Otter: An Example of AI Being Useful (And Apple’s Opportunity for Differentiation)

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We shouldn’t be running away from AI.

I’m not suggesting you are, but I’m pretty sure you’ve thought about it.

I have. I think we all have. The more we see of the capabilities of ChatGPT and the countless other generative AI products that continue to flood the market, the more tempting it is to throw in the towel and say, “well, what’s the point of doing this anymore?”.

Go on – admit it, you’ve had those feelings, haven’t you?

If you have, it’s nothing to be ashamed of. I’d imagine every generation goes through this at least once during the dawn of a new revolution. It’s uncomfortable. It’s scary. It makes you question everything.

Suddenly, everything you once understood is open for debate, change, and replacement.

The robots are coming.

Scrap that – they’re here, now, and most of them are far better and quicker at doing stuff than you. Sorry.

This week, that reality was thrown into sharp focus, once again, following the addition of a new tool for my team. And it got me thinking about how Apple can set a path for differentiation in this era of AI.

It’s all on Tim Cook, basically (sorry, mate).

The perils of Sora

In a recent interview, OpenAI’s CTO, Mira Murati, squirmed uncomfortably while attempting to answer a very simple question.

Where does Sora (OpenAI’s new video-based generative AI platform) get its data from?

“I’m actually not sure about that,” said Murati, before plunging the shovel a little further into the hole beneath her, “I’m not confident about it.”

When pushed further for an answer, Murati attempted to end that line of questioning by stating, “I’m just not going to go into the details of the data that was used”.

It’s worth bearing in mind that Mira Murati was made OpenAI’s interim CEO during the brief ousting of co-founder Sam Altman late last year. You’d think she’d therefore be aware of what’s going on behind the scenes. Regardless, as CTO, she really should know her onions, and be prepared to share them with the world.

Scared by this? Worried? Me too. I’m not sure about you, but as eye-poppingly amazing as the Sora video examples we’ve seen are, they’re unnervingly creepy. Sure, they’re uncanny and it’s hard to believe they’re entirely generated by lines of code, but there’s something not quite right. Something is missing.

I think that something is soul. It’s that intangible ‘magic’ that resides in the movies you love and the TV shows you just have to binge your way through. It’s what makes certain songs attach themselves to your life experiences, and it’s the feeling you get when you look at a painting or photograph. Sora cannot do any of that stuff, and I’m not convinced it will ever be able to.

The good news is that when you treat AI as a companion and assistant that never tires or asks for holiday entitlement, things get very interesting – and far less creepy.

Why Otter left me open-mouthed

I’d completely forgotten that I’d signed up for the free tier on Otter.ai until it unexpectedly joined the Zoom call I had scheduled with my assistant.

Otter sat there, quietly recording and transcribing while we went about our business. At the end of the call, I glanced at the chat window and spotted something I hadn’t seen before – an instant recap of the key points discussed during our call. I hadn’t written those notes. Michelle hadn’t written them, either. No one had – it was, of course, all thanks to the AI built into Otter.

The moment at which my jaw completely dropped, however, was when I clicked through to Otter’s full report for the meeting. In there, I found the full transcript, a neat summary, key takeaways, an outline, and timestamps for key topics. There were even screen grabs taken from the meeting when screens were being shared.

That was impressive enough, but the icing on the cake was the list of action items. Otter had, somehow, picked out a whole bunch of promises both of us had made during the call, placed handily next to checkboxes.

Otter isn’t perfect. Just like any AI tool, it gets things wrong occasionally, but the errors are usually entirely understandable, and certainly forgivable, when you realise how much value you’re getting from the tool overall. It’s like a personal assistant working at the speed of light during meetings. I honestly still cannot get over what it’s doing – or how it’s doing it.

You can even use Otter on your phone during in-person meetings; just hit record (with the attendees’ permission, of course), place it on the table, and it’ll do everything I’ve just described – in real-time.

Needless to say, Otter turned into an insta-purchase for me. At $199.99 per year for 1,200 minutes of recording each month, it was a total no-brainer. This is quite a rare occurrence at Mark Ellis Media, but it does illustrate how seismic AI’s impact can be for the right reasons.

What Apple needs to do this summer

All signs appear to be pointing towards a serious AI-fest at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) this year.

Let’s be honest – it needs to be. Apple has remained largely quiet when it comes to generative AI, yet Google, Samsung, Honor, and just about every other tech firm out there has wedged those two letters into pretty much every product category.

This is what Apple does. They’ll sit, quietly, and watch. Behind the scenes, they have something ready, because of course they do – but it’ll only be revealed when they’re ready, and when the rest of the pack has weighed in with their stuff.

When it comes to AI, that time is now. The reason I’m confident that Apple will come good on this is because, during a trip to Apple’s UK headquarters earlier this month, the phrase ‘AI’ was mentioned multiple times. We’re now being told, categorically, that the M3 MacBook Air is “the world’s best consumer laptop for AI”. I don’t think they’ve ever said anything like that before.

I’ve spoken previously about what Apple needs to do with AI in 2024 and beyond, but my experience with Otter has only confirmed my beliefs. Apple’s stance on AI needs to be centred on making it a useful companion – not a replacement for creativity.

This is where Apple has always scored highly. They value human creativity and individuality. They certainly value privacy, which, following that dreadful OpenAI CTO interview, is still very much in the spotlight regarding AI.

Ironically, there have been multiple reports of Apple holding talks with OpenAI and Google for access to the large language models that have already been developed by those companies. And why not? Why reinvent the wheel? Crikey, Apple’s influence on either of those platforms could change the course of AI tools for consumers and businesses forever.

What we need from Apple’s AI effort is simple: assistance with photos (the ability to remove glaring errors such as shadows and reflections); deep integration with the Notes app for automated summaries and help with ideation; the ability to have web pages and Apple News articles summarised.

…and one more thing. Because there needs to be, right?

Before you go