"Just a bigger roller coaster"

CHM Live | Apple at 50: Five Decades of Thinking Different

(1:14:10, Avie Tevanian) A couple days before Christmas (1996), we signed the deal, to be purchased by Apple. And we thought this was great, 'cause NeXT was a total roller coaster ride, ups and downs like crazy, and now we've got the power of Apple behind us, we're gonna get our software out there, we're gonna rebuild the company, fix it all. (Chris Espinosa) It was just a bigger roller coaster, Avie.
(1:20:48, Avie Tevanian) And it wasn't even just the technology, it was dealing with the people, that was the hardest part.

The Robot of Invention, 1960

The idea of invention is important here, and also the notion of patenting an invention. It’s unclear who the owner of the new patent would be, the man, or his robot creation.1

Cartoon of two men in suits sitting next to a humanoid robot outside a Patents office
"I invented him and he invented that"

  1. Cartoon by Mischa Richter, Time, September 19, 1960 ↩︎

"Roberta" in robot costume, 1966

In 1966, “Roberta,” also known as “the housewife of tomorrow,” appeared at Macy’s in New York to demonstrate Hamilton Beach appliances.1

The New York Times article, noting that “she can be turned on and off at will,” also highlighted a divide between men and women viewing the robotic spectacle.

When women see Roberta perform at Macy's, their usual comment is "harumph." Men, on the other hand, often express a desire to take her home.
Roberta the robot displays appliances at Macy's department store

  1. Klemesrud, Judy. “Housewife of Tomorrow: She Can Be Turned Off,” The New York Times, November 17, 1966. ↩︎

More robot costumes, but in 1968

Speaking of people in robot costumes, this British Pathé video shows “Miss Honeywell” in 1968. (via Paleofuture)

 

Robot costumes

An article on Vox, This is AI's Actual Endgame, (Apple News) referenced the person-in-a-robot-suit demo at Tesla in 2021:

It’s still embarrassing to watch the part of the Tesla AI Day presentation in 2021 when a human person dressed in a robot costume appears on stage dancing to dubstep music.

Dubstep, awesome! People in robot costumes, representing a company about to make robots, not so much.

And I don't think that was dubstep either.

Yep, Shazam tells me it's Destroying Teams by Hotschedules.

 

Her, HAL, glaze, and vanilla

Some notes on personality changes in OpenAI’s ChatGPT:

Regarding the “her” tweet for GPT-4o, or whatever a post in X is:

Some users may be repelled by them. But many will come to love and appreciate the new breed of A.I. assistants — and some will inevitably fall in love, as Theodore does.
May 14, 2024 - The New York Times, A.I.'s 'Her' Era Has Arrived

On the backlash of GPT-5, now more HAL than Her:

For others, though, the loss felt personal. They developed an affinity for the GPT-4o persona, or the o3 persona, and suddenly felt bereft. That the loss came without warning, and with seemingly no recourse, only worsened the sting.
August 11, 2025 - Platformer, Three big lessons from the GPT-5 backlash

On GPT-5.1:

The release follows complaints earlier this year that its previous models were excessively cheerful and sycophantic, along with an opposing controversy among users over how OpenAI modified the default GPT-5 output style after several suicide lawsuits.
...the company is offering eight preset options, including Professional, Friendly, Candid, Quirky, Efficient, Cynical, and Nerdy, alongside a Default setting.
November 12, 2025 - Ars Technica, OpenAI walks a tricky tightrope with GPT-5.1’s eight new personalities

The GPT-5.1 Efficient setting seems to be the most HAL-esque:

...which is just tell me what you want to tell me. And you don't have to pretend you're being nice to me. You don't have to compliment me.
November 18, 2025 - Dan Frommer on The Talk Show with John Gruber podcast, #434: 'Knee-Jerk Contrarian,' with Dan Frommer (1:21:45)

There seems to be a consistent problem with “glaze." It seems, though, that glaze is a purposeful attribute – the problem isn’t that there is glaze, it’s that it glazes “too much.”

Dan Frommer also mentions in the podcast (1:25:43), “I try to use the default settings for almost everything, just so I feel like I’m experiencing technology the way that, like, most people are experiencing it.” And I agree, the default setting, the vanilla, can be really interesting. Vanilla might seem basic, but it’s a very difficult thing to do just right.

Silicon E. Coyote

I came across this post at kottke.org, Silicon Doodles & Microchip Art. It’s quite the meeting of analog and digital!

The Wile E. Coyote image caught my eye, especially in reference to my previous post, Coyote Time and Empathetic Design.

Microscopic Wile E Coyote doodle on silicon computer board
The Wile E. Coyote artwork on the silicon is incredibly small. The image was captured by "cpu_duke" with a microscope.

References from the kottke.org link above:

I am Account Number

Frustration with computers may be familiar to us now, but in the late 1960s and early 1970s it had already reached a new level.

The general public was aware that computers, or “mainframes,” were impacting their lives, but they had little recourse and no access to their own information within computerized systems. Which isn’t far removed from the present, actually, considering search engines, social media, and AI.

It’s interesting that the man wielding the sledgehammer doesn’t give his name – he’s simply a number in the eyes of the computer.1

A cartoon of a man upset about computers holding a sledgehammer
"I am Account No. 327-94-33AT, and I would like a word with your computer."

  1. Cartoon by Henry Martin, The New Yorker, November 11, 1970. Listed in The Complete Cartoons of The New Yorker, by Robert Mankoff and David Remnick, 2004. ↩︎

"Stop me if you've already seen this"

The famously secretive iPhone maker has zero — and we mean zero — patience with product leaks.1

I was listening to The Talk Show with John Gruber and guest Jason Snell, and they mentioned the recent news about Jon Prosser being sued by Apple for the alleged theft of trade secrets related to iOS 26.

This reminded me of the 2017 news story about an Apple engineer’s daughter filming the iPhone X on a visit to Apple Park in Cupertino.

And of course, there was also the 2010 scandal of a prototype iPhone 4 being left in a bar:

In his 2010 WWDC keynote address, Steve Jobs announced the iPhone 4 and remarked, “Now…stop me if you’ve already seen this,” to which the audience knowingly laughed.

Even with Apple's renewed focus on preventing leaks, they still seem to be in the ether. I wonder if Apple's expansion of production to other countries will make preventing leaks more difficult. At times, however, some of the info seems to be streaming from in and around Cupertino. Personally, I just like to wait and see what Apple announces (and actually ships) before making a decision to upgrade.

  1. Theodore Schleifer, “An Apple Engineer showed his daughter the new iPhone X. Now, she says, he’s fired." Vox, October 29, 2017. (Apple News). ↩︎

Shudder at "AI" in 1964

Many researchers shudder at the phrase “artificial intelligence.” Its anthropomorphic overtones, they say, often arouse irrelevant emotional responses – i.e., in people who think it sacrilegious to try to imitate the brain.1

Cartoon ofrobots enjoying a museum of human artifacts. Will the Computer Outwit Man? screenshot of magazine title.

  1. Gilbert Burck, “Will the Computer Outwit Man?”, The Boundless Age of the Computer, Part VI, Fortune, Vol. LXX, No. 4, October 1964. Quote in footnote on page 120. Cartoon on page 121 by Nicholas Solovioff. ↩︎