The excitement around ChatGPT, and the haste to copy it worldwide, resembles the aftermath of the release of a new Apple product, but the world’s largest company does not seem to have a clear, or at least publicly known, generative AI strategy.
Vlad Savov for Bloomberg News:
Apple is nowhere to be found. Has the speed of it all caught the world’s most influential tech company by surprise?
Microsoft Corp. has poured $10 billion into OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, and reconfigured how it builds server farms to accommodate more of Nvidia Corp.’s class-leading processors for training artificial intelligence. Alphabet Inc.’s Google has made responding to ChatGPT a top priority. Amazon.com Inc. has also jumped into the fray with its cloud division.
That’s four of the world’s top seven most valuable companies, and yet, the most valuable of them all seems to have no ready answer for what’s coming. Bloomberg reported on an internal AI summit Apple held in February, when machine learning and other deployments of the tech across Apple products were discussed, but there was no hint of anything in the genre of generative AI.
Apple, by all appearances, squandered the lead it established since becoming the first big tech company to make an AI-powered voice assistant. Siri was clearly flawed from the start, but it looks ancient by the standards of ChatGPT…
To be sure, Apple’s AI has steadily improved and the technology has made its way to more parts of the company’s devices. Much of Apple’s AI work is also focused on improving the day-to-day experience of its products, rather than within Siri itself.
For instance, recent camera improvements like Photographic Styles and the ability to peel a subject out of a photograph rely on AI. The self-driving car is a monster AI project, while the headset will leverage AI for live processing of a wearer’s surroundings and to create realistic avatars.
MacDailyNews Take: We’ve long ago given up on Siri to make any great leaps in terms of capabilities, as has, seemingly, Apple. It’s sad, really. Were Steve Jobs still with us, we expect Siri would not be the embarrassing, charred, abandoned dumpster it is today.
We asked Siri, “”Where is Apple’s generative AI?”” Siri responded “here’s what I found” and offered some article links discussing Apple’s silence on the matter.
So, we asked ChatGPT the same question. ChatGPT responded:
Apple has been investing in generative AI technologies in various ways, but the specifics of their current status and location are not publicly disclosed. Apple is known for being very secretive about its product development and research initiatives, so it’s hard to say exactly where or how their generative AI is being developed or deployed.
However, Apple has made several acquisitions in the AI space in recent years, such as Xnor.ai, Voysis, and Vilynx, which suggests that they are likely actively exploring and developing generative AI capabilities.
Apple has also integrated AI technology into many of their products, such as Siri, the digital assistant that uses natural language processing to interpret user requests, and the “Photos” app, which uses machine learning algorithms to automatically organize and categorize users’ photos.
In short, Apple’s generative AI is likely being developed and deployed across various products and services, but the specifics of their initiatives are not publicly known.
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Well played MDN!
One could say that Apple is being secretive and will leapfrog when the do announce something while others are rushing to market with half baked products. But the generated chat here is plenty good and accurate. Makes Siri look like a toy. I sure hope Apple has something new and exciting, soon.
Apple wouldn’t have normalized crap AI with Siri over the past 12 years only to suddenly reveal something revolutionary out of the blue. There would have been hints of substantial improvement by now, while for me, queries and commands I’ve made of the years have gotten worse as far as response accuracy over time. There was a lot of talk about natural language programming a while back, all that means for me though is programming my commands in a very robotic and specific way to get a 80% success rate at best.
Maybe they are waiting for someone with real genius, say, oh I don’t know….Elon Musk…to do the heavy lifting (see what I did?!).
There is a thin line at Apple between graduated steps of development for stability’s sake and scared shitless to innovate, especially since the TrashMacPro 10 years ago.
You lose sight of original intent and the focus of an entire company can follow.
It tends to flip realities to where Microsoft is the underdog looking to innovate while Apple is stifling products that could easily be updated just for marketing reasons.
It’s why Ford is now considered better built and nicer quality that GM.
Why Target is growing and Walmart is slowing.
And it’s why more working class and minorities are turning Red than Blue.
Come on, Apple, don’t be a blue Volt for sale in a deserted Wal-Mart parking lot.
If one looks at what Apple introduces in the last few yrs; lots and lots of TV shows, annuity-like products/services and just recently, rich interest savings acct, I’m not sure AAPL is fearful to innovate, it appears they are putting emphasis on the financialization/annuity-like products (which one could conclude, they seek to innovate with less risk)?
With the new ground-breaking (energy-efficient mainly) chips, ever-stalwart iPh and upcoming dork head-gear, hardware is in the DNA, but the move to capital-lighter products could increase, going forward?
And, Siri is still and has always been an idiot. I completely stopped using her 3 yrs ago and I am MUCH better off w/o “the kid wearing earmuffs with shoes on backwards.”
To me evolutionary is not in the same vein as revolutionary.
I think the watch and M chips are their only new wow products.
Even then, the watch evolved from the iPod but has at least added nice features.
in the current state of AI, GPT-4 is a genius whereas Siri is like a blindfolded kid wearing earmuffs with its shoes on backwards
AI will only worsen things.
Of course thief MS and other thieving companies would invest millions into thievery-based OpenAI; I suspect that privacy-concerned Apple is examining the meaning and ramifications of scraping the web for other folk’s images without prior consent and, yes, for personal data too for use via AGI.
The extent of Siri’s suckage cannot be fathomed.
Recently while out and about, I found myself across the street from a chain restaurant in the mid evening. I wanted to eat there but didn’t know if they were still open or about to close, so asked:
“Hey Siri, when does Carver’s close?”
Siri’s response:
“I found three Carver’s restaurants in your area.” (Then she started telling me their addresses.)
I interrupted and said:
“The closest one.” (It was about 200 feet away from me. The others were miles away.)
Siri’s response:
“Okay. The Carver’s on [gives address] is opened from 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM, Monday through Friday, and from 10:00 AM to 9:00 PM on Sunday.”
FFS!!!
It was a Sunday evening, and I was 200 feet from the restaurant. All I needed to hear was “The Carver’s next to you closes at 9:00 PM tonight.”
The number of absolutely retarded things Siri has done over the years could fill a book.