Episode Details

Welcome back to another exciting episode of Friday Finds! In this episode, Marty and Linn dig into the highlights from Apple's WWDC, ponder over the conspicuous absence of AI in the presentation, and analyze Apple's preference for the term "machine learning" instead. They also discuss 'EmpathEyes,' an innovative VR simulator that helps parents and caregivers understand a child's exact visual impairment, and how this could change the way we perceive and react to visual impairment. Finally, they explore the recent controversy over Reddit charging for API access and its impact on accessibility, including an exemption for accessibility apps and an upcoming user protest. Join Marty and Linn as they unravel the intricacies of these fascinating developments. Stay tuned, leave your comments, and don't forget to join us next week for another Friday Finds! Reach us for any questions or feedback at feedback@unmute.show

Transcript

Marty: [0:05] Hey all, Marty here, and welcome back to another Friday Fines with Lynne. Hey Lynne, how's it going?

Linn: [0:10] Hey guys, this has been quite a busy week, huh?

Marty: [0:13] Yep, definitely. So quick announcement here at the top, I just want to let everyone know that Michael and I were on IACAS doing WWDC Recap, and that's going to drop in the unmute feed on Saturday, so look for that. Lynn, what's our first topic?

Linn: [0:32] Okay, so we will start out with WWDC and I'm not going to spend a ton of time on it because I know that we've been pretty saturated with it all week. But the one thing I did want to touch on, of course, there were a lot of things, the headset, $3,500 headset that I won't be able to afford anytime soon. But yeah, and it has voiceover built into it. So it's going to have some accessibility features. And I guess I listened to the entire presentation.

[1:16] And of course, I'm sitting there and I'm thinking about it. And I'm like, okay, where is AI? I have not heard any discussion of AI. So I was very surprised by that. But I found an article in The Verge that was titled For Better or Worse, Apple is Avoiding the AI Hype Train. And it was written by James This is Vincent from June 6. And basically, what they discussed in that article is that Apple is really taking a more cautious approach to the whole AI thing. Of course, there was AI throughout the whole presentation, but they didn't call it AI. They preferred to use the term machine learning.

[2:11] And I think that some experts are saying that actually machine learning is a better way to describe AI. Artificial intelligence has sort of like a science fictional connotation to it. And AI is Apple is really taking more of a cautious, conservative approach in talking about it. it. It doesn't mean they don't have it. It just means, you know, that they're going to kind of describe it in a different way. And that's probably not a bad thing, because as many of us know, AI has really gotten some bad press. A lot of people, when they hear about AI, they hear about about the end of humanity at the worst, and AI taking jobs and misinformation and all sorts of malfeasance, whatever. So yeah, AI is starting to have some negative, you know, public press.

[3:21] And I think that that's gonna be, that may have been something that Apple was thinking about when they actually did not say the word. Because as we know, if you listen to the Google presentation and the Microsoft presentations, if we had a dime for every time they use the word AI, we probably could get a nice pizza for everybody in the audience.

Marty: [3:44] Yeah. So do you think that they should explain what they mean by changing the verbiage to something different, or you think they should just go with it just let people figure it out.

Linn: [3:58] I think that by using the term machine learning, they are accentuating the positives about AI. So in that respect, I think it's a s