The generative AI revolution began long before ChatGPT made its debut in November 2022. Computer Science researchers and sci-fi authors alike have been imagining the potential of thinking, feeling computers from the days of pulling literal bugs out of mainframes. Visionary Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was just as enamored with that ideal, as he describes in this 1985 video recording, almost 40 years ago.
When Steve Jobs could predict Generative AI few decades forward ! #GodLevel pic.twitter.com/5kUNn18R5L
— Vijay Shekhar Sharma (@vijayshekhar) September 16, 2023
In the clip above, which has been resurfaced on X (formerly Twitter), Jobs first reveals his minor jealousy toward Alexander the Great for having the legendary philosopher Aristotle for a tutor. “I think I would have enjoyed that a great deal,” he quipped, but, “through the miracle of the printed page, I can at least read what Aristotle wrote without an intermediary.” But even with access to Aristotle’s writings, Jobs noted that he couldn’t actually ask any questions of the philosopher — and expect a reply.
“My hope is that, in our lifetimes,” Jobs continued, “we can make a tool of a new kind, an interactive client… When the next Aristotle is alive, we can capture the underlying world view of that Aristotle in a computer. And someday a student will be able to not only read the words Aristotle wrote but ask Aristotle a question. And get an answer.”
Unfortunately, Steve Jobs lost his fight against Pancreatic cancer in 2011, a decade before the debut of ChatGPT. However, the company that he created is continuing his vision for interactive computing, and plans to launch its Apple Intelligence service later this summer, coinciding with the release of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and MacOS Sierra.
“This is a moment we’ve been working towards for a long time,” Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi said at WWDC 2024. “Apple Intelligence is the personal intelligence system that puts powerful generative models right at the core of your iPhone, iPad, and Mac. It draws on your personal context to give you intelligence.”
The generalized AI agent will enable users to streamline any number of daily tasks, from helping to write, edit, and refine text across Mail, Notes, Safari, and Pages to quickly spin up AI-generated images. It will reportedly also be able to summarize the contents of rambling email chains and find photos of specific groups and individuals within the camera roll using written prompts, among a host of additional functions. Whether some of its more advanced features will be hidden behind paywalls remains to be seen.
After spending years with touchscreen Windows laptops, I've become rather accustomed to reaching out and tapping the screen if I just want to interact with something quickly. It's a small convenience, one that feels natural as soon as you get used to it. But whenever I use a MacBook for a bit, I inevitably find myself reaching for the screen before realizing that Apple has never offered this feature for its notebooks.
Apple has resisted touchscreen Macs for years, but that might finally change. The company is reportedly preparing to introduce its first touchscreen MacBook Pro, complete with an OLED display and a redesigned interface that accommodates touch input. Not to be confused with the new $2,000 M6 MacBook Pro, which just launched with minimal updates over its predecessor.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Google DeepMind's AI world model Genie 4 can now build interactive worlds that you can explore and reshape as they run. It also generates ambient sounds, music, and dialogue that respond to your actions.
The new world model builds on Genie 3 with improved realism, more natural human movement, and better simulations of real-world physics. It could eventually help with everything from game development to training robots.