The state of Apple and AI: The good (Gemini), the bad (xAI), and the ugly (Grok)

It’s been a good 15 or 20 minutes, so let’s check in on how things are going in the wacky world of AI.

Apple made a big announcement on Monday, confirming previous rumors that its next generation of AI will be based on Google’s Gemini. The fact that Apple’s announcement of this went to CNBC’s Jim Cramer tells you pretty much all you need to know about who this message is for.

As it turns out, someone else has a message for Wall Street investors, too: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says AI doomerism has ‘done a lot of damage’ and is ‘not helpful to society’.

And by “society” he means Jensen Huang.

Look, this bubble isn’t going to inflate itself, people. And Jensen’s Huang’s collection of expensive Tom Ford jackets isn’t going to pay for itself, either. Bubbles don’t bother Huang because once Nvidia sells its boards to AI companies, it’s no skin off its nose if the AI companies go under.

It must be very annoying to have people complain about literally every tech trend that requires your hardware to perform. First, people complained about crypto, then NFTs, and now AI! What, are you also going to complain about the relentless assassinbots built entirely out of Nvidia cards?! There’s just no pleasing some people!

“When 90% of the messaging is all around the end of the world and the pessimism, and I think we’re scaring people from making the investments in AI that makes it safer, more functional, more productive, and more useful to society.”

Nvidia CEO Jensen Haung, as quoted by Fortune (Jnauary 8, 2026)

You mean like this?

“Elon Musk’s Grok AI posted CSAM image following safeguard lapses”

Look, look, everyone just calm down. It’s already been fixed!

“Masterful Gambit: Musk Attempts to Monetize Grok’s Wave of Sexual Abuse Imagery”

Sorry, did the Macalope say “fixed”? He meant monetized. It’s been monetized. Yes, world-class genius and definitely not a ketamine addict Elon Musk’s solution is just to put that particular “feature”–the “feature” of making non-consensual sexual imagery of adults and children–behind a paywall.

Problem = solved.

Foundry

It’s hard to take Huang’s complaints about nay-saying driving away investment dollars when, in the same week, Grok was found to be generating CSAM, the company that makes it raised $20 billion in funding.

Oh, nooo. Just $20 billion? When they’re providing so much… value? For… society… and stuff? Why so negative… about the… CHILD PORNOGRAPHY?!

Whoo, boy.

You know… the Macalope’s just gonna… he’s gonna… he needs a minute. He’ll be back in second.

Okay, the Macalope’s back. Phew.

Just. Wow.

This is not why the Macalope got into writing about technology, okay?

Still, it’s a good thing xAI is getting that extra cash because it turns out Grok is just Claude in a trench coat.

…xAI staff had been using Anthropic models—specifically via the Cursor IDE—to accelerate their own development.

VentureBeat, January 9. 2026

An AI in a trench coat that hangs out around the elementary school.

Despite Grok’s pay-for-CSAM mode and a strongly-worded letter from some senators, both X and the dedicated Grok app are still available on both the Apple App Store and Google Play store. And it’s really hard to figure out why other than not wanting to piss off Musk.

Here’s the relevant Apple App Store developer guideline: “Apps should not include content that is offensive, insensitive, upsetting, intended to disgust, in exceptionally poor taste, or just plain creepy.”

These are apps that create images of children in sexual contexts, and they are not being removed because Tim Cook and Apple do not want to draw the ire of the most overcompensating billionaire of all time, who happens to have ties to the Trump administration. This, despite being asked by several U.S. senators to remove the apps and having them blocked in Malaysia and Indonesia. Apple’s only response this week was to tout its record-breaking year for services revenue.

Hashtag courage.

As The Verge’s Elizabeth Lopatto alludes, what is the point of being one of the biggest companies in the world with vast amounts of cash at your fingertips when you can’t even control your own app store? Newsflash for Apple, you can never be sufficiently obsequious enough to satisfy a bully. Lo and behold, it turns out an area father of 14 and interested party has some concerns about the Apple/Google deal.

Hey, why not pick Grok for Apple Intelligence?! If it’s good enough for the App Store…

The Macalope has said repeatedly that there is some real utility to AI. The problem is less AI than the people running AI companies, who care only for getting rich off of jamming it in everything from smartphones to smoke alarms to probably actual jam and care nothing about the social responsibility that Jensen Huang gives lip service to.

Somehow, inexplicably, one company seems to be getting the moment right: Dell’s CES 2026 chat was the most pleasingly un-AI briefing I’ve had in maybe 5 years.

Sorry, the Macalope may be having an episode. Did that say “Dell”?

It’s not that Dell doesn’t care about AI or AI PCs anymore, it’s just that over the past year or so it’s come to realize that the consumer doesn’t.

Well… you live long enough, you see everything.