collects about me) to target me.&lt;p&gt;Insurance companies go to Google and say &amp;quot;show our ads to people Googling insurance companies&amp;quot; – that&amp;#x27;s how Google makes money. It&amp;#x27;s not as though Google says &amp;quot;here you go State Farm, here&amp;#x27;s everyone who&amp;#x27;s been looking up car insurance.&amp;quot; It&amp;#x27;s business model is based on &lt;i&gt;proprietary&lt;/i&gt; customer knowledge. It can&amp;#x27;t give away this data; it&amp;#x27;s incentivized to limit it to its own ad-targeting tech.&lt;p&gt;Are there still problems with this model? Sure. If the government decides to subpoena Google on me, they&amp;#x27;ll turn over my Gmail. But is it a hell of a lot easier getting access to Google services (e.g. Google Maps knowing where I generally go and what the traffic is like) versus using, say, Duck Duck Go on a VPN (let alone Tor or Tails)? For me, and I&amp;#x27;d assume most people, yes.&lt;p&gt;EDIT: I would also point out that we&amp;#x27;ve long been facing the privacy vs. convenience issue. It used to be that merely signing up for a landline meant getting your phone # listed in the White Pages. Paying utility bills makes your name and home address a matter of public record (unless you choose to shield them via owning and paying through a corporate shell). Ditto real estate transactions involving your name&amp;#x2F;address. All public records, unless you choose to hire attorneys to setup shell corps for the sake of privacy. Not so expensive to do this now in the age of LegalZoom, etc., but this used to cost quite the pretty penny.&lt;p&gt;This debate is nothing new; it&amp;#x27;s merely evolving.</text></comment>