Apple´s Tim Cook battle results
36 comments
·August 26, 2025mrcwinn
Aaronstotle
I don't necessarily blame people for using AI to help them write or spruce something up, however I find the tone particularly off-putting.
These excerpts show off that "AI"-tone I'm sure most people see.
>The San Bernardino case is gone from headlines. >But the backdoor? It’s in your phone. >It’s in Google’s servers. >It’s in Meta’s messages. >It’s in the legal system that always wins. >Apple’s 2016 stand wasn’t forgotten. >It was buried under the next headline. >But it’s still true.
trilogic
Hi, the author here. I can confirm that writing is not my best skill, plenty to criticize on it. All the rest (like the content and facts) should matter though, that was the point of the article.
ghostly_s
The "content" is indecipherable due to your awful writing. no idea what point you're trying to make, it seems to repeatedly contradict itself
lostlogin
If you feed it into ChatGPT and request a shorter version, it comes back more or less the same. I’d sort of hoped for a nice summary.
stronglikedan
If you wrote it, then there's no shame in asking ChatGPT to gussy it up a bit for your target audience.
DonaldPShimoda
> there's no shame in asking ChatGPT to gussy it up
Strongly disagree; there is plenty of shame in using LLMs to "improve" writing.
loloquwowndueo
But then the audience will complain it looks AI-written.
bogwog
There's a lot of wtf here. Are you an AI agent?
* This article is barely-readable AI slop. If writing is not your best skill (and that's putting it mildly), why are you publishing a blog like this?
* You have an ad for an AI app on every page of your website. Couldn't you use that to fix your writing?
* Clicking 'Explore' on the top of the page opens a pop-under to office.com for some reason? I also clicked the text of one of your articles, and it sent me to kaspersky.com, probably another ad.
I'm not normally judgemental to people with poor writing skills, but that doesn't seem to be what's happening here. This feels malicious.
trilogic
Replying to: * Clicking 'Explore' on the top of the page opens a pop-under to office.com for some reason? I also clicked the text of one of your articles, and it sent me to kaspersky.com, probably another ad.
I don´t know what you talking about, all in the website works quite well (beside the ugly articles page that is a work in progress). The page is under heavy traffic and some users click HGMI (that is a hypergraph in 3d with clickable links and memory demanding). Then changing page under heavy traffic takes longer and users are still clicking the hypergraph links.
How easy you missing the point of the article which is: No matter the good will certain paths are meant to be walked. Then I offer a choice with HugstonOne App to whom may be interested. And yes, credits to legendary TIM COOK for his great contributions to society.
bsimpson
I've never used a browser reading mode until just now.
As I understand, they're meant to hide all the cruft so you can see the content.
I did it for some paragraph breaks, because that site is formatted as legibly as one big run-on sentence.
godelski
I switched from Android to iPhone for this reason (months ago). Not because Apple doesn't have faults (boy does it have a lot it then) and not because GrapheneOS isn't actually a better alternative. I switched because I wanted to send a market signal.
This is what I hate about all this. We have to play these stupid games because everyone is using data in stupid ways. Everything has become incredibly myopic. Yes, I could buy a Google phone and root it but Google takes their sale and uses that to justify that their actions don't change things. But in the world we are in there's really just two choices: Apple or Google.
Which is why I find the fighting comments here so dumb. Fight me, go ahead. But if you are going to just know I hate them both. Think of it like a presidential election if you will. I'm at "any functioning adult" at this point. Yes, that means they're nonexisting.
What happened to the old days? When programmers were the counterculture. When we believed in unfettered freedom. When we believed in encryption by default. When did that dream die? We've never had more of a chance of this dream succeeding due to technological advancements yet we've never been so far because of will. Was it the money? Was it that we got too hung up in tribalism? Or was it that we are petty as fuck and let perfection destroy good enough for small open source companies but don't hold these megacorps to the same standards? Is it the complexity of the system and how there's no actually good choice? Is it just that we're too dumb? Maybe we just like the cyberpunk style so much we just wanted to make it a reality ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
bitpush
Apple being a better choice is just marketing. They bend over backwards the moment something is at stake. They made a big deal with FBI, because it was an easy decision. When it is a tough decision, Apple is the first to kiss the ring.
See Apple in China. They need China for manufactoring and for the market, and no qualms about "privacy is human right" there. They say nothing about it there.
Atleast Google had the balls to pack up and leave China. I'll respect Apple the day when they sacrifice profits for their principles. It is all empty talk otherwise.
godelski
> Apple being a better choice is just marketing.
bitpush
Relax bud. I wasnt "fighting", even though it is clear that you're here for a fight.
I was adding my perspective into the conversation. It stands on its own, and isnt off-topic.
Also, no need to fucking swear.
bigyabai
> Apple’s 2016 stand wasn’t forgotten.
> It was buried under the next headline.
> But it’s still true.
Yeah right. Just in 2017 they started backdooring Chinese iCloud servers for the CCP: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/12/business/apple-china-data...
throwaway290
Since 2022 they rolled out icloud end to end encryption meaning whoever runs the data center in china doesn't get to snoop if you switch it on.
bigyabai
Chinese iCloud servers do not have HSMs, which means that the encryption keys are all stored server-side, domestically, in plaintext.
Enabling data protection will not save you if, like in China, your government demands backdoored servers.
avianlyric
What do HSMs have to do with anything? Using HSMs doesn’t make it harder for a provider to decrypt your data, they can just ask the HSM they control to decrypt your data whenever they want.
HSMs exist to make it harder for outsiders to exfiltrate keys, not make it harder for insiders to decrypt stuff.
I can’t speak for China. But outside of China iCloud E2E uses keys that are only stored on customer devices. I.e. your iPhone is the HSM. In theory iCloud needs zero crypto capabilities server side, because all the crypto happens client side, and servers are just moving opaque encrypted blobs around.
fundad
I was thinking the same thing. What if making gold trophies isn't enough and DOJ wants a backdoor? The appearance of values can't be that important anymore because we are witnessing decisions by the company and CEO in his personal capacity.
andy_ng
Actually many people criticizw Apple's AI power, but they forget that the reason Siri is stupid because Apple want to (or at least they explicitly show) protect your privacy.
Iphone AI core is basically Edge AI, which means they deploy it inside the Iphone, not relying on a remote cloud. This can help protect customer data, but it also means they can not update their AI with new training data, and the Chip is kinda small so the model is not smart.
Just know this fact so ppl won't criticize Apple without knowing the sacrifice to protect their privacy
tshaddox
Nah, a lot of Siri requests really on Apple servers to fulfill. Supposedly they have recently supported more requests types entirely on-device, but 2 years ago I lived in an apartment with an underground parking garage and I constantly has basic requests like creating timers and reminders fail due to spotty cell service.
throwaway290
Which iphone was it? One of the newer ones which are advertised "built for Apple Intelligence"? I'm pretty sure that's their selling point and they even have a separate chip for it, if it still needs to connect then that's pretty stupid.
lostlogin
Those phones weren’t sold 2 years ago.
Someone
> Iphone AI core is basically Edge AI, which means they deploy it inside the Iphone, not relying on a remote cloud
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/iphone/iphe3f499e0e/io...:
“For more complex requests that require more computational capacity, Apple Intelligence can use Private Cloud Compute, which extends the privacy and security of your Apple products like iPhone into the cloud to unlock even more intelligence. Private Cloud Compute uses larger, server-based models powered by Apple silicon.“
andy_ng
but it's core is still edge AI, which can not compare to other AI models with larger parameters that can be called via API, right?
jchw
I think the bigger issue is that even the "cloud" stuff seems pretty stupid. Meanwhile while I wouldn't really trust any of these companies very much in actuality, it's not like nobody else is doing "edge" AI: Google is basically treating Gemma models like A1 steak sauce and pouring them on everything. (And although I don't know that any of those use cases really are particularly interesting, Gemma itself can be pretty impressive IMO.)
rudedogg
Siri is dumb for an edge model though. It’s like ~2 years behind. It’s just bad and shouldn’t be excused, everything about it is bad.
trilogic
Apple doesn´t have a good reputation regarding privacy. I have to agree though that they fight for it. It is strange that siri is obsolete, comparing company evaluation, and compared to other tech giants. Also facts show a real battle, harder than other companies. My best thoughts to TIM COOK.
vlovich123
Are you evaluating in a vacuum against some ideal company/community efforts or against their commercial competitor Google when you say that they don’t have a reputation for privacy?
throwfaraway4
This legit sounds like a bot reply
trilogic
How does a human reply? Maybe I am turning into a bot with all this AI around me :)
andy_ng
yeah men, I am not a fan of Apple too, just don't agree if ppl critize them thoughtlessly
I clicked through this link and the writing reminds me of the early days of GPT-3.5. What is this?