Caught flatfooted, Apple is feeling the heat in the generative AI race. While they were early innovators with Siri, competitors have surged ahead with chatbots and other creative AI applications. To close the gap, Apple is expected to unveil a major Siri upgrade at their upcoming developer conference, focusing on deeper app integration and potentially incorporating learnings from AI giants like OpenAI. But will Apple’s big AI reveal be enough to suitably impress investors?
Patrck Seitz for Investor’s Business Daily:
Apple blazed the trail for hot tech trends with products like the Mac, the iPhone and the App Store. But in the frenzy over artificial intelligence, the tech giant is considered AWOL. The Silicon Valley behemoth’s Big Tech peers led by Microsoft, Google and Meta have grabbed the AI spotlight — and that has weighed on Apple stock, which has treaded water this year while the others climbed.
All that could change this month. Apple is taking the wraps off its much-awaited AI offensive at the Cupertino, Calif.-based company’s Worldwide Developers Conference. The annual Apple WWDC event, which starts June 10, could be a make-or-break event for Apple stock.
Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives calls the conference “the most anticipated Apple event in a decade.” He told Investor’s Business Daily. “Every other tech stalwart has unveiled its AI strategy and vision with one exception — Cupertino.”
The view that Apple lacks a clear AI game plan has cut $25 to $30 off the price of Apple stock, Ives estimates. With Apple stock now trading near 192, that suggests a 13% to 16% damper on the price.
Gene Munster, managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management, agrees. “If they had a clear strategy that people believed in, I think the stock would be 15% higher,” he told IBD. “It’s a big overhang, especially given what their growth has looked like over the past two years, which has been nonexistent.”
Apple must clear a high bar. Cook will unveil the Apple AI strategy after well-received AI-focused events from Alphabet unit Google, Microsoft, and ChatGPT creator OpenAI.
“It’s a Gettysburg Address-type deal for Cook,” Ives said. “This can’t be a fluff event. Developers need to come away knowing that this is a new era for Apple.” He added, “The AI revolution is the biggest technology change we’ve seen in 40 years. And Apple can’t be on the outside looking in.”
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MacDailyNews Take: No pressure, Apple.
Apple was caught flat-footed, due to a lack of vision on the part of leadership… So, the only solution is to partner with a [Google, OpenAI, Baidu, etc.] for the real GenAI stuff while pretending (marketing) really hard that some on-device AI Apple has whipped up in a few months is “insanely great Apple innovation” that’s at the heart of Apple’s 2024’s AI announcements when it’s really just an adjunct… Watch Apple make a big show of its on-device AI at WWDC and run many ads touting it from June onwards.
Apple hopes to buy time for the data center buildouts and investments that will be required for them to someday own their own AI technology and not have to license it from the likes of [Google, OpenAI, Baidu, etc.]. – MacDailyNews, April 1, 2024
See also: Apple is just weeks away from unveiling its big AI marketing effort – May 20, 2024
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I read today that the big Siri overhaul isn’t coming until 2025 and it STILL won’t be able to handle more than one request at first?! I have no doubt WWDC will be disappointing but Apple has the luxury of the most popular smartphone in the galaxy and no one has come up with AI use cases so compelling that it will sell rival phones en masse.
The question I still have is what will OpenAI have to do with making Siri work at the OS level to do what we want it to? Aren’t we basically asking for various shortcuts to run automatically? Won’t those have to be coded into the apps individually? I don’t need a chatbot, I need a virtual assistant that reliably answers various questions and executes actions related to my core Apple apps, especially Reminders, Calendar and Notes.
Chat GTP4o is already on the iPhone. You can edit the memory with a pro account. The vision capability is amazing.
I imagine Apple will have a “secure” user profile. But Apple will have little control on how that information is used once it enters the model. Most likely Apple’s implemented version of OpenAI that make integration across modalities easy for the casual user.
The big mistake is that Apple has neglected Siri for years. I‘ve noticed some minor improvements in the last year (such a finally spelling my dog‘s name right) but that’s not enough.
If or when AI does get in integrated into Apple devices, I can see this as a huge hit to Google search and cash cow. If implemented correctly, the question is, where do those advertising dollars go? Does the billions of dollars Google pays Apple still exist?
” buy time for the data center buildouts ” What hardware is Apple gonna use? Apple is a decade behind Nvidia Hoper architecture and when BlackWell ships in Q4 they will be even further behind, there is no way apple M series silicon can compete on any level.
1TFLOP = 4TOPS.
Apple M2 Ultra 31.6 TOPs
Apple M4 38 TOPs
Nvidia Hopper 4,000 TFLOPS
Nvidia Blackwell 20,000 TFLOPS
M4 is impressive for low power mobile usage but for AI data center the difference is greater than a moped vs F22 raptor.
At WWDC apple will announce partnering with Open AI. Chat GTP was trained on Nvidia Hopper hardware.
Apple more than dropped the ball on AI. They were literally blindsided by Nvidia and Open AI. Microsoft owns 49% of Open AI. Think about that Microsoft, Nvidia and Open AI are saving Apple from utter ruin. Great Job Tim, your distracted efforts with Apple TV+ has earned you 8th place with 25 million subscribers while Netflix has 269 million subscribers.
He should be ashamed for running apple’s legacy of tech leadership into the ground while squandering a once in lifetime opportunity to lead the world on the greatest evolution in the history of computing.
Apple is now relegated to a middle man dependent on other companies to provide the services their customers demand. Open AI owns the model, the data, customer usage, and training knowledge. Apple will be competitive in AI about the same time their car will dominate auto sales. So sad, But on the bright side Apple has a great marketing team that will take credit for AI leadership.
Do we care? It sure isn’t going to impress me, and we are the ones paying Apple’s bills. Seriously: who gives a sheet?
AI is a lot of hype and smoke and mirrors so far. I’ll wait and see what Apple and others come up with.
So true, Andy. Not saying AI isn’t already delivering in many areas (surely ML) but the jury is still out on how big its impact will be in the next couple of years. Yet another article pointing out the challenges in the WSJ. I know it is fashionable of MDN to trash Apple and Tim Cook about their lateness to AI (which is unusual) but its unclear if LLMs for generative AI are essential, fundamental technology or will become a commodity. MDN MAY have this one wrong. What’s popular isn’t always right, and what’s right isn’t always popular. Fun to watch this all play out.
https://apple.news/A-mm42JMjScCEtM3_4o7huw
We’ll find out next Monday just where Apple stands. Apple has acquired more AI companies than anyone else. Just because they haven’t announced anything doesn’t mean much.
Does the average user care? Nobody, quite literally no one, asked for this. Not a single user. Apple used to create trends, not follow fads in search of future dollars. Some of the things Jobs did made investors cry, they were so original.
Apple are chasing the tail under Cook; it boggles the mind. I honestly could care less, and they had better include an option to turn it off. Apple’s modern engineers and idea people are the same zombies people get with Google (some of them are probably from Google).
Someone please create a viable alternative. I am an Apple person spanning decades, and I would toss iOS into the bin in a hot second if someone made a clearly viable alternative. iOS 18 is basically iOS with more intrusive features you have no control over, and it makes the notion of Apple’s commitment to ‘privacy’ a joke. Tim Cook’s Apple is not Apple. Ready to jump ship, if anyone would like to provide a sane ship to jump onto. . . . Tim Cook is a tool and a coward.
Modern Apple engineers and creatives appear to be zombies. Do not let them eat your brain, or your bank account. We do not have to put up with this, and no company is too ‘big to fail’.