eXtensions - Monday 6 January 2025
By Graham K. Rogers
Jason Snell on 25 years of OS X. Apple reports Q1 2025 on 30 January. Payments by tech barons, and censorship. As my university develops an AI program, I am concerned about ethics: writing and photography. If Vision Pro was a dud, as claimed, what of Project Titan and its patents?
It was interesting to be reminded by Jason Snell (MacWorld) that this week sees the 25th anniversary of OS X, which begat macOS, iOS and iPadOS. It was significant as Apple had tried to develop a suitable OS to replace the original OS that was used for several years but was showing its age. In the end Gil Amelio bought NeXT along with Steve Jobs.
Snell, who was at the event, tries to convey how exciting the announcements were. Having been at the iPhone introduction, I have found it hard to describe to my students the atmosphere at MacWorld and the thrill of handling an early iPhone the next day.
A while after the initial outline, OS X 10.1 arrived on the Macs. I was lucky enough to have access to a G4 Power Mac with one of those spiffy displays. It came with System 9 running at startup, but OS X installed. The first time I started up in OS X, I was aghast: this was so unlike what I was used to. I quickly went back to System 9, but a few days later tried again. I convinced myself that Apple was not going back. Within a short time I had OS X under some sort of control.
Not long after, starting with book reviews, then articles about the new OS, I started writing Apple-flavored columns for the Bangkok Post. I had already been writing on PC software and ideas, but there was some resistance to this change, which did eventually relax. Because of the columns, I was invited to MacWorld 2007: the iPhone. Sometimes you make your own luck.
This week sees the start of the Consumer Electronics Show, CES 2025, in Las Vegas, John Falcone (Engadget) reports. He notes that Samsung is coming in force and has already forewarned a focus on AI with its "AI for All: Everyday, Everywhere" theme. We are also expecting the 18.1.3 update to iOS, along with related iPadOS and macOS updates. These will probably be with us later this month (or early February).
Apple has announced that its Q1 2025 financial results will be released on 30 January. The event will be held as usual 14:00 Cupertino time, 17:00 NY time, after the markets close. That should be around 05:00 here so there should be plenty of information by the time I have breakfast.
Tim Cook is expected to take the reins as usual, but from now on, Luca Maestri, who has stepped down, is replaced by Kevan Parekh as chief financial officer, so we shall hear from him at the event.
As the new year begins to lift off, the inauguration of the new USA president is to take place on 20 January in Washington DC. Already Silicon Valley is paying obeisance to the new incumbent by donating cash - not directly as that would be illegal - to the inauguration ceremony funding. Among those donating personally are Tim Cook, Apple's CEO, and Jeff Bezos. Anna Merlin (Mother Jones) lists some of the individuals and companies that have donated hefty sums, writing that this signals "a clear willingness to work with the Trump administration and a desire to curry favor with the once and future president": almost as if he were some ancient emperor, or a mob boss. With the potential for tariff wars, and revenge for slights, it may seem prudent to back the right horse.
Bezos surprised a lot of people when he bought the Washington Post in 2013, but he changed the way the newspaper used the internet and in so doing not only made it an international brand but turned a profit. However, he turned some heads last year when the Post declined to endorse a presidential candidate. He said, "the move could help improve credibility" Ana Faguy (BBC), although many were critical and wondered if Bezos was playing safe. The decision infuriated many subscribers, who cancelled their subscriptions.
This week, a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist, Ann Telnaes, has resigned from the Washington Post because her cartoon that depicted tech moguls "genuflecting towards Trump" was cut by the editor Ruben Bolling (Boing Boing, et al). Bolling adds that, "our media, much of which is owned by billionaires or corporations with far bigger business interests than mere journalism, are already pre-capitulating". I have taken the image of the censored cartoon from Telnaes online statement. With the Streisand Effect, the cartoon has now been seen by many more people than might otherwise have looked at it.
The Faculty of Engineering where I work is developing a new AI program. I had a chat with the Dean last week, the day he was off again to Harbin Engineering University in China for more talks about the relationship between the two universities. Students from Harbin's AI program have already been here. We may well have our students and academic staff visiting China. To help this, we will have offices and lab-space there.
During our conversation about the new program, I confessed that I am not confident in AI, particularly with regard to academic writing. I have seen my own students attempts at using AI tools, passing the writing off as their own, and read much literature on the negatives of AI output as it relates to academic writing. Not investigating AI would be wrong for any country. I am far from convinced, however, although it can certainly shortcut some repetitive processes. I explained how I had used Apple's new AI writing tools, with somewhat mixed results and the Dean asked me if I had tried ChatGTP. I had not (I presume he has from that question). The following day, I saw that Ryan Christoffel (9to5Mac) had an outline on how users of Apple devices can use this to write. I have mentioned before how my nephew uses some AI writing tools in his business, but my concerns are with academic honesty and ethics.
One of the main advantages that I often put forward, is that not using such artificial aids is that - as I have found with my students - as the writing develops, they are able to refine their own ideas and develop their analysis of the problems and solutions. That is not possible with ready-baked solutions. However, with the words of Christoffel and of my Dean in mind, I gave ChatGTP in the Apple writing tools, the instruction, "Write a paragraph on disadvantages of writing with Artificial Intelligence". This was the result:
One of the significant disadvantages of writing with Artificial Intelligence is the potential erosion of creativity and critical thinking skills. When students or writers rely too heavily on AI-generated content, they may miss the opportunity to engage deeply with their subject matter, leading to a superficial understanding of complex topics. AI tools often provide ready-made responses that lack the nuance and depth that come from human thought processes. This can result in writing that is formulaic and lacks originality. Additionally, over-reliance on AI can diminish the writer's personal voice and style, making all outputs seem homogenous and less engaging. Consequently, while AI can aid in efficiency, it poses a risk to the development of essential skills in analysis, synthesis, and personal expression within academic and creative writing.
The ideas produced are pretty much what I would have come up with, although the writing style is not to my liking: word choice (italicized), lengthy sentences with too many adjectives, long-winded, repetitive, and a bit bland. It needs editing. I was able to see immediately that this was not how I usually write (style) but many academic writers, particularly those whose native language is not English are unable (or unwilling) to see the differences between their usual writing and AI output.
I also have other problems with AI which are photography-related. I am wary of AI manipulation, although the Repair tools (and others) in some apps may use AI. That is particularly so with Apple's new CleanUp tool in Photos. While I am tidying up specks of dust on my scanned negatives, I am keenly aware that I could just as easily remove larger artifacts, including people, from images. If there are people there - perhaps moving across the frame - that is part of the photograph and I will not remove them. For a publicity photo, however, I did use CleanUp to remove power lines (common here) from an image. I was going to write that this is a thin line, but it was too close to a pun; but the idea is concerned with the ethical manipulation of images.
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With that in mind, Matt Growcoot (PetaPixel) comments on an AI publicity poster put out by Amazon for its Formula One documentary that has caused considerable backlash. There is a massive library of racing images, but Amazon shows its cheapness by using AI, rather than a photographer's output, then increases the damage by using an image that has easily-spotted faults in the content. The article quotes a fan on Reddit, "Say what you will about Ferrari strategy but their decision to put another two wheels on the rear wing in the early 2000s was inspired". It is not the first time that Amazon have been caught doing this. I expect that some bright spark in the PR department thought that this was a good idea and no one bothered to inject any criticism into the process.
I regularly read the TechDirt site for the views on tech abuses and the way the law is misused by lawyers, judges and the police. Once in a while, however, there are some ideas expressed which I do not agree with. This week, Karl Bode takes a swipe at Apple's Vision Pro. I note that reader comments are mixed. For sure, the device was eye-wateringly expensive and, even had this been available here, I would probably not have bought one. In the article, Bode mentions the Microsoft Hololens which I tried in 2016 and did not like at all. Apart from the claustrophobic feel, it was difficult to make it do anything with the early touch controls. Most of all, the lenses were poor and made it difficult to see what was on the screen.
Apple seemed to have fixed that and I mentioned in October how surgeons in several countries were picking these up and incorporating them into their services, particularly with surgery, with one report from San Diego praising the reduced (career-threatening) neck strain, and the economics: one Vision Pro versus several more expensive large screen displays ($20,000 - 30,000). The lenses too, compared with the Hololens, came in for particular praise. I was surprised that this area of use received no comment from Bode.
It was noted by a reader that Apple regarded the device as a step in the direction of improved VR displays and were well aware that the pricing limited them to only a few - but serious - purchasers (such as the surgeons). A dud? Maybe, but it was clear from the language in the article that this was more than just a criticism of a product or a company. It is all very well to criticize, and there have been several negative reports about Apple products over the years, for example the Magic Mouse. TechDirt also makes no mention of Project Titan, the development of a self-driving Apple car that was shut down last year. Now, that was a dud, although Apple filed hundreds, if not thousands, of patents, some of which may well be licensed in the future.
Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand. He wrote in the Bangkok Post, Database supplement on IT subjects. For the last seven years of Database he wrote a column on Apple and Macs. After 3 years writing a column in the Life supplement, he is now no longer associated with the Bangkok Post. He can be followed on X (@extensions_th). The RSS feed for the articles is http://www.extensions.in.th/ext_link.xml - copy and paste into your feed reader.
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