Can Apple Make Siri a Muse Competitor? | Sharp Tech with Ben Thompson
Summary
- Ben sees Apple’s Mac as caught between two incompatible constituencies: mainstream users who value safety and power users who want unrestricted computing. He argues the Mac once served both as a friendly consumer product and a Unix workstation, but Apple’s growing emphasis on permissions and protection means “I just don’t think Apple serves both anymore.”
- AI agents have changed what Ben needs from a computer enough that his long-awaited MacBook Pro may no longer fit. Even with a reported lighter design and OLED touchscreen, he may skip it because “the future for me is denominated by agents”; he finds Linux’s command line especially well-suited to agents.
- Apple’s security model could constrain agents, yet its restrictions address real threats. Software cannot dismiss certain permission dialogs because malware could do the same; the cost is that headless Macs and agents may simply stop working without knowing why. Ben’s verdict on the trade-off: Apple is making the Mac “worse and worse for a hacker or a developer.”
- Ben’s own security failure exposes a paradox in Apple’s paternalism. He accepts responsibility for being hacked after leaving port 5900 open, but says Apple’s insistence on managing security encouraged him to “let my guard down”—a “codependent relationship” unlike Linux, where he knows he remains accountable.
- Apple’s integrated smart-home push is the coherent opposite of do-it-yourself agent computing. Ben moved from skepticism to enthusiasm after reports of Apple-backed LG accessories because fragmented ecosystems produce unreliable experiences and unwanted apps; the viable alternatives are to build everything yourself or let one trusted company deliver “direct from AI to the hardware.”
- Ben says Apple’s scale makes codified culture useful but creates an ossification risk. His Apple University experience taught him how the company sustains its identity, but also how writing down “what makes Apple Apple” can become rigid and turn employees into “a member of the choir.”
- The iPhone Duo discussion paused on international pricing. A listener compared the $2,000 foldable to Uber creating previously nonexistent rides, but Ben corrected his earlier pricing assessment: Apple had raised prices sharply outside the US, and in Taiwan the Duo could cost roughly $400-$500 more than in the US.
Deep dive
1. Apple’s culture compounds at scale—and hardens with it
Ben traced his current skepticism back to Apple University in 2010, when the program was being built around the question of “what makes Apple Apple.” Apple’s “Top 200” was not simply the highest-ranking executives; it could include an obscure individual who mattered because “he understands the entire thing” and carried essential institutional knowledge.
His concern was that writing culture down produces “a certain level of ossification”: principles become doctrine rather than something that changes with the company. He believes Apple University subsequently evolved largely into an HR and training program, useful for “preach[ing] to the troops” at Apple’s vastly expanded scale but inevitably more rigid.
Working there also punctured his identity as an Apple fanboy. A manager’s extravagant enthusiasm for what Ben remembered as a mundane product—possibly a battery charger—revealed how easily admiration became “Apple could do no wrong.” Ben recognized the same tendency in himself, the design-conscious Mac enthusiast who thought he had created or headed a business-school Mac club.
Despite believing he had landed his dream environment, Ben decided before finishing at Apple University that he did not want to return: “There would be no value to me intellectually.” Going to Microsoft meant learning from Apple’s opposite rather than becoming “a member of the choir,” though Andrew noted that not returning to Apple likely cost him financially.
2. AI agents are pulling power users away from Apple’s center
Ben compared his current agent enthusiasm to building PCs in the 1990s: hands-on experimentation has deepened his understanding of what AI can and cannot do. His self-aware joke was that “maybe sometimes the answer is yes” when he asks whether he has AI psychosis—but the practical payoff to his work feels real.
Mark Gurman’s reported lighter MacBook Pro with an OLED touchscreen should be the machine Ben has wanted “for years and years and years.” Yet he may wait rather than buy it, despite continuing to record on a MacBook Pro, own an iPhone, anticipate the Air 2, and rely on deeply established macOS workflows.
The break is functional, not tribal: “The future for me is denominated by agents.” Each new capability makes him want to pursue “10 more things,” revealing software-sized holes throughout his life; he says he has accomplished so many cool things in the last few months that it blows his mind. He also spent significant money on a Linux server while describing headless Macs as a major computing pain point.
Andrew’s framing sharpened the shift: this is not “Apple is doomed,” but a willingness to explore alternatives that Andrew said had been absent for most people over the past 10 or 15 years. Ben still respects Apple’s extraordinary hardware and scale; he simply concludes, “This is not a company for me anymore.”
3. The Mac’s security bargain is becoming hostile to autonomous software
The immediate trigger was Apple’s announcement that users granting an app full disk access would need to take “very explicit” action. Ben answered Andrew’s concern about Apple impairing AI applications and agents in the name of security and control with “100%.” The trend predates agents: Apple has long added permission dialogs and restrictions intended to prevent apps from abusing broad access.
The security logic is legitimate. If software could approve a sensitive permission dialog, malware could click “okay” too; therefore an agent may only perceive that something stopped working without knowing why, while a human may have to intervene at the machine. Ben said Golden Gate brought still more dialogs and made headless operation “a big pain in the rear end.”
A major Golden Gate upgrade also defeated automatic login on restart, forcing physical access or a KVM switch. Ben had avoided automatic updates partly for that reason; separately, he accepts full blame for being hacked after leaving port 5900 open, while arguing that Apple’s “let us take care of it” posture reduced his own vigilance.
The historical Mac occupied an unusual sweet spot: it “just worked” for ordinary buyers while also providing developers a Unix workstation close to the server environment. Apple’s drive to make macOS more like an iPhone or iPad protects normies but degrades that second identity. “It’s not 2004 anymore.”
4. Apple’s smartest counterstrategy is to own the smart-home experience
Andrew embodied the reluctant mainstream customer: he does not want more connected appliances or AI assistants, and his otherwise excellent LG television became better when disconnected from the internet. Constant updates and prompts made its software “a pain in the ass.”
Ben agreed that today’s smart-home ecosystem “stinks”; his collection only partly works together, and his wife cannot stand it. A bespoke system built with custom software and an agent might be excellent, but Andrew reduced that audience to roughly “a tenth of a percent.”
Reports that Apple and LG are developing a doorbell, thermostat, and other accessories changed Ben’s view. If the enthusiast path is “hack everything,” the coherent opposite is “let Apple do everything”—the Microsoft enterprise model in which one vendor may not offer every best-of-breed component, but integration delivers “one throat to choke.”
The fragmented model fails because third parties converge on the lowest common denominator. Consumers tolerate a mediocre phone app; “when it comes to having a bad thermostat, you’re gonna throttle someone.” Ben wants no thermostat app at all: “If there’s an app for these thermostats, they’ve failed.”
His desired interface is Siri acting directly on hardware, with Apple responsible for the complete software experience and privacy posture. Ben said he would trust Apple, if it were in charge of the LG device, not to allow the kind of spying he associates with LG TVs, giving Apple a credible privacy story. The partnership is second-party rather than fully in-house, but Apple selling and standing behind it could preserve the integrated proposition.
5. The iPhone Duo discussion pauses at international pricing
A listener challenged Ben’s preference for one-handed phones, arguing that an iPhone Duo could create new demand through an iPad-like experience in waiting rooms, food courts, children’s baseball games, and even the bathroom—analogous to Uber enabling rides that did not previously occur.
Ben called the email “ridiculous for lots of reasons,” but the preview ends before his form-factor rebuttal. His completed correction was material: he had understated Apple’s price increases. He said prices had risen sharply outside the US, with the Duo in Taiwan perhaps $400-$500 more expensive than in the US; the listener had cited a $3,000 Canadian price.