Report: Apple to 'Re-Examine' AI Development

[MacRumors]

Apple is planning to "re-examine" its development of artificial intelligence, according to Taiwanese supply chain publication DigiTimes.

The paywalled report suggests that the growing interest in generative AI catalyzed by ChatGPT has motivated a re-evaluation of how the technology is developed at major companies like Apple, Meta, and Amazon. These companies are purportedly making efforts to ensure Microsoft does not maintain its lead in AI. Apple and Tesla, in particular, are said to be reconsidering their approach to AI.

The trend is set to stoke the development of next-generation CPUs optimized for AI operations, supply chain sources claim. Apple already has a significant upper hand in this area in terms of local processing thanks to Apple silicon's Neural Engine, but the company has yet to develop the AI software to fully take advantage of it for content generation and the deeper insights that new-wave AI tools are able to offer.

Until now, Apple appears to have mostly stayed out of the race to develop generative AI tools. While the company recently held its annual AI summit for employees, the following sessions reportedly focused on aspects like healthcare, privacy, and computer vision, rather than its own generative AI technologies.

Article Link: Report: Apple to 'Re-Examine' AI Development

 

[Macalway]

An interesting story.

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

"Hey Siri, how can we make you smarter?"

 

[Weasel13]

Chalk this up for the most pathetic story of the year.

Probably not even in the first one thousand.

 

[newton4000]

So sad how Siri has been neglected and they could have led. Time to acquire some of the many AI start ups and put some gas on the pedal.

 

[ian87w]

Apple didn't come up with Siri, they bought it. So I guess time to buy more companies to improve it?

 

[Corsig]

At this point apple would be ten years behind to catch up unless they buy a big company out

 

[jarman92]

Apple didn't come up with Siri, they bought it. So I guess time to buy more companies to improve it?

That time came and went about 10 years ago 😑

 

[JippaLippa]

Apple's really late to the game in this area.
Even for AI image generation, the native stable diffusion implementation (coreML) is significantly limited if compared to the windows Implementation.

 

[MacFan782040]

It's sad that Apple used to lead in so many areas and a $2 trillion company can't walk and chew gum at the same time. I'm afraid they've become too stagnant over the years. Their last big thing was the Apple Watch and even that could be improved in so many ways. Like, we still don't even have custom watch faces. So many areas of their products and software are messy and outdated. Imagine how advanced Siri could be by now. Even little things like automatic captions in Final Cut or iMovie would be welcomed. If you zoom out, taking your eye off the ball is how industry leaders eventually fall behind. Thank goodness for the iPhone but they can't be too comfy at the top forever.

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗]

Just stay out of AI, Apple. Or else ChaptGPT re-evaluates who’s going to be the new CEO of Apple. Powered by AI.

Scott Forstall Reportedly Forced Out of Apple

Earlier this evening, Apple announced a major change up in their executive management. Most notably, Apple Senior Vice President of iOS Software...

www.macrumors.com

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗]

It's sad that Apple used to lead in so many areas and a $2 trillion company can't walk and chew gum at the same time. I'm afraid they've become too stagnant over the years. Their last big thing was the Apple Watch and even that could be improved in so many ways. Like, we still don't even have custom watch faces. So many areas of their products and software are messy and outdated. Imagine how advanced Siri could be by now. Even little things like automatic captions in Final Cut or iMovie would be welcomed. If you zoom out, taking your eye off the ball is industry leaders eventually fall behind. Thank goodness for the iPhone but they can't be too comfy at the top forever.

Agreed! I've been saying and I will say this again.

Sadly, Siri is still 10+ years behind. Siri was a pure innovation during iPhone 4/4S days. Nowadays, it's just there.

 

[bigboy29]

Investment in LLM at this point can be relatively small to get results. Tech like ChatGPT at this time is very accessible and Apple can easily "catch up" with relatively low investment in relatively short time. The "moat" with LLM AI models is not as wide as people think. LLMs are becoming very common.

Apple just requires vision and direction. Neither of which they have displayed with Siri (IMO) so that needs solving first.

 

[MedRed]

Anyone else really wary of this AI push? 20 years ago we let Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc. have free reign to establish themselves and now their influence is massive, their coffers are gigantic, and people themselves have become the product. I see AI leading us down an even worse path if left unregulated.

 

[andrefillipe]

Siri was never neglected.
Apple doesn’t want AI to behave like a human being.
That’s Apple’s vision on it.

 

[vegetassj4]

Ohhh Siri, where did we go so wrong? iA

 

[GMShadow]

These companies are purportedly making efforts to ensure Microsoft does not maintain its lead in AI

If Microsoft is a leader, Gladys Ormphby is a fashion icon.

 

[decypher44]

[Embargoed until March 9th, 2023]

Cupertino, California - Apple Inc. announced today that it has integrated advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies into its virtual assistant, Siri, making it the most advanced and innovative AI-powered virtual assistant in the world.

With the integration of advanced AI technologies, Siri is now capable of providing users with personalized experiences, anticipating their needs and understanding their preferences better than ever before. Siri has been revamped to understand complex and multi-step queries, making it easier for users to get the information they need, hands-free.

"Apple is committed to pushing the boundaries of AI technology to enhance user experiences and make everyday tasks easier and more convenient," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO. "With the integration of advanced AI technologies into Siri, we are thrilled to offer our customers the most advanced and innovative virtual assistant on the market."

The new AI-powered Siri is designed to provide users with personalized experiences by learning from their interactions and understanding their preferences. It is capable of understanding natural language and can now respond to complex and multi-step queries with ease. Additionally, Siri can now recognize different voices and personalize its responses accordingly, making it more useful for families and households.

Apple's investment in AI technology has enabled Siri to understand context and provide more accurate responses to users' queries. The new Siri is also designed to be more proactive and anticipate users' needs, offering personalized suggestions and recommendations.

The integration of AI into Siri is part of Apple's broader efforts to make its devices smarter and more intuitive. Apple's commitment to privacy remains a top priority, and Siri's personalization features are designed with privacy in mind. Siri's learning is kept on the device and is not shared with Apple or any third-party.

The new AI-powered Siri is now available on all Apple devices, including the iPhone, iPad, and Mac, and is set to revolutionize the way users interact with their devices.

For more information, visit Apple's website.


(not really)

 

[swingerofbirch]

It's probably true that Tesla caused Apple to take its eye of the ball of general purpose AI and instead follow Tesla into the boondoggle of self-driving cars. I think I read that Apple's self-driving project was in part to keep Apple's engineers from leaving the company—to give them something to aspire to, and that Tim Cook has been largely uninvolved with self-driving.

On the other hand, beyond moonshot products, they haven't even tried to keep up with Google in the current AI space of voice assistants that well. I remember reading an article where one of Apple's executives talked about seeing the movie Her and how they were struck by how natural the AI's voice was (yes, it was a real actor!) and they wanted to emulate that, which they have somewhat. But how would you watch a sci-fi movie like Her and have your main take-away be the voice of the AI rather than the utility (setting aside the weird stuff about AI developing relationships etc). At their keynotes they talk about how their machine learning makes Siri have a more natural voice. But Siri still struggles with basics, like commands that have two prepositional phrases in a row. What I struggle with the most is just triggering Hey, Siri.

 

[Danfango]

Oh please no. This is one of those bits of technology that looks like it has value but it can lead you astray if you have no idea how to look at the output critically and quite frankly most people don't have a damn clue about that.

What we need is these companies to get the basics right not plaster over all the excrement with this.

 

[Eriamjh1138@DAN]

I just want Siri to understand my words and set timers and stuff. And I want my AirPods to realize I have a watch when I want to start workouts instead of telling me to unlock my phone or something stupid.

 

[v0lume4]

Surely you aren’t telling me that Apple is just now looking at re-examining Siri? If so, I agree with @Macalway that this is the most pathetic story of the year.

At this point, I liken Siri to the Apple Maps situation. Apple will never catch up. They’re just too far behind. The only way forward, as some others have suggested, is to purchase some companies that already have established technology. It’s the only way I can see them moving up to a decent baseline.

 

[v0lume4]

With Google rolling out their conversational AI soon, mark my words: within a few years, Google is going to roll out that functionality to Google Assistant. When they do, we will have a real conversational AI right in our phones. It won’t be sentient like in the movie Her, but it will such a giant step in that direction that it will have people talking. When Google starts running ads for their Pixel phones showing off that feature, it’ll even have the Apple heads talking. I really do think so.

For what it’s worth, I don’t like all this AI stuff and I’m concerned about where we’re headed with the future of it. But that’s a different discussion.

 

[Pezimak]

Shouldn’t take too long for them, I mean they haven’t exactly got much development to ‘re- examine’ in AI, well maybe the camera tech has some I guess.

 

[Mr_Risin_Mojo]

The Times They Are A-Changin'... maybe not for Apple as for now but parts of the world are definitely already on the AI-Train!
So I guess there's only one thing left to say... I LOVE SKYNET