Apple’s New AI Promises
Tim Cook announces AI plans a day after dumping Apple’s autonomous vehicles idea
When archrivals Microsoft and Google were going full throttle with their artificial intelligence plans, Apple was chewing the cud, sniffing around and talking up the possibilities of using LLM models on its products. Tim Cook, having dropped subtle hints at Apple’s AI plans, is now sticking his neck out saying the company will “break new ground” on GenAI this year.
The Apple CEO made the announcement during the company’s annual shareholders meeting yesterday and coincides with Apple’s decision to throw out its multibillion-dollar decade-long plan to build an electric vehicle. Multiple publications report that some of the team members aligned to the EV project would be shifting to Apple’s GenAI efforts.
Cook has put money and some mouth in now
According to Cook, there is “incredible breakthrough potential for generative AI, which is why we’re currently investing significantly in this area. We believe that will unlock transformative opportunities for users when it comes to productivity, problem solving and more.” Of course, Cook also believes that AI has worked behind the scenes in Apple products.
“Every Mac that is powered by Apple silicon is an extraordinarily capable AI machine. In fact, there’s no better computer for AI on the market today,” Cook has declared while also noting that there would be more explicit AI features on their products by end-2024. Unlike its tech rivals, Apple has been going slow with its AI pronouncements.
Media reports in October claimed that Apple was investing $1 billion to catch up on its GenAI efforts that included an LLM called Ajax and a chatbot called AppleGPT. Obviously Cook is attempting to address this reticence, though knowing Apple, the company has seldom hit the rooftops with announcements and product releases in a competitive fashion. This time too, Cook said Apple was on to GenAI but preferred a slower, more deliberate approach to customer-facing incarnations of the technology.
Maybe Cook was forced to give something out this time
Even this statement was a result of Apple shareholders first rejecting a request asking the company to disclose more information about how it uses AI in its business and its ethical guidelines thereof. The proposal, which didn’t pass but won 37.5% of the votes, was brought by the AFL-CIO pension trust, operated by the largest labor union of the US.
In the past, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman had reported that Apple planned to upgrade Siri and iOS search with GenAI models. The idea was to enable both to answer complex queries and handle multi-turn conversations. There have also been reports of Apple bringing AI-led features that enable auto-generated presentation slides in Keynote and playlists on Apple Music.
Perhaps, GenAI has been on silent mode
While these rumors have been going around, Apple has quietly intensified its GenAI focus via an increasing number of academic and technical papers authored by its engineers. There was one that discussed the possibility of generating animated 3D avatars from short videos, while another threw up a bunch of open source models and tools to develop GenAI-led software.
Maybe, Apple does not want to become a car company anymore, as recent reports suggest. The company reportedly scrapped plans for an EV and shifted focus to autonomous driving technology. So, this time round the company doesn’t want to control both the hardware and the software components – maybe that’s a good thing after all.
For once, the mindset has shifted to the Android mode, instead of the iPhone one. At least for now as Apple could well return to its car project at a future date. Till such time, GenAI is what seems to be the focus.
