As far as I can tell xAI doesn't publish because they don't have anything to publish. It seems to me like they aren't doing anything novel or state of the art, they're just consuming other people's research and implementing it.
This invalidates your thesis that Apple is behind on AI because they can't hire talent. And that they can't hire talent as they don't innovate and publish papers.
xAI doesn't innovate, doesn't publish papers, and started literally a decade later than Apple into AI, and yet they're ahead of Apple in AI.
So the high order bit is something else. Apple seems consumed by its legacy dependencies, structures... people even. There's no one on top with focus. I'm not even saying "with vision" or "with competence" or "with expertise". I'm just saying "with focus". If Tim Cook wanted an LLM he'd have a top of the line LLM running in 6 months with the resources he has. He doesn't.
His focus is on making lots of the things he wants to sell, and he doesn't care, or understand what those things are. This is why they have warehouses full of unsold Vision Pro inventory now. He's a logistics guy. Blind to the rest.
And Apple was doing great with someone like him at the top for years. But now the backlog of products is over and they keep shipping duds, while their software work is nosediving.
They need someone who understands "product" stat. Someone with holistic instincts. Someone like Jobs. I mean at least a bit like him.
