Apple is Quietly Developing AI tools in an effort to play catch up with Open AI's ChatGPT, Google's Bard and others
In a world where artificial intelligence (AI) is constantly pushing boundaries, tools like ChatGPT have emerged as game-changers. They've transformed everything from creative writing to coding and even visual content creation.
With that in mind, it's being reported this morning that Apple is quietly working on artificial intelligence tools that could challenge those of OpenAI Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google and others, but the company has yet to devise a clear strategy for releasing the technology to consumers.
The iPhone maker has built its own framework to create large language models — the AI-based systems at the heart of new offerings like ChatGPT and Google’s Bard — according to people with knowledge of the efforts. With that foundation, known as “Ajax,” Apple also has created a chatbot service that some engineers call “Apple GPT.”
In recent months, the AI push has become a major effort for Apple, with several teams collaborating on the project, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private. The work includes trying to address potential privacy concerns related to the technology.
The company was caught flat-footed in the past year with the introduction of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google Bard and Microsoft’s Bing AI. Though Apple has woven AI features into products for years, it’s now playing catch-up in the buzzy market for generative tools, which can create essays, images and even video based on text prompts. The technology has captured the imagination of consumers and businesses in recent months, leading to a stampede of related products.
Publicly, Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook has been circumspect about the flood of new AI services hitting the market. Though the technology has potential, there are still a “number of issues that need to be sorted,” he said during a conference call in May. Apple will be adding AI to more of its products, he said, but on a “very thoughtful basis.”
In an interview with Good Morning America, meanwhile, Cook said he uses ChatGPT and that it’s something that the company is “looking at closely.”
Behind the scenes, Apple has grown concerned about missing a potentially paramount shift in how devices operate. Generative AI promises to transform how people interact with phones, computers and other technology. And Apple’s devices, which produced revenue of nearly $320 billion in the last fiscal year, could suffer if the company doesn’t keep up with AI advances.
That’s why Apple began laying the foundation for AI services with the Ajax framework, as well as a ChatGPT-like tool for use internally. Ajax was first created last year to unify machine learning development at Apple, according to the people familiar with the effort.
The company has already deployed AI-related improvements to search, Siri and maps based on that system. And Ajax is now being used to create large language models and serve as the foundation for the internal ChatGPT-style tool, the people said.
The chatbot app was created as an experiment at the end of last year by a tiny engineering team. Its rollout within Apple was initially halted over security concerns about generative AI, but has since been extended to more employees. Still, the system requires special approval for access. There’s also a significant caveat: Any output from it can’t be used to develop features bound for customers.
Even so, Apple employees are using it to assist with product prototyping. It also summarizes text and answers questions based on data it has been trained with.
Apple employees say the company’s tool essentially replicates Bard, ChatGPT and Bing AI, and doesn’t include any novel features or technology. The system is accessible as a web application and has a stripped-down design not meant for public consumption. As such, Apple has no current plans to release it to consumers, though it is actively working to improve its underlying models.
Beyond the state of the technology, Apple is still trying to determine the consumer angle for generative AI. It’s now working on several related initiatives — a cross-company effort between its AI and software engineering groups, as well as the cloud services engineering team that would supply the infrastructure for any significant new features. While the company doesn’t yet have a concrete plan, people familiar with the work believe Apple is aiming to make a significant AI-related announcement next year.
John Giannandrea, the company’s head of machine learning and AI, and Craig Federighi, Apple’s top software engineering executive, are leading the efforts. But they haven’t presented a unified front within Apple, said the people. Giannandrea has signaled that he wants to take a more conservative approach, with a desire to see how recent developments from others evolve. For more, read the full Bloomberg report.
When Apple saw Spotify taking the globe by storm, they acquired Beats to catch up with the music streaming trend that caught them off guard. Will Apple now begin acquiring more talent and/or companies to expedite their AI projects? A new report points to 30 ChatGPT alternatives available to choose from.
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