In recent months, generative AI has become the talk of the tech town, and now it appears that Apple is gearing up to incorporate this cutting-edge technology into its array of products, ranging from iPhones to Macs. According to a recent report from Mark Gurman, a noted technology journalist with Bloomberg’s Power On newsletter, the Cupertino giant is actively exploring ways to bring generative AI into its devices.
Apple vs. Other Tech Giants
While Apple may be trailing behind industry heavyweights like Google and Microsoft in this arena, Gurman suggests that the company has already initiated the process of integrating generative AI into its product ecosystem. This revelation follows a recent conversation Gurman had with Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, who disclosed the company’s long-standing involvement with AI in various forms, including autocorrect and health monitoring. However, Cook was particularly evasive about generative AI.
Cook stated, “We’ve been working on generative AI for years and have done a lot of research. And we’re going to approach it really thoughtfully and think about it deeply because we’re fully aware of the not-good uses that it can have, and the issues around bias and hallucination.”
Apple’s Approach toward AI
Apple’s approach to generative AI, Cook emphasized, is rooted in the pursuit of excellence rather than being the first to the market. He said, “You know, we’ve never felt an urgency to be first, we’ve always felt an urgency to be best, and that is how we go into this as well.”
Gurman’s report indicates that the fruits of Apple’s labor may be visible as early as next year. It suggests that Apple’s software engineering team, led by Craig Federighi, is integrating AI into the forthcoming iOS update, potentially making it available by the next iPhone release next fall. The envisioned improvements include a more intelligent Siri and a Messages app capable of automatically completing sentences.
Beyond the consumer-facing features, generative AI could find its way into development tools like Xcode, expediting app development, and even impact services such as Apple Music, enabling AI-generated playlists. Productivity apps like Pages and Keynote might harness AI for content generation and slide creation.
Summing Up
One of the pivotal questions in the generative AI landscape is whether it should be on-device or in the cloud. Cook asserted Apple’s unwavering commitment to user privacy and declined the notion that more advanced tasks in the cloud would justify compromising it. He said, “To us, privacy is a fundamental human right, and the atmosphere is such that people’s privacy is being challenged every day. We think privacy is more important today than it was 10 years ago.”
