“Apple has ramped up its hiring of artificial intelligence experts, recruiting from PhD programs, posting dozens of job listings and greatly increasing the size of its AI staff, a review of hiring sites suggests and numerous sources confirm,” Julia Love reports.
“The goal is to challenge Google in an area the Internet search giant has long dominated: smartphone features that give users what they want before they ask,” Love reports. “As part of its push, the company is currently trying to hire at least 86 more employees with expertise in the branch of artificial intelligence known as machine learning, according to a recent analysis of Apple job postings. The company has also stepped up its courtship of machine-learning PhD’s, joining Google, Amazon, Facebook and others in a fierce contest, leading academics say.”
“But some experts say the iPhone maker’s strict stance on privacy is likely to undermine its ability to compete in the rapidly progressing field,” Love reports. “Apple analyzes its users’ behavior under self-imposed constraints to better protect their data from outsiders… Machine learning experts who want unfettered access to data tend to shy away from jobs at Apple, former employees say… If Apple succeeds without compromising privacy, its Mountain View rival may face questions about its approach to analyzing users’ data.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Navigating between mind-reading and privacy is a tightrope act.
[Attribution: The Huffington Post. Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Edward W.” for the heads up.]
Apple should invent a crystal balls which can read people’s minds.
That’s exactly the strategy I support…I want siri to be locally intelligent and anticipate my needs, learn my habits for my personal benefit. I don’t want her to phone home to Apple- and I certainly don’t want google or any cloud based intelligence accessing my personal data
“hey siri–”
“I have already done everything you want”
Um, ok, what am I thinking now
Four people assigned to me just came up with “whoa…!”
There’s another word for that, spying. Just ask Google.
The vast unawashrd masses don’t kniow anything about privacy and certainly don’t understand the issues and ramifications in Google’s case. For this reason, Google has an advantage that Apple will never be able to overcome. While Google can mine gobs of consumer data from almost every online vendor, Apple stands practically no chance at understanding their customers with just the little data they let them see.