Apple Might Partner with Meta on AI (techcrunch.com) 27
Earlier this month Apple announced a partnership with OpenAI to bring ChatGPT to Siri.
"Now, the Wall Street Journal reports that Apple and Facebook's parent company Meta are in talks around a similar deal," according to TechCrunch: A deal with Meta could make Apple less reliant on a single partner, while also providing validation for Meta's generative AI tech. The Journal reports that Apple isn't offering to pay for these partnerships; instead, Apple provides distribution to AI partners who can then sell premium subscriptions... Apple has said it will ask for users' permission before sharing any questions and data with ChatGPT. Presumably, any integration with Meta would work similarly.
"Now, the Wall Street Journal reports that Apple and Facebook's parent company Meta are in talks around a similar deal," according to TechCrunch: A deal with Meta could make Apple less reliant on a single partner, while also providing validation for Meta's generative AI tech. The Journal reports that Apple isn't offering to pay for these partnerships; instead, Apple provides distribution to AI partners who can then sell premium subscriptions... Apple has said it will ask for users' permission before sharing any questions and data with ChatGPT. Presumably, any integration with Meta would work similarly.
Pluggable LLMs (Score:4, Interesting)
Apple was pretty clear they wanted to be able to plug in multiple LLM products. I'm sure Apple will have very specific terms for the LLM interface and for what the LLM provider can do with the data.
This also goes back to China, because I'm sure Apple wanted to make sure they could plug in a Chinese-approved LLM. It also might be relevant to the EU with their rules and restrictions on "gatekeeper companies." (I express no opinion here on the EU's policies.)
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Keeping business in those countries require it, I think you nailed it.
It's a good strategy. Keep them in silos.
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This also goes back to China, because I'm sure Apple wanted to make sure they could plug in a Chinese-approved LLM.
And Meta would somehow fit that bill? *ROFL*
Oh please please do this... (Score:2)
is Apple struggling to develop in-house AI (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:is Apple struggling to develop in-house AI (Score:4, Informative)
Here's a hint: There's much more to AI than Large Language Models. Apple, Google and others have been doing on-platform AI with computational photography, motion sensing (e.g. crash detection) and similar machine learning projects. Apple was clearly not investing in LLMs.
See https://sixcolors.com/post/202... [sixcolors.com] where Jason Snell wrote
It seems to me that on Monday, we saw three different kinds of AI features. Apple won’t ever say which was which, but the rest of us can guess at it. The three categories are:
Features Apple would’ve done anyway. The company has been rolling machine-learning stuff into its software for ages now. Would smarter photo tagging and better Inbox organization in Mail have been announced regardless of Apple’s new, big AI focus? Almost certainly. Apple has always been about leveraging advanced technology in the service of customer needs.
Features Apple would’ve done eventually. It sure seems like Apple’s shift of priorities led to some features being announced that seem very much like the sort of thing Apple would’ve done, but at a slower pace and more conservatively. There seem to be more WWDC announcements than usual that ask for our patience because they won’t be ready until later this year or even sometime next year. But if it was an AI-related feature and was on the drawing board, it probably got pulled forward for introduction at WWDC 2024. Ready or not, here they come.
Features Apple would never have done. There are some areas where Apple shows the strain of fearing they’ll be seen as burying their heads in the sand and resisting the trends. ChatGPT support and Image Playgrounds both feel like areas where Apple is stepping far out of its comfort zone in order to make it seem more tuned in to the zeitgeist.
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Nice Cite.
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90%+ of the AI they showed off at WWDC was their own. There was one small segment where they showed it asking for approval to go out to ChatGPT. I'd hardly call that struggling.
Meta specializes in "Smallish" LLMs (Score:4, Informative)
Unlike the Bigger LLMs like chatGPT, smallish LLMs like Meta's LLaMa family can run "device side", which is a plus for Apple, both for user privacy, for marketing and public/brand image, and to make use of the NPUs of the older iPhone models, NPUs underpowered by today's standards.
So, is not inconceivable that the full phat OpenAI models run on the cloud and selcted macs, slimer OpenAI models run hardware side on the mac and selected iPads, the full fat LLaMa runs on iPads and selected iPhomes, and the smallish LLaMas run on older iPhones, iPads (and even intel macs if possible, pretty please, with sugar and DP-4a on macs with AMD cards ;-) )
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That's possible, but that sounds like an extremely inconsistent user experience for a company that prides itself on very tight integration across their devices.
They are iniconsistent already, there are thing you can do on mac that can not be done on phone or tablet, there are things done on tablet that can not be done on phones, and there are things done on the latests and greatest phones that can not be done on older phones.
If anything, this is an "equalizer of sorts"... All devices have AI device side, but more inderpowered the harware, the less 'I' in your AI
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(and even intel macs if possible, pretty please, with sugar and DP-4a on macs with AMD cards ;-) )
Dream-er! You're nothing but a Dream-er!
Hmmmm... (Score:5, Insightful)
Put another way: "Champion of Privacy Partners With Privacy Rapist"
What could possibly go wrong?
All Over the Map (Score:2)
Re: All Over the Map (Score:1)
Re: All Over the Map (Score:2)
I gotta call my broker (Score:2)
And sell off my Apple stock. Meta? Feh.
Time to flee Apple platforms (Score:2)
If you use Apple because you think Apple would safeguard your data, it is time to consider other platforms.
The Apple would consider deals like this with the notorious Meta, tells you (1) Apple is desperate in the area of AI, and (2) Apple is ready to sell out customers' data for AI.
Well, once the door is opened for selling out user data, even if this deal failed, other deals is now ok to be considered as long as the price is right. Apple will go down the path of Microsoft soon enough in the aspect of gathe
Sure, kill all your cred on privacy (Score:3)
Apple markets itself as a privacy protector, at least compared to companies that don't give a single [poop] about your privacy like MS and Google who will let anyone at all have all your info if it makes them some cash and have gone 100% down the AI [poop]hole. Yes, it is a *very low standard* - ideally you'd use a custom AOSP build and not put Play store on it, but less than 0.0001% of the population is wiling to do that. Apple has the reputation advantage there.
But the instant you partner with the company that's been the biggest, most malicious, privacy rapist in the US for 20 years (or at least one of the top 3, certainly on the malicious side), your entire credibility on that front is completely shot. I don't care how much you protest that you're not giving Facebook everything, Facebook is more maliciously clever than you are careful and they always have been. And there is no such thing as anonymization with Facebook, since they keep a constantly updated virtual avatar with whatever data they can beg borrow or steal from credit cards, banks, tax offices, etc for every single person on the planet they know anything about, even if that person is not on their platforms. FB knows about you. And if Apple partners with them at all they'll know even more. Hopefully they have the sense to realize this, but who knows with the AI drugs.
Ugh (Score:1)
apple is just (Score:1)
Apple (Score:3)
You cannot pull Meta up. They can only pull you down.
Tread carefully. This smells like a bad bad bad idea.
new streams of revenue for APPL (Score:1)
Seems people are missing the point. (Score:2)
Pretty sure that Apple is pursuing an "Intelligent Assistant." A lighter version of an LLM that can exist on a device and doesn't need to author your next screenplay. The AI that we really want; one that sifts through the spam to let us know about the IMPORTANT email, or one that finds something of interest, or can actually fill out a form only leaving the "decision bits" to the user. Finally, you can post that CV to the various websites that have you jump through hoops and make you enter in each job and Un