Something You Might Want to Do on a Sunday

March 26, 2026·1 hr 3 min·4 clips

Federico compares chatbot usage to watching porn — everyone does it, nobody admits it in surveys.

The cold open is pure Connected chairman theater. Mike thanks Sentry and Fundera, milks the moment for applause, and introduces Federico as the keynote chairman with full fake ceremony. Federico accepts from the common folk. Stephen gets dragged in as annual chairman, which somehow turns into a miniature governance fight about presidents, vice presidents, and BlackBerry-style co-CEOs. The joke stays loose and fast. Nobody sounds like they are setting up a segment. They are just letting the title nonsense become its own little system. Then the Apple AI conversation tightens up. Federico explains why broad distillation would surprise him for complex questions, app coordination, or up-intents. His theory is smaller and more specific: Apple could use a set of self-contained Foundation models, each trained for a particular job and possibly distilled from Gemini. Gemini matters here because it can handle different kinds of input. He points to pictures, video, audio, file attachments, and live conversations as the sort of source-model range that could help Apple build smartphone specialists. The name gets laughed at right away. Gemini 3.1 Flash Live sounds less like a product and more like a stack of labels, which this table was never going to let slide. Still, the argument gets a fair hearing. If Apple wants several dedicated models for very different phone tasks, Gemini makes sense as a distillation candidate. The conversation then moves into WWDC rumors. Mark Gurman's Bloomberg reporting becomes the next anchor, with a standalone Siri app imagined as a chatbot-style place for prior conversations, pinned favorites, and search. Craig Federighi's resistance comes up too. The panel treats the tension plainly: Apple may not love that shape, but a lot of AI interaction has landed there anyway. The close drops back into show housekeeping. They point listeners to the longer ad-free version, talk storage situations, spring cleaning, and computer setups, then sign off through MacStories, Relay, Cortex Brand, theenthusiast.net, and 512pixels.

As heard by us

A sharp, funny Apple AI preview built around Gemini distillation and a possible standalone Siri app.

Connected episode 596 spends its strongest stretch on Apple AI, especially Federico Vatici's theory that Apple could use Gemini to distill a set of smaller Foundation models for specific jobs.

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Why you'd press play

If you've been wondering what Apple's Gemini deal actually means, three obsessed hosts just worked it out.

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