Apple Spending a 'Tremendous Amount of Time and Effort' on AI, Details Coming 'Later This Year'

[MacRumors]

During today's earnings call covering the first fiscal quarter of 2024, Apple CEO Tim Cook commented on Apple's work on artificial intelligence. He said that Apple is investing a "tremendous" amount of time and effort in AI, with details to come later this year.

"As we look ahead, we will continue to invest in these and other technologies that will shape the future. That includes artificial intelligence, where we continue to spend a tremendous amount of time and effort and we're excited to share the details of our ongoing work in that space later this year."

Rumors suggest that Apple's upcoming iOS 18 software release might be the "biggest" software update in the history of the device, with multiple AI features rumored.

Apple is said to be working on generative AI technology that will improve Siri, the Messages app, and more. AI could be integrated across the operating system, in apps like Apple Music, Pages, Xcode, and more.

Apple is planning to incorporate large language models into Siri to allow Siri to automate complex tasks, which will allow for deeper integration between Siri and the Shortcuts app.

Article Link: Apple Spending a 'Tremendous Amount of Time and Effort' on AI, Details Coming 'Later This Year'

 

[G5isAlive]

This will be a shocker if true. Have to admit even an Apple enthusiast like myself has felt let down by the current showings. I wouldn't call Siri a joke cause it's not really funny. It does okay with very very simple requests, but I always hope for more.

 

[jvchappy]

The big question is whether they can pull off high-performant generative AI / LLMs on devices to back up their privacy claims. THAT would be a game-changer.

 

[mabaker]

This will be a shocker if true. Have to admit even an Apple enthusiast like myself has felt let down by the current showings. I wouldn't call Siri a joke cause it's not really funny. It does okay with very very simple requests, but I always hope for more.

I won’t respond to that.

 

[kythat]

AI its good, but you know, they have a lot of areas for 'Tremendous Amount of Effort'. They can't update their devices to usb-c... If you want keyboard or trackpad, you stay with old connector. Airpods Max have old chip and lightning for $500. Base iphones still with 60 hrz. AppleMusic app on MacOS is terrible. Priority!

 

[ant the ninja]

Good. How long have we had Siri and it is absolute garbage compared to Alexa. It’s not even close. It’s shocking.

 

[Surf Monkey]

Yeah, making Siri an actual functional thing? They should have done that YEARS ago. Better late than never though. Apple still has a chance to knock out Alexa and the others. But it has to be REALLY good.

 

[boss.king]

I just hope they've put a little more thought into whatever they're doing than Google, MSFT, and others. Current generative AI and LLM tools are largely unreliable, and don't even do all that much, while simultaneously plagarising, devaluing creative work, and wasting ungodly amounts of resources.

 

[mikebenton]

If their investment is anything like VisionPro, I likely won't be impressed. Apple spends years 'preparing' something, they come to market....and it's anti-climatic. Roughly four years after release...that's when I will be excited.

 

[kagharaht]

I hope so. My HomePods are hit and miss too many times when used. They can't even get that thing to work reliably.

 

[zenwave]

Anyone remember the funeral of OS 9? They need to put Siri down, and bury it.

 

[Supercyborgninja]

Great news. More privacy friendly AI is possible but it takes effort and more money.

In an ideal world Apple would work with Mozilla on this project.

 

[NT1440]

Yeah, making Siri an actual functional thing? They should have done that YEARS ago. Better late than never though. Apple still has a chance to knock out Alexa and the others. But it has to be REALLY good.

What exactly are the others doing that requires Apple “knock them out”?

Alexa has generated nothing for Amazon and the development team is being gutted like a fish via layoffs.

 

[spazzcat]

AI its good, but you know, they have a lot of areas for 'Tremendous Amount of Effort'. They can't update their devices to usb-c... If you want keyboard or trackpad, you stay with old connector. Airpods Max have old chip and lightning for $500. Base iphones still with 60 hrz. AppleMusic app on MacOS is terrible. Priority!

I am sure they are coming in the fall when new macs come out.

 

[zorinlynx]

Ugh. I don't like generative AI. It always feels... well, non-deterministic, and computing should always be deterministic.

And yeah, I know at a low level it's deterministic, but the idea that you might ask Siri a question and get a completely different answer than you got five minutes ago, which might be wrong, is bothersome.

 

[spazzcat]

If their investment is anything like VisionPro, I likely won't be impressed. Apple spends years 'preparing' something, they come to market....and it's anti-climatic. Roughly four years after release...that's when I will be excited.

AVP has some very impressive hardware in it, not sure what you are talking about.

 

[Surf Monkey]

What exactly are the others doing that requires Apple “knock them out”?

Alexa has generated nothing for Amazon and the development team is being gutted like a fish via layoffs.

Not really interested in a manufactured fight with you. Apple could be the leader in digital assistants. Apple could show the world what they can actually do. But sure. Alexa isn’t perfect and Amazon abandons things regularly so why bother with Siri. Genius take.

 

[wouwout]

Curious to see if Apple will ever move Siri away from the scripts she's running on now. They seem very worried about offending or embarrassing responses. My bet is they'll expand the scripts dramatically but she won't be anything like a 'real' AI assistant.
Also, there were issues with Apple's AI team in 2023? Unhappy team and a sudden move to Texas?

 

[bmot]

With a distance the biggest disappointment from Apple in this century is the neglect of AI until now. They had a big shot at leading this one a decade ago but just slept on it.

 

[Realityck]

Rumors suggest that Apple's upcoming iOS 18 software release might be the "biggest" software update in the history of the device, with multiple AI features rumored.

Some of this is just past Apple tidbits

Apple is reportedly spending “millions of dollars a day” training AI

Apple’s new chatbots might make complex automations easier.

www.theverge.com

Those involved in its development tell The Information that Apple’s most advanced LLM, known internally as Ajax GPT, has been trained on “more than 200 billion parameters” and is more powerful than OpenAI’s GPT-3.5, the foundation of the initial version of ChatGPT that rolled out last year. This model was initially created for internal use, according to previous reporting from Bloomberg and remains fairly locked down within the company.

 

[flybass]

With a distance the biggest disappointment from Apple in this century is the neglect of AI until now. They had a big shot at leading this one a decade ago but just slept on it.

Agree with this point. An end of year Apple release when ChatGPT was out Q42022 is pathetic.

 

[Mac Fly (film)]

Conversational AI is what people are looking for. Allow us to drill deeper and deeper down into rabbit holes. Political leanings and corporate interests will throw up barriers here and there, depending on the company, of course.

 

[NT1440]

Not really interested in a manufactured fight with you. Apple could be the leader in digital assistants. Apple could show the world what they can actually do. But sure. Alexa isn’t perfect and Amazon abandons things regularly so why bother with Siri. Genius take.

No I’m asking what do these things actually do for people?

I think people consistently consider voice recognition to be the “what” when discussing this assistant vs that one? Hence the constant (and rightful) humor about Siri not being good at speech recognition.

Alexa probably does interpret speech better than Siri. I’d imagine Google’s assist as well. Maybe Bixby, but nobody uses that.

As far as getting things done, is the primary use case for these assistants any deeper than timers or home automation?

Siri/Alexa/Whatever still don’t *do* anything for me personally. That’s why I don’t understand the notion of knocking out any competition. None of these seem to “compete” with each other in the first place?

 

[a m u n]

“Apple may be quiet on AI, but it’s also the biggest buyer of AI companies.”

The power of silence in a noisy world.

 

[UWF404]

I think it's mind boggling how some 12 years after its debut, Siri is still marginally better than that launch day with Steve Jobs. How large is that team? What have they been doing for over a decade?