Apple Spending Millions of Dollars a Day on Conversational AI
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Brachaci
macrumors 6502
IMHO, they have done a great job with Maps in the past years and constantly getting better. For 2 years I am using Apple Maps as a 1st choice and in current iOS 17 beta train it's actually comparable to Google Maps. At least in my experience. Using it for car rides, public transport and walking navigation.
I can understand the frustration with Siri, but what is wrong with Music? I am curious.
toobravetosave
Suspended
I set timers successfully all the time.
What you did not do successfully is take a joke
RodThePlod
macrumors 6502a
I'm hoping we'll see a moderately improved Siri at next week's keynote. I mean... they're dropping the requirement for the "Hey" part, so we'll be able to just say "Siri set a timer". (And keep our fingers crossed that aunt Deirdre doesn't get that delivery of glass beads from eBay!
)But they must have done extensive tinkering under the hood for that to work well without tons of false triggers - so hopefully we'll see other, general, Siri improvements there.
My two-year-old grand daughter's name is Zuri - so the dropping of "Hey" will be a great test in our household!
Robert.Walter
macrumors 68040
Siri can’t even learn how to understand me asking for FaceTime audio for my mom and sister which I do daily since forever.
Would be nice if Apple could get this functional before making the next big jump.
Would be nice if Apple could get this functional before making the next big jump.
TheOneWhoKnocks
Suspended
For what I use it it works just fine.
Rychiar
macrumors 68040
THIS! And this has gotten sooo much worse over the. Years. The command i used most is “movie times” which dims my living room kights and shuts off other house lights when i watch tv at night… it used to be “tv time” but that stopped working entirely…now i have to say movie time about 6 times before it engages… yet if i just got into my phone and Press the shortcut button its instant… this is ridiculous
klasma
macrumors G3
They probably don’t want to risk reading some potentially dangerous misinformation that happens to be the top result. Also, extracting meaningful text from a website isn’t trivial (using Speak Screen even in Reader mode often contains substantial garbage like blog dates or tags that happen to be at the top of the page).
Rychiar
macrumors 68040
I’ve always used Apple Maps and liked it better than google but I don’t do anything too complex with it. Just feels like a cleaner more polished interface and it gets me where i need to go. Apple Music i love but don’t have much to compare it too. Nothing else integrated with my massive iTunes library so i have no interest in the competition.
anshuvorty
macrumors 68040
All I will say is that Apple has already been spending $$$$$$ and time on Siri, and look where they are at with that endeavor. I don't have much hope for their AI efforts, even if they are spending $$$$$ daily on it. Their track record on AI is just decent at best and embarrassing at worst.
Misleading comment……spending millions per day. So, they just went to the Starbucks and ordered an AI grande? They have teams of people working on things all the time. Apple has been using AI for years…..note: the neural engine chip. So, when you come out with some BS comment that they are spending millions per day, you sound like a novice reporter and you are trying to make it sound like they are trying to catch up. If you read the news you’ll find that AI tools out there are providing ****** info…much of it is not accurate. Apple is known for getting things right so, these people just releasing **** products are **** companies. Take for instance, the newspaper that was using ChatGPT to release news articles…..they shut that down because the product was ****.
Apple has significantly ramped up its spending on artificial intelligence, according to a new report from The Information that highlights Apple's AI and machine learning research.
Though Apple's AI chief John Giannandrea is said to be skeptical of AI chatbots, he established a team that is working on conversational AI four years ago. We have heard prior rumors about "Apple GPT" from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Gurman in July said that Apple was experimenting with large language models, and some Apple employees have access to an "Ajax" internal chatbot.
With the 2022 debut of OpenAI's ChatGPT, chatbots suddenly became the must-have feature. Microsoft and Google have both launched chatbots, but there are so far no signs that Apple has a consumer-oriented product launching in the near future.
Apple's "Foundational Models" team that works on conversational AI includes just 16 people, but Apple is spending millions of dollars per day training its language models. Training large language models requires a lot of hardware, and as an example, OpenAI Sam Altman said the company spent more than $100 million for GPT-4.
According to The Information, Apple has other AI goals. The company is aiming to develop a feature that would allow a voice assistant like Siri to automate multi-step tasks. That functionality is available on the iPhone today, but workflows must be manually set up using the Shortcuts app.
The Siri team could have multi-step voice-controlled automation ready for use in iOS 18.
Apple also appears to have AI teams that are working on software to generate videos and images and multimodal AI that works with images, video, and text. The aforementioned Ajax chatbot that Apple is working with is supposedly more capable than the original ChatGPT 3.5 and has been trained on 200 billion parameters, but OpenAI's newer models are more powerful.
Article Link: Apple Spending Millions of Dollars a Day on Conversational AI
So, let me put it to you this way:
1. There were phones before the iPhone, but Apple reinvented the cell phone with the first touch screen smart phone….where is Nokia, Ericsson and blackberry?
2. Apple introduced the ipad and at the time no one understood its importance or why we needed it…..what do you think about it now?
3. Apple introduced the wearable and everyone said this and that and now where do you see them? Fitbit is trying to catch up.
4. Apple introduced the HomePod late…..or so they say, but reports show that Amazon has lost their ass in the ALEXA project.
5. Everyone says that apple is late on the foldable phone……yea right…..what are the sales of that ****** product introduced by the others…..if you recall, Samsung introduced a foldable phone that had serious problems with the fold.
What people fail to realize is that apple is not about the technology…..the fancy fold….the this or that. They are all about the experience….getting things right….not prematurely offering a product that they will regret….I predict that Apple’s introduction into the AI/AR space…..the product they launched is head and shoulders better then the crap prematurely introduced…..wait till you see what comes from their launch…..it will change the AI/AA space for the better…..everyone else focused on the gaming industry with their products…..short sighted. That space is limited….Apple’s vision is far more broad.
So do you want inferior products and ecosystems or do you want the right products?
Windows has been a piece of **** for years.
Apple has significantly ramped up its spending on artificial intelligence, according to a new report from The Information that highlights Apple's AI and machine learning research.
Though Apple's AI chief John Giannandrea is said to be skeptical of AI chatbots, he established a team that is working on conversational AI four years ago. We have heard prior rumors about "Apple GPT" from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Gurman in July said that Apple was experimenting with large language models, and some Apple employees have access to an "Ajax" internal chatbot.
With the 2022 debut of OpenAI's ChatGPT, chatbots suddenly became the must-have feature. Microsoft and Google have both launched chatbots, but there are so far no signs that Apple has a consumer-oriented product launching in the near future.
Apple's "Foundational Models" team that works on conversational AI includes just 16 people, but Apple is spending millions of dollars per day training its language models. Training large language models requires a lot of hardware, and as an example, OpenAI Sam Altman said the company spent more than $100 million for GPT-4.
According to The Information, Apple has other AI goals. The company is aiming to develop a feature that would allow a voice assistant like Siri to automate multi-step tasks. That functionality is available on the iPhone today, but workflows must be manually set up using the Shortcuts app.
The Siri team could have multi-step voice-controlled automation ready for use in iOS 18.
Apple also appears to have AI teams that are working on software to generate videos and images and multimodal AI that works with images, video, and text. The aforementioned Ajax chatbot that Apple is working with is supposedly more capable than the original ChatGPT 3.5 and has been trained on 200 billion parameters, but OpenAI's newer models are more powerful.
Article Link: Apple Spending Millions of Dollars a Day on Conversational AI
Misleading comment……spending millions per day. So, they just went to the Starbucks and ordered an AI grande? They have teams of people working on things all the time. Apple has been using AI for years…..note: the neural engine chip. So, when you come out with some BS comment that they are spending millions per day, you sound like a novice reporter And you are trying to make it sound like they are trying to catch up. If you read the news you’ll find that AI tools out there are providing ****** info…much of it is not accurate. Apple is known for getting things right so, these people just releasing **** products are **** companies. Take for instance, the newspaper that was using ChatGPT to release news articles…..they shut that down because the product was ****.
So, let me put it to you this way:
1. There were phones before the iPhone, but Apple reinvented the cell phone with the first touch screen smart phone….where is Nokia, Ericsson and blackberry?
2. Apple introduced the ipad and at the time no one understood its importance or why we needed it…..what do you think about it now?
3. Apple introduced the wearable and everyone said this and that and now where do you see them? Fitbit is trying to catch up.
4. Apple introduced the HomePod late…..or so they say, but reports show that Amazon has lost their ass in the ALEXA project.
5. Everyone says that apple is late on the foldable phone……yea right…..what are the sales of that ****** product introduced by the others…..if you recall, Samsung introduced a foldable phone that had serious problems with the fold.
What people fail to realize is that apple is not about the technology…..the fancy fold….the this or that. They are all about the experience….getting things right….not prematurely offering a product that they will regret….I predict that Apple’s introduction into the AI/AR space…..the product they launched is head and shoulders better then the crap prematurely introduced…..wait till you see what comes from their launch…..it will change the AI/AA space for the better…..everyone else focused on the gaming industry with their products…..short sighted. That space is limited….Apple’s vision is far more broad.
So do you want inferior products and ecosystems or do you want the right products?
Windows has been a piece of **** for years.
klasma
macrumors G3
“Hey Siri, set a 40 minute timer.” — “14 minute timer starting now.”
I had to train myself to use 41 or 39 instead of 40. And for the reverse situation (wanting 14 and Siri understanding 40) there’s no such workaround.
I also always have to consciously add a half-second pause after “Hey Siri” for the software to reliably recognize it.
ZZ9pluralZalpha
macrumors 6502
A key strategic advantage here is that they don’t even have to worry about the tendency of current LLM “AI”s to hallucinate total garbage, because Siri already does that so often that we users are completely inured to it!
that argument doesn't make any sense because Siri still shows the result but just doesn't read it...
fatTribble
macrumors 68020
Millions of Trekkies just want to change Siri's action name to "Computer" with Majel Barrett's voice.
Oh yes please! 🖖🥰🤓🥳
bankshot
macrumors 65816
I think Apple's problem with a consumer-facing LLM is control. Executive management is terrified of the possibility that it could say (or do) something not explicitly approved by The Company. That's why Siri is stuck in 2011, with capabilities and all potential responses literally entered by hand by a small team. It's so they always have 100% control over the image, or "personality" (bland) projected by Siri.
It will be interesting to see them come to terms with the need for a much more powerful assistant, which due to its necessary LLM underpinnings, may not always toe the company line.
Personally, I think their fear is mostly unfounded. Apple's LLM will say some weird or unexpected things which will go viral. People will have a laugh about it and then largely forget it. Just like when Bing's ChatGPT integration could be nudged to start sounding really insane early on. We all laughed and they fixed it. Big whoop. Everyone knows Siri is already the biggest joke in personal assistants, it can't be any worse than it already is from a public image perspective!
It will be interesting to see them come to terms with the need for a much more powerful assistant, which due to its necessary LLM underpinnings, may not always toe the company line.
Personally, I think their fear is mostly unfounded. Apple's LLM will say some weird or unexpected things which will go viral. People will have a laugh about it and then largely forget it. Just like when Bing's ChatGPT integration could be nudged to start sounding really insane early on. We all laughed and they fixed it. Big whoop. Everyone knows Siri is already the biggest joke in personal assistants, it can't be any worse than it already is from a public image perspective!
Same here, what i absolutely loooooooooooooooooooooove is when I tell Siri in the morning stop my alarm, "One second, there seems to be a problem, somethings taking a long time, still trying" It's an alarm.....why tf does it take her so long just to do that menial task....?
fatTribble
macrumors 68020
For me, Siri connects better from iPhone rather than HomePods.
Siri has been hot garbage ever since it was released.
I straight up had a “2001 moment” the other day…
I had my HomePod Mini playing while I was doing some work in the kitchen, and as I was finishing I tapped the top to stop playback.
It flashed but did nothing.
So I said to myself, ok, just do these last things and use Siri to turn it off….
“Hey Siri, stop playing music.”
“Sorry, I can’t do that right now.”
“Hey Siri, turn yourself off!!!”
“Sorry, I can’t do that right now.”
WTAF?!!?
I was really fearing I’d get trapped in the kitchen! I had to *unplug* the HomePod to stop the music!
Also, my name is David, so I *really* hope future AI Siri starts using *your* name when replying! 😂
I really needed to hear her say, “Sorry, Dave, I can’t do that right now.” 🤣
I had my HomePod Mini playing while I was doing some work in the kitchen, and as I was finishing I tapped the top to stop playback.
It flashed but did nothing.
So I said to myself, ok, just do these last things and use Siri to turn it off….
“Hey Siri, stop playing music.”
“Sorry, I can’t do that right now.”
“Hey Siri, turn yourself off!!!”
“Sorry, I can’t do that right now.”
WTAF?!!?
I was really fearing I’d get trapped in the kitchen! I had to *unplug* the HomePod to stop the music!
Also, my name is David, so I *really* hope future AI Siri starts using *your* name when replying! 😂
I really needed to hear her say, “Sorry, Dave, I can’t do that right now.” 🤣