Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, announced Monday a series generative artificial-intelligence products and services during his keynote address at the company’s annual developer conference WWDC. These included “Apple Intelligence”, and a partnership with ChatGPT maker OpenAI.
The new tools represent a major shift towards AI for Apple. Its global sales have been slowing over the last year, and it has integrated fewer AI-based features in its consumer products than other competitors.
AI must be able to comprehend you and your context, such as your daily routine, relationships, communications, and so on. It goes beyond artificial intelligence. “It’s personal intelligence,” Cook said. “Introducing… Apple Intelligence.”
Apple’s artificial intelligence system includes a variety of AI tools that are designed to create an automated and personalized experience for its devices. Apple’s AI was demonstrated in the demonstration, which showed that it would be integrated into the operating system on Mac laptops and iPad tablets, and iPhones. It could also pull information and take actions within apps.
Apple also announced its long-awaited partnership with OpenAI at the keynote. The company said that it would incorporate ChatGPT into Siri’s new voice assistant. The executives promised that the new Siri would be “more personal, contextually relevant and natural”. Siri’s new version will have the ability to act as an AI chatbot, receive written instructions and take actions in apps using voice commands. Apple has promised that Siri will be able look through emails, text messages and photos in order to find relevant information.
Apple’s AI, demonstrated by an Apple executive, can, for example, select the word “daughter”, from an email, and link it with the phone contact that matches. Apple Intelligence can also summarize emails, texts and notifications. According to the demo, a group chat that involved figuring out trip plans could be reduced to a single text message that communicated who booked a room and when to arrive. The new Image Playground tool allows users to create complex visuals and create emoji reactions.
A new operating system was also released for the Vision Pro headset. In the next two month, the virtual reality device that has been only available in the US, since its release in Feb, will be available in China. Japan, Australia, Canada and France.
Apple announced that it will adopt Rich Communication Services in order to improve messaging between iPhones, as well as other smartphones. It also plans to expand customization options for iMessage. The messaging protocol has been used by phones running Google’s Android OS for years. Other incremental updates included a redesigned Photos app, hiking maps within Apple Maps and tweaks to the Wallet application.
Apple has been hesitant to incorporate generative AI into its flagship products, despite the recent boom in the field. Analysts and investors have been concerned about Apple’s lack generative AI tools over the past year. They felt that the company was playing catch up in the AI race.
Apple began to discuss partnerships as pressure mounted on it to offer a new AI product. also looked at ways to update Siri – its voice assistant, which was launched in 2011. Bloomberg reported after Cook told shareholders that Apple would be making “significant investments” in artificial intelligence last month, that Apple had finalized a deal to integrate OpenAI’s technology into their devices.
Apple’s shares have risen in recent months, as investors eagerly awaited the company’s announcement. Apple’s revenue has dropped again this year due to the weakening of global demand. This was reported during an earnings call held last month. A antitrust suit filed in the US, an electric vehicle project that was canceled, and the lack of publicity for the expensive Vision Pro are also causing problems for Apple.
Microsoft , Apple’s competitor, has seen its stock market value increase as it increased investments in artificial intelligence. Its revenue and share price have also grown. Nvidia has surpassed Apple as the second most valuable company in the world.
Apple has been building its artificial intelligence capabilities, and investing in it for years. It has purchased several AI startups and reallocated staff to work on artificial intelligent. It is setting-up an AI research laboratory in Zurich.
Apple’s hesitation to enter the AI space may be due to its desire to maintain a privacy-focused image. As AI requires large data sets to train models for language learning, some critics have expressed privacy concerns about the partnership between Apple and OpenAI. This includes Elon Musk who said Apple products would be “banned” from his company if the ChatGPT Integration launches.
In a press conference following the event, Cook informed reporters that Apple intends to introduce a “new privacy standard in AI”. He added that the company would release a document the day after the keynote to highlight how it “will apply this technology responsibly”. Executives emphasized privacy measures taken by Apple during the demo earlier that day. These included a set of dedicated servers to power the AI features, but which would not store personal data or responses from users.
Craig Federighi said that Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, Craig Federighi on stage, built most of its “Apple Intelligence” offerings using proprietary models and technology. Apple created the majority of AI tools. In other words the ChatGPT partnership is primarily focused on the search feature and enhanced writing features. Users will have to explicitly opt-in before they can engage with external AI models like those provided by OpenAI.
Federighi said that for artificial intelligence to really be useful, it must be centered around you. “[To make] this possible, it must be integrated into your experience at all times – it has to be informed by the context and knowledge about you. If it is going to do this, then there’s an enormous responsibility to protect your personal information.
Apple has also introduced a hybrid cloud system dubbed “private Cloud Compute”. Apple said that it will complete most of the processing for AI-based tools on the device, but provide additional privacy measures when more complex computing is required.
Ben Wood, CMO and chief analyst at CCS Insight, said that despite these assurances, Apple has been forced to make “tough choices” regarding its “long-held emphasis on privacy and cybersecurity”.
He said: “Apple’s decision to implement a cloud-based AI is an interesting tension. It is the same conclusion that rivals like Google have reached – it is impossible to run all of today’s AI functions on the device, so they must be moved to the cloud.” Apple will tout its security credentials but this is a significant shift.
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