The ill-advised Touch Bar is experiencing a second spring in the era of AI.
Apple’s Touch Bar, introduced in 2016, was completely abandoned in 2023 due to its lack of practicality and fragmented user experience. Now, in the era of AI smart bodies, Touch Bar is experiencing a second spring; developers have transformed it into a window that displays the status of smart bodies (such as idle, thinking, or requiring authorization). AI smart bodies can autonomously execute and plan using the MCP protocol, allowing humans to focus only on task progress and decision-making, making it necessary to check the status of background tasks. The Touch Bar, located between the keyboard and screen, can effectively meet this frequent checking need at a low cost, thus highlighting its value.