Inside Apple's Big Plan to Bring Generative AI To All Its Devices (bloomberg.com) 52
An anonymous reader shares a report: Apple was caught flat-footed when ChatGPT and other AI tools took the technology industry by storm. But the company is now preparing its response and plans to develop features for its full range of devices. One of the most intense and widespread endeavors at Apple right now is its effort to respond to the AI frenzy sweeping the technology industry. The company has some catching up to do. Apple largely sat on the sidelines when OpenAI's ChatGPT took off like a rocket last year. It watched as Google and Microsoft rolled out generative AI versions of their search engines, which spit out convincingly human-like responses to users' queries. Microsoft also updated its Windows apps with smarter assistants, and Amazon unveiled an AI-enhanced overhaul of Alexa. All the while, the only noteworthy AI release from Apple was an improved auto-correct system in iOS 17.
Apple's senior vice presidents in charge of AI and software engineering, John Giannandrea and Craig Federighi, are spearheading the effort. On Cook's team, they're referred to as the "executive sponsors" of the generative AI push. Eddy Cue, the head of services, is also involved, I'm told. The trio are now on course to spend about $1 billion per year on the undertaking. Giannandrea is overseeing development of the underlying technology for a new AI system, and his team is revamping Siri in a way that will deeply implement it. This smarter version of Siri could be ready as soon as next year, but there are still concerns about the technology and it may take longer for Apple's AI features to spread across its product line. Federighi's software engineering group, meanwhile, is adding AI to the next version of iOS. There's an edict to fill it with features running on the company's large language model, or LLM, which uses a flood of data to hone AI capabilities. The new features should improve how both Siri and the Messages app can field questions and auto-complete sentences, mirroring recent changes to competing services.
Apple's senior vice presidents in charge of AI and software engineering, John Giannandrea and Craig Federighi, are spearheading the effort. On Cook's team, they're referred to as the "executive sponsors" of the generative AI push. Eddy Cue, the head of services, is also involved, I'm told. The trio are now on course to spend about $1 billion per year on the undertaking. Giannandrea is overseeing development of the underlying technology for a new AI system, and his team is revamping Siri in a way that will deeply implement it. This smarter version of Siri could be ready as soon as next year, but there are still concerns about the technology and it may take longer for Apple's AI features to spread across its product line. Federighi's software engineering group, meanwhile, is adding AI to the next version of iOS. There's an edict to fill it with features running on the company's large language model, or LLM, which uses a flood of data to hone AI capabilities. The new features should improve how both Siri and the Messages app can field questions and auto-complete sentences, mirroring recent changes to competing services.
Because we all know (Score:1)
More AI? How "meh". Big shrugs all around. (Score:2)
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That's the point. "Bringing AI to all your devices" really means "Training our LLM on your behaviour on all your devices whether you like it or not".
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Current AI is trivial and useless. If you can get the answer from AI then it was all on the internet for you to see and figure it out on your own anyway.
This sentiment is both the blessing and curse for AI. ChatGPT greatly increased public and corporate interest in generative AI. Unfortunately, the lay public doesn't know what AI is, so they assume it is represented by a ChatGPT-like use case. Since ChatGPT and friends are still under development, they have many obvious flaws, for which the entire AI effort is mocked. Fortunately, corporate support for AI remains strong because companies understand the many use cases for AI, most of which are in the plu
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companies understand the many use cases for AI
Harvard Business School recently conducted a GenAI usability study with 750+ employees of the Boston Consulting Group. BCG concluded that to use GenAI right, companies need to "crack the code" (think Enigma), and if they don't, GenAI can cause "significant value destruction".
Let it sink: significant value destruction.
https://www.bcg.com/publicatio... [bcg.com]
What is the evidence for the many use cases? I use it to help with coding or explaining large code bases here and
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It does all the finding, summarizing and hallucinating for you with a single prompt.
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The features sound trivial and useless. The pervasive "We're gonna put more AI in, now buy stock" message is limp, lame, and transparent. It's been a long damn time since I got excited about Apple's hardware or software (still like my Quadra 700, lol). Folks used to be most excited by their GUI features, but now the system feels too walled-off by Apple themselves. Hard to get excited about some new GUI gizmo when Apple seems to be going after your privacy and choice hammer and tongs and giving free hugs to Skynet.
Today's direct translation of "we're gonna put more AI in" is "we're going to suck up as much of your data as we possibly can to *COUGH* train our AI *COUGH*." Eventually, that data will be used to sort ads for us. As all data is, apparently, wont to do.
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I think your translation is the correct one. They seem to be trying to sell us "features" that are effectively only spyware for The Man.
Since the Internet is chock-full of totally-free information far more useful for training a LLM than scraping your Amazon Purchase History and breathless texts about the next Taylor Swift Concert, I very much doubt Apple is going to use the largely redundant and generally syntactically-confusing private output of their Userbase.
It just makes no sense.
But perhaps you have an actual Citation to bolster your Paranoic Fantasy?
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But perhaps you have an actual Citation to bolster your Paranoic Fantasy?
They just canceled plans [wired.com] to scan for pedo content on phones. Were it not for an outcry, that would have gone forward. So, you've got your head completely up your ass if you think they aren't willing and salivating over allowing third parties full access to your content. This means government and corporations. If they think they can make money by selling our phones content to LLM developers, then there is little doubt they'll do that, too. Also, there is no such word as "paranoic" and if there was, it sure
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But perhaps you have an actual Citation to bolster your Paranoic Fantasy?
They just canceled plans [wired.com] to scan for pedo content on phones. Were it not for an outcry, that would have gone forward. So, you've got your head completely up your ass if you think they aren't willing and salivating over allowing third parties full access to your content. This means government and corporations. If they think they can make money by selling our phones content to LLM developers, then there is little doubt they'll do that, too. Also, there is no such word as "paranoic" and if there was, it sure as fuck wouldn't need capitalization. I think you are a 12 year old idiot who is fucking around on your laptop when you should be paying attention to your English teacher. You're never going to get out of 6th grade at this rate.
Apple itself rethought the whole CSAM thing, and killed the whole thing like two years ago.
BTW, they are currently threatening to pull FaceTime and Messages out of the UK, over their government planning on requiring encryption-busting scanning. Doesn't sound to me like they are into indiscriminately vacuuming-up and disseminating User-data.
https://thehackernews.com/2023... [thehackernews.com]
Also, I capitalize sometimes because I get tired of Slashdot's antediluvian editor/HTML-test.
Finally, I dearly wish I was the age you hav
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And I almost forgot:
Paranoic is most certainly a word.
https://www.merriam-webster.co... [merriam-webster.com]
https://dictionary.cambridge.o... [cambridge.org]
https://www.collinsdictionary.... [collinsdictionary.com]
Shall I continue to demonstrate your clearly deficient vocabulary?
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But, as for you, still no actual citations of Apple actually doing this alleged datamining; let alone selling it to outside parties.
From a google search [letmegooglethat.com] even a butthurt Apple fanboi could have done: All the Data Apple Collects About You—and How to Limit It [wired.com] oh and how
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Only the first lists "paranoic" as a "variant" (and proceeds to spell it "paranoiac" in the main heading) the other two clearly say "paranoiac" and don't mention your mispelled bullshit at all... So, quit making things up and crawfishing. Clearly, you're reaching after misspelling and miscapitalizing. You gonna point it out in Canturbury Tales or something next? Hahah.
But, as for you, still no actual citations of Apple actually doing this alleged datamining; let alone selling it to outside parties.
From a google search [letmegooglethat.com] even a butthurt Apple fanboi could have done: All the Data Apple Collects About You—and How to Limit It [wired.com] oh and how about a nice slideshow [gizmodo.com] for those short of attention span and appearently unable to use a search engine.
It is quite telling that you concentrate on a minor spelling error of mine; but when you attempt to address my statements pointing-out that you have utterly failed in your attempts to show that Apple was all-too-happy to collect all sorts of data "about you" and send (sell) it to companies and governments, you instead link to a Wired Article that neatly negates your false allegations that attempt to paint Apple as some evil Data Broker; and instead points out that Apple is actually quite well-mannered in th
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Wow that's a lot of ranting and bullshit. You mad, bro?
And still no actual citation that shows that Apple is "[. . .] willing and salivating over allowing third parties full access to your content. This means government and corporations. If they think they can make money by selling our phones content to LLM developers, then there is little doubt they'll do that, too. "
So, looks like you're the one "[. . .] with your head up your ass".
Now, STFU and GTFO, Hater!
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Now, STFU and GTFO, Hater!
tldr; you still mad bro? lol.
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Just allow me to "opt out", and turn off.....and make it easy to do.
I don't use Siri now...I shut it down on all devices, I hope this still stays an option going forward as Siri grows more "intelligent"....
I still want no part of it...me using it, or it using me.
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Folks used to be most excited by their GUI features, but now the system feels too walled-off by Apple themselves. Hard to get excited about some new GUI gizmo when Apple seems to be going after your privacy and choice hammer and tongs and giving free hugs to Skynet.
You're missing the point on disappointment from the Apple user's perspective. You're not wrong that we used get excited about the UI stuff, because Apple used to actually care about that sort of detail. People here aren't likely to be receptive, because Apple isn't popular here, but that was always Apple's bread and butter. Finding inventive ways to make life easier.
Lately a lot of the UI changes are steps backwards. If you fish through user comments on Reddit, or Apple's own forums, the vast majorit
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Well, I don't really think I'm a "true believer", insofar as I'm equally comfortable working in Windows, Linux, and Mac. I have proselytized Apple to non-technical folks but mostly out of a desire not to become their lifelong Tier 1 support resource, lol. Apple has (at least until MBAs fuck it up) superior end user support on that front.
What they're doing, from my point of view, is trying to keep up with the Joneses. Apple gets shit for not having widgets in iOS? Add widgets to iOS, even though the vas
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I can't recall the last novel thing they came up with.
Howabout a (so-far) Free, Satellite-based SOS-and-Family-Locator System, that has already helped many people in several countries?
Also, what counts as "Novel"? As time gies on, that Order inevitably gets taller and taller fairly quickly within the constraints of what is technically and economically-feasible within a given product and services-range.
hope it’ll have a sense of humor (Score:2)
> Siri, how many Kg in a KILO?
Siri: Exactly 1. I wish all my questions were so easy!
Maybe sire will be useful ? (Score:1)
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I canâ(TM)t believe itâ(TM)s not possible for me to say hey Siri play Blackstar by David Bowie without Siri giving me some screwed up cocky message why it canâ(TM)t do that.
Donâ(TM)t get me started on Apple Maps. When I want to book an appointment at my favorite branch of a gym maps is not smart enough to assume that perhaps I want to see a gym thatâ(TM)s located close to my current location and not one 2000 miles awayâ¦
Funny, I just said "Hey Siri, play Blackstar by David Bowie."
2 Seconds later, Apple Music starts playing Blackstar by David Bowie, with a Dialog that has some other suggestions at the bottom, in case it misunderstood my Request.
And that's on my ancient iPhone 8, running iOS 16.7.1, with the TV in the same room, spewing spoken word at about 70 dB.
I'm not sure what more you could ask for in Speech Recognition or natural-language Query Parsing!
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Sorry, pressed Send too quickly.
Similarly, when I asked Siri to "find a Gym", I got a list of Gyms that were located near me.
One thing that can mess that up is when your Internet Provider reports your location as wherever it damned-well pleases. The other day, My ATT Fiber at home was reporting my location half a continent away.
Perhaps adding the phrase "near me" may ensure Siri uses Location Services to attempt a more accurate assessment of your actual location on the Planet? You do have Location Services
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Ya sure, apple has siri working perfectly for its paid shills and the rest of their user have nothing but issue. You must be one of tims chosen ones.
You need help.
Note to Apple (Score:2)
Dear Apple,
Please don't.
- The Users
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Dear Apple,
Please don't.
- The Users
Let me get this straight: You don't want Siri to Improve?
Speak for yourself!
So⦠(Score:1)
Appleâ(TM)s the only one thatâ(TM)s shipped AI systems that *actually work*.
This is typical. Everyone else does a bunch of âoelook how cool our thing isâ with stuff that either isnâ(TM)t a product, or only half works. Then Apple comes along with a product that works, claims they invented it, and everyone else yells âoelame, not as good as the nomadâ
Don't forget to add in blockchain (Score:2)
I Thought They Didn't Care About AI (Score:3)
AI must be easy (Score:2)
Apple has been working on Siri for the past decade with minimal progress. Now that generative AI is hot, Apple seemingly thinks it can just devote sufficient resources and greatly improve Siri in one year. The assumption is that the sole reason for Siri's lack of improvement has been a lack of focus and resources and not any technological challenges.
This is a common sentiment regarding many companies in the AI space. For example, AMD has been working on GPUs and AI on GPUs for many years. Nvidia current
lack of strategy (Score:2)
Just more of the usual. [wikipedia.org]
If something actually useful gets through this process, it's amazing. Until then, it's just the buzzword bingo game played by sales drones.
Who the heck wants this? (Score:2)
Why are these companies rolling out this AI crap on consumers? It sounds like nothing but a dick measuring contests between these asshats. And it's not AI, it's a large language model for Pete's sake.
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There are benefits (beyond advertising) to the NN/ML/LLM push in general, but the challenge seems to be to get it to scale down effectively so it can be trained outside of a gigawatt-scale data center.
I'll admit most of the real applications that I have seen have been over-hyped and underwhelming. But some of the specialized systems have been pretty impressive. (Yes, advertising-focused in some way or another.)
I am trying to comprehend it in scales of a spreadsheet. You can do some really interesting thi
They better improve their chips & dev pipeline (Score:3)
The M1/M2 line of "GPUs" is a joke.
MPS software support is sorely lacking, e.g. in many areas of PyTorch code.
(No FP16 support in the hardware either.)
Apple needs to work hard to make their hardware usable to ML developers (developers developers) & users.
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better off that stuff (Score:1)
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They would have a much stronger position creating an "AI" free space that protect their user's data.
From this point onward, protecting user's data is considered anathema of the entire computer world. Unless you wanna go open source. There may be options out there for a limited time. But I'm sure that will either be changed by the big players, or the little guys will have to change it so they don't get called "drag behinds" or "luddites" or whatever other insults will motivate them into falling in line.
Data is fodder for advertising. And AI right now is the main driver of collecting ALL THE DATA. Advertise
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I'm waiting for them to ban computers we actually have full control over so they can push this agenda to it's fullest. I expect regulations to make old operating systems illegal while the tech-media shout from the rooftops about how "insecure" anything "old" is.
Considering how much they've been trying to do that already? Yeah. I've got a sys-admin at work that loses his mind over the fact I have a couple knock-about test systems still running SuSE that's nearly three years old. Perish the thought. If they never go on the net, I don't see the issue. But there is a brainwashing that's gone down for "security" purposes. While some of it's valid, the fear and paranoia around it is rather disheartening to us tinkerers. And considering the amount of stories we see about
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test systems still running SuSE that's nearly three years old. Perish the thought.
I intentionally keep an SGI running IRIX connected out to the open internet with no firewall (well, it has the old Darren Reed IP filter but I usually don't mention that). I just upgrade/recompile OpenSSH on it every so often and I have all trivial and vulnerable services shut off or filtered. I get a troll-like thrill from watching security weenies get apoplexy over it. I made sure to pick IRIX 6.5.30 which they all claim is super insecure. Well, if it's super insecure why has it been on the Internet since
All my aipes gone (Score:2)
Coming soon to a hodl-gang member near you.