While Apple stock is missing out on the artificial intelligence, especially generative AI, rally, there are increasing signs that the company is scrambling to catch up and will make AI announcements soon.
Stockholders hoping to hear the company’s AI strategy from the horse’s mouth are likely to have to wait until Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, which is expected to take place in June. The conference is likely to be when the company discloses how it will integrate AI into its latest update of the iOS operating system.
Apple bought the Canadian AI start-up DarwinAI earlier this year and has integrated dozens of its employees, according to Bloomberg, citing people with knowledge of the matter. DarwinAI’s specialty is technology for visual inspection during manufacturing, but it also has a platform for generating slimmed-down AI models—the kind that could be particularly useful for putting the technology on a smartphone without relying on a connection to a server…
Apple has acquired numerous small AI start-ups over the years, including 25 acquisitions in the sector between 2016 and 2020 alone, according to GlobalData, often with a focus on improving its Siri digital assistant.
Stockholders might question the results of those acquisitions, as Siri hasn’t exactly sparked the same excitement as ChatGPT or its fellow chatbots. However, as AI inevitably comes to mobile devices, Apple’s expertise in custom chips for smartphones and its strength in accessories that can be used to gather data should put it in a good position to make up for lost time.
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MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote last October:
Thanks to the products Steve Jobs built, the company can now afford to be somewhat reactive at times. For a company like Apple, generative AI is not tremendously difficult; it’s what it’s fed that’s most important, followed by where it’s done: on-device-only (high privacy), cloud-only (encrypted, hopefully), or some mix of the two.
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“Apple has acquired numerous small AI start-ups over the years, including 25 acquisitions in the sector between 2016 and 2020 alone, according to GlobalData, often with a focus on improving its Siri digital assistant.”
Does anyone else find it hilarious – in a sad sort of way – that even after buying 25 companies, Apple can’t manage to meaningfully improve Siri?
Bingo!
One answer: Indecisive Cook trying to figure out the me-too part…
With the recent news about taking up with Google for AI, I’m guessing those acquisitions were not fruitful.
The elephant in the room is Siri. It has seen no meaningful improvements in years. I had better get the information I’ve queried for years now without directing me to a web search. I NEVER want to be directed to web search by a voice assistant instead of being given an answer, I would have done that myself otherwise. “Sorry Nick, I don’t know” would have been much more acceptable, but NOW I demand functionality comparable to current-gen ChatGPT in Siri. Any less will be a failure. Having us wait until the fall the see these improvements is also unacceptable.
I haven’t used Siri for 2+ yrs and I’m better off for it. I no longer say with exasperation, “Siri’s an idiot.”
I assume “Siri” is the same tech that irritatingly barks REPEATEDLY when one deviates from a map route, “stay on the route, stay on the route….?” One would think, tech would be developed that would at least be interactively inquisitive about such a “deviation?”
Think of it like this: saying you can just “wait around” to make your own AI is like thinking you can build a rocket ship in your backyard. Sure, Siri on your iPhone is cool for setting reminders or playing music, but comparing Siri to the super smart AIs out there? That’s like comparing a bicycle to a spaceship.
AI is seriously changing things, especially in jobs and how we do stuff. Imagine it being like the invention of Google. Remember how Google made it so easy to find info for your homework? AI is doing that but for everything – from creating new ways to write computer code to changing how we talk to each other. It’s not just about having another cool gadget. This is big – it’s about changing the way we live and work in ways we’re just starting to figure out.