alt Hacker NewsThe Sky's the limit: AI automation on Mac
Comments
I’m interested in something in this space that can work with local models. I absolutely do not trust inference providers with my data without very careful risk analysis.
Oh wow, clicking on their "Join Team" button is absolutely amazing. Credit to them.. almost makes me wish I was a Mac developer to apply for a job. Almost.
It’s really obvious that AI is something that is very rough around the edges and companies known for delivering polished projects are having a lot of trouble delivering. For example, Google should have been the leader in AI, but I think OpenAI got first mover advantage, because they didn’t want to ship a product that hallucinates. If you look at the pre-ChatGPT days, all the news stories were what happens when AI goes wrong not forgiving the failures and accepting that in some areas it can get things really right in a more efficient way.
For those who want a better explanation of Sky's capabilities, I recommend Federico Viticci's article (linked from the Tao of Mac article but the links are not distinctive): https://www.macstories.net/stories/sky-for-mac-preview
He goes fairly deep based on two weeks of usage.
It seems like a power tool for early adopters who are willing to take a few risks and something safe for the masses are two different things?
Apple has a target on its back. Anything they do absolutely will be hacked. There are unsolved problems securing tool-using LLM’s.
I wonder what Sky does for security?
When has Apple’s strategy ever been to be first to follow on the latest bandwagon? I thought it was more about making great products which integrate design and technology. They have a launch cadence and they take their time, is that really the same thing as “failing?”
There are plenty of places you can find rushed AI projects. Perhaps being slower and smoother is itself a differentiator?
Quicksilver[1], app switcher [2]… Sherlock[3].
Now that Apple knows what to build, they’ll build it.
1. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quicksilver_(software)
2. https://www.folklore.org/Switcher.html
3. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherlock_(software)#Accusati...
This is what Apple Intelligence should have been. Instead we got Genmoji
Shameless plug here - we are working in a similar space, and have started at the copy & paste layer. We are calling it TabTabTab[0]; while we have a waitlist as we are working on our onboarding, you can already give it a go on[1]
The main actions are option+c to copy, option+v to paste. Take the front page of hackernews and capture it with option+c (use cmd+a to select all, if text is selected we pickup text, otherwise we pickup an image); and then go to sheets.new or numbers and hit option+v, see your Spreadsheet getting built. It works everywhere.
There's spells option+s (custom GPT per app / URL) and agent mode (option+I) but give magic copy/paste a shot. More examples here[2]
[1] https://tabtabtab.ai/TabTabTab.dmg
[2] https://tabtabtab.notion.site/tabtabtab-user-notes?pvs=4
It's interesting that in the sky.app video it uses Google Maps to find a bar, not Apple Maps. Seems related to much of the discussion here.
I’m ok with owning a Mac if it only means that AI tools don’t have root access to the machine.
Unrelated to the article content:
The styles on this blog overwrite repeated links with the color of the main text (see `.duplicate`). What's the design idea behind this? I doubt it holds, since the links are still there for keyboard users, etc.
Either make your hyperlinks visibly distinct (ideally underline them) or remove them.
Sky honestly does not even look that impressive from the video on their website. So it can save calendar events if you type something into a prompt. Wow....
What am I missing ?
Every time I read what Apple is doing with Siri and Apple intelligence, there is power politics involved and some sort of major incompetence in terms of risk taking/assessment
first iteration Sky
second iteration Net
i don't need mac apps, i need chromebook with apple hardware.
Um. What exactly does Sky do? Can anyone list the top 20 things?
[dead]
One doesn’t need to wonder why Apple couldn’t get something done. Apple seems to be in dire need of a shakeup at the top level, but seems to be incapable of seeing the need for that or being able to do that.
From the outside, it looks like there are just power struggles and fiefdoms held by the old guard that have resulted in the stagnation and the worsening quality across its operating systems. Even today you cannot search and find all the things in the Settings app on iOS, which has been a longstanding issue. ScreenTime is totally broken since iOS 18 and shows tons of minutes of apps that I open for just one minute everyday. There are many more irritating old bugs as well as new bugs being added regularly.
The recently rumored to be forthcoming “26” numbering of all its operating systems and the cementing of annual releases with new feature addition doesn’t bode well for improving quality. The way Apple’s software teams have been working, a tick-tock cycle of improvements followed by stabilizing every other year is the only way things can get a little better. That’s a pipe dream for me anyway.