The Information's TITV
00:00:13 · Akash Pasricha, Aaron Tilley
[00:00:13] S0: Welcome, everyone, to The Information's TITV. My name is Akash Pasricha. It is Monday, November 2. Today on the show, we will dive into how John Ternus is trying to usher Apple into the robotics era. We'll then look at our exclusive reporting that Meta is working to build its own humanoid robot. We'll also talk about why some enterprise customers are hesitant to increase their spending commitments on AI firms like Anthropic and OpenAI. We're going to close out the show with a look at Anthropic's amended IPO perspective and why Reddit is seeing search traffic drop. It's going to be a great show, so let's get right on into it. John Ternus is trying to usher Apple into the robotics era with some big swings that our Apple reporter Aaron Tilley covered in detail and a new feature story he published. I want to bring on Aaron to walk us through his reporting. Aaron, welcome to the show. It's great to have you back. Thanks. So what kind of robots is Apple working on here? [00:01:12] S1: So Apple is very particularly focused on home robotics. So these are, you know, any kind of robot that will serve a purpose in the home, either being sort of like a center to a smart home system or just security. They're also looking at manipulation, so robots that can do specific tasks. So, but very focused on robots that sit inside a person's home. [00:01:42] S0: So sit inside a person's, like, so what will they do exactly?
00:01:42 · Akash Pasricha, Aaron Tilley
[00:01:42] S0: So sit inside a person's, like, so what will they do exactly? [00:01:48] S1: Well, first device, you know, it's codenamed J595, likely called the HomeView Ultra, will be a robot on an arm that can move around and will be totally aware of its environment, sort of serving as sort of like a center of someone's life, being able to accomplish tasks for a user and manage a sort of smart home system, do really nice FaceTime. But this is their first entryway into robotics, this sort of swivel arm. And this will be, you know, that'll be the first product here. [00:02:30] S0: And you sort of described it as like a Pixar lamp in the story, so it's supposed to have legs and then a single arm. Is that the way that we understand it? [00:02:42] S1: No legs, no legs yet. Maybe one day for Apple, but it will sit on a base and will have a, you know, an arm that can move on top of that base with a screen at the end rather than a lamp or a light. So that... And that screen will display information and help the user. [00:03:04] S0: I see. Okay. Well, that's cutting edge stuff, really. I'm just giving you my honest reaction. I'm sorry. So is it close to releasing this product, or what do we know about it?
00:03:04 · Akash Pasricha, Aaron Tilley
[00:03:04] S0: I see. Okay. Well, that's cutting edge stuff, really. I'm just giving you my honest reaction. I'm sorry. So is it close to releasing this product, or what do we know about it? [00:03:18] S1: So it's been a slog for Apple. It's been in development since at least 2019. There were early prototypes in 2018, but 2019 was with the inception of the project. So it's been going on for seven years now. And the plan is to potentially launch it next year, but there's a lot of concerns that it'll be continued to be delayed. The hope was originally to release it this year, but continues delays. Delays over the software has always kind of prolonged the project. The hardware is ready. The hardware has been ready for a while, but the software has kind of always been lagging for this product. [00:03:57] S0: And what impact do you think the latest releases that Apple has done? I'm thinking about the HomePod, I guess, that they released, which I think people have sort of described as just a big Apple Watch on a base. HomeView. HomeView. HomeView. Sorry. HomeView. So, I guess this is kind of interesting because they have been working on this for so many years, and so many of their products are like years out in terms of roadmap, but then they release these things and, you know, if the reception is kind of lukewarm, I wonder how they can afford to delay these products releases further? Or is this something that the product roadmap is three years in advance and they're going to release it anyway?
00:04:40 · Aaron Tilley, Akash Pasricha
[00:04:40] S1: Yeah, that's the big concern with people who worked on this project, the robotic arm, that the reaction will be pretty lackluster given like the capabilities that Apple will actually be able to develop for it. So I think this is a, you know, a growing issue for the company. The sort of development cycle for all these products kind of continue to stretch on and on. And when they release it, it really kind of underwhelms. I mean, I think in the case of HomeView, it's just kind of a limited product and the main interface is Siri, and that's like not very exciting for users these days to some degree. So I think I think it's like, you know, for Apple, it's just a challenge to develop exciting, interesting features, especially when AI is at the forefront of these products. So, you know, we're going to see other competitors come along with much more like capable AI, maybe not as polished and beautiful and well engineered hardware, but the software experience is going to matter a lot more here. [00:05:49] S0: So other than it being a cool product, why is it that Apple wants to get into the robotics category altogether?
00:05:49 · Akash Pasricha, Aaron Tilley
[00:05:49] S0: So other than it being a cool product, why is it that Apple wants to get into the robotics category altogether? [00:05:57] S1: You know, this is just like kind of I think a lot of the industry sees as the next sort of stage of technology. I think, you know, it's with AI and sort of the significance of AI in our lives, that's always like that it's really kind of through through it's kind of the next wave of that when sort of the manipulation and interaction with the real world takes place with these AI systems. So I think the whole industry is kind of seeing that moment, that potential future. So I think Apple's definitely kind of sensing that too, just trying to jump on board as well. [00:06:35] S0: And this line that you wrote in your story really stood out to me. You said, While Apple is a finely tuned machine at cranking out new incremental updates to iPhones and Macs every year, it is less adept at developing entirely new products, and the company has a longstanding tendency to move at a placid pace. I mean, this seems very much opposite to the identity of the company that Steve Jobs wanted to create in the first place. How is it that the company has landed itself in this place? And then to what extent is John Ternus really trying to change that about the company? Because you had some details in there too about how Tim Cook actually kind of threw him a bit of a softball here in terms of letting him release some of these products, right?
00:07:22 · Aaron Tilley, Akash Pasricha
[00:07:22] S1: Yeah. I think this is an issue that sort of has hit Apple over the past fifteen years, sort of like the increased bureaucracy, slowing pace of sort of new product development, particularly during the Tim Cook era. And I think Ternus is really trying to turn that around and really try to push the company to move quicker on new products. So I think this was a is still somewhat a product of the Tim Cook era. And we'll see if Ternus can sort of like push this company to the next gen next era of like quicker product development. But, you know, he's looking for the company to run more efficiently with smaller teams. But he's he wants the company to move faster. I just don't think, you know, it's been two months into his tenure so far. He has a bunch of products out in the past two months, and that's largely the result, as you said, as you indicated, with Tim Cook sort of like holding back on the release of these products in order to give Ternus the moment to announce a bunch of products at the same time. [00:08:33] S0: And so last question for you, Aaron. As you look at the competitive landscape here, so Tesla, and also we're going to talk with Jyoti in a second about Meta, is also looking to get into the robotics category, looks like. Tesla has been the lattice about it. I mean, do you think that they can be competitive with these companies, with Tesla? I guess that's a little further ahead. I'm thinking also of the of the companies in China that are way further ahead on robotics. Like, how competitive do you think Apple can be?