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Apple Developing 'Apple Neural Engine' Chip to Power AI in iOS Devices

collegitdept said:
It's data issue (privacy policy)

It's not a hardware issue
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It's both. If Apple manages to make a powerful AI chip, that enables Siri to do the processing locally on the iPhone/iPad/Mac, then Siri doesn't have to send everything off to a server to be voice decoded there.

The problem is probably not contracting such a chip, but making a chip that doesn't deplete the iPhones battery in 10 minutes. I'm a developer, so I watched the sessions from last years WWDC (not only the keynote like most people). There was more detailed information on the AI image processing, that tags the images with metadata. When you take a photo with the iPhone, it makes more than 11 billion calculations to make this tagging, so that you can search for your cat and dog images, without having to tag the images manually. 11 billion calculations takes a lot of processing power. Powerful AI demands many heavy calculations like this, and that is why Siri currently sends the sound off to a server to be decoded, and Apple also collects data (anonymised) to make Siri better. I guess such information will still be sent to Apple, but Siri won't depend on sending to the server for decoding in the future. I'm sure it's be handled locally on the device.
 
I think Siri is going to explode this Fall. First, the AI thing which should give it more flexibility. But also, currently Siri is open to only a very, very limited of purposes. So only a few apps can use it. For example, one speech "intent" covers making a reservation, so perhaps Uber and OpenTable might use that. There are only a few other intents, I imagine for a trial run of the API for this.

I expect Siri to get a big pile of new intents and this means a ton of apps will be able to have good Siri integration. By year end we should have hundreds of useful Siri-enabled apps. Combine it with the improved AI and we should be in clover.
 
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raghu8912 said:
Apple is more concerned about privacy than improving Siri, which is wrong, If Siri has access to same data as Google Siri would be great, Siri development is hindered by Tim Cooks privacy first policy.
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They're very concerned about improving Siri, but not to the point where they have to sacrifice privacy and personal integrity. Things will get a lot better when most processing can be done locally on the device, instead of have being sent off to a server to be processed.
 
Apple does voice recognition very well said:
Apple's problem with this is they are trying to use situational data (time, location, what you just did on your phone, email, etc) as weights to their "understanding"...those are changing so they skew the results. So you can ask the same question twice and get different responses. All they have to do is address this issue and they're right up there with everyone else. Like you said their dictation is very good right now. Once they brought that in-house and got rid of nuance things started improving.
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I hope this, the fully self made GPU, maybe the 2019 custom power controller if it applies...All the new technology and chips being made for the iPhone, also circle back around to the Mac.
 
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McScooby said:
Offline Siri AKA 2017 Voice Control , No doubt they'll spin it that no chip before could do it (despite the latest being a monster) & only because it is separated it is secure etc. I'm glad it's hopefully coming, just a bit inept u have to buy a new iPhone for a well regurgitated feature!:eek:
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I bet offline capabilities become the thing in the late 2010s to 2020s as peoples' fears about internet security are running out of control. Apple will reap the benefits as the only player with offline AI.
 
collegitdept said:
having a better AI processor to process the data is a great first step.

But Apple's biggest problem remains *DATA*.

Without enough data, even the fastest & best AI chip - is still pretty much as bad as before


(their privacy policy is going to kill them/their future - because it's completely misapplied)
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You almost got a point there. I would of probably said something a tiny bit similar, before Apples lattice Dark data purchase. The fact is that, after that purchase, Apple will have the most usable data out there. All that data that Googles been collecting, and Amazon, and Microsoft are also collecting, only account for 20-30% of the structured data out there. Lattice is able to convert all the rest of the other 70-80% of unstructured data into usable structured data, and it's said that there the only company known to do so. Even Google was eyeing them for a purchase, but was beat to it by Apple. Google even hired one of the lower level guys that worked for the company. Apple may end up being able to collect the majority of data that exists, and just say that there collecting Dark Data. This purchase may have been one of Apple's most important, in a long time.

This is just an example of the advancements in technology, and how fast the pendulum can swing.
 
wigby said:
Apple is behind but it's really pointless to compare when they all suck. Some are better than others in certain things but none remotely deliver on the promise of truly artificial intelligence in any demonstration I've ever seen.
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Thank you. Among all the b*tching and moaning about Siri, people don't seem to remember that the other alternatives aren't great either. Better in some ways, but not great. It's still early days in voice assistant AI. Which, considering the amount of money being thrown at the issue, should give us an indication of just truly how difficult the task is.
 
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britboyj said:
Let's be honest — Apple is WAY behind the game with voice recognition. Siri is flat out useless compared to both Alex and Google Voice. If I could replace Siri with Google Voice (including Lens) without having to have another app open, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

I'd just rather avoid the rest of Android.
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Siri works fine for me.
 
Lepton said:
I think Siri is going to explode this Fall. First, the AI thing which should give it more flexibility. But also, currently Siri is open to only a very, very limited of purposes. So only a few apps can use it. For example, one speech "intent" covers making a reservation, so perhaps Uber and OpenTable might use that. There are only a few other intents, I imagine for a trial run of the API for this.

I expect Siri to get a big pile of new intents and this means a ton of apps will be able to have good Siri integration. By year end we should have hundreds of useful Siri-enabled apps. Combine it with the improved AI and we should be in clover.
Click to expand...

One area I have not seen anybody mention much of throughout this thread, is the importance of the developers with Siri. Being it's evident that a smart speaker is on the horizon from Apple, the developers are going to be a primary source for working with Siri and helping Siri expand beyond its current capabilities. Which, Siri actually does work fairly well for the most part, but I think some seem to complain about the limitedNess of what she can do past the iPhone.
 
DNichter said:
I am not so sure that Siri is behind. I have reviewed some videos and in perfect conditions, they do the same things as the other voice assistants. When it comes to the Echo and Google Home devices, what they have a leg up on, is a device with many microphones in it. This is what has allowed them to become superior. Maybe that changes with WWDC?
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Google home only has two microphones. I believe google was able to cut it down two by using neural networks.
 
DNichter said:
I am not so sure that Siri is behind. I have reviewed some videos and in perfect conditions, they do the same things as the other voice assistants. When it comes to the Echo and Google Home devices, what they have a leg up on, is a device with many microphones in it. This is what has allowed them to become superior. Maybe that changes with WWDC?
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Siri is way up front compared to others; period.

This is not a fanboy speaking, people seem to forget that Siri supports various languages when compared to other voice assistent apps out there. You see, I'm Dutch, so it shouldn't surprise people when I state that I'm not that familiar with the English grammar as well with the language pronunciation. With Siri I can let my iPhone do various task in my own language without any issue. There is no alternative that comes close to what Siri can do in my own language.

And other voice assistent apps like that of Microsoft and Goole also gathering your information for commercial exploitation. For instance, I use VPN for various reasons, as an example,when I search for a specific camera equipment I get harassed with banners about camera's for the next few weeks. With VPN together with add blockers I have none of that. In regards to Apple's Siri, that company doesn't sell user data to commercial parties, Apple is not in that market.
 
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Good for Apple... Need a dedicated chip for this alone...

dragje said:
Siri is way up front compared to others; period.

This is not a fanboy speaking, people seem to forget that Siri supports various languages when compared to other voice assistent apps out there
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Siri may support other languages, but not everyone speaks all languages. These are more of "additions" not making it smarter at all....

I guess depends how you look at it.
 
AI as a whole has a big problem. I dont want to think of what to say and pray that it gets it right, let alone the fact that i cbf talking lol very reason i still use a remote instead of using my voice. Clicking a button remains to be more convenient to me.

Anyone ever useSiri on their mac? I honestly forget it even arrived last year
 
collegitdept said:
Sorry no, that's not how comparisons work:

The market compares product(s) vs product(s)

NOT compare product(s) to a hypothetical ideal HAL2001 myth that doesn't exit


Siri is *literally* the worst of the worst of *existing* REAL products (that have been on the market FAR shorter!)
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But Siri is not *literally* "useless" as the OP stated, as it has uses. I use them, and it works. It isn't helpful to exaggerate beyond reality when making comparisons as it clouds the actual issues.

And it's actually quite useful to compare to a future ideal, in that perspective you can see how much further everyone has to go for these things to really make a difference.
 
itsmilo said:
AI as a whole has a big problem. I dont want to think of what to say and pray that it gets it right, let alone the fact that i cbf talking lol very reason i still use a remote instead of using my voice. Clicking a button remains to be more convenient to me.

Anyone ever useSiri on their mac? I honestly forget it even arrived last year
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I turned Siri on the Mac off, it will never be part of my workflow
 
Apple should add more microphones so Siri can better hear if you leave your phone in the pocket, or if it lies upside down on a table.

They should also improve the software, so it works better in noisy environments, for instance, if you are playing music or at a bar where many people are speaking. You should need to shout "Hey Siri", it should be able to operate even if you speak quietly.

With a Siri that works everywhere, I can't see why anybody would buy Amazon Echo.
 
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Tbf all these commercial AI are actually not very context aware or intelligent be it Siri,Alexa,Google etc.

Tested them all and prefer Alexa as my voice interface. However it's all down to preference and what kind of eco system you have. I do think it's the way forward and you can't discount Apple making the superior 'AI' on the long run.

As it stands Alexa is great for me and would recommend for a simple voice interface.:)
 
I believe Apple intends to offload all Siri functionality onto this new chip. That way, it frees up the upcoming A11 SoC to do more computation-intensive tasks.
 
collegitdept said:
Sorry no, that's not how comparisons work:

The market compares product(s) vs product(s)

NOT compare product(s) to a hypothetical ideal HAL2001 myth that doesn't exit


Siri is *literally* the worst of the worst of *existing* REAL products (that have been on the market FAR shorter!)
Click to expand...
I missed the part where you whipped out your empirical study on performance data of AI assistants. I can form my comparison any way I like because it's based on my anecdotal experiences with all of these products - same as you.
 
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