The most recent sources state that Apple is getting ready to introduce an AI avalanche for iPhones at its next WWDC 2024. This will involve some on-device and cloud-based AI models, but it will be done via the lens of OpenAI, arguably the most well-known and comprehensive AI developer community now operating.
Although Apple’s major developer conference is only three weeks away, it appears that OpenAI and Apple have finally reached an agreement to integrate AI into iOS. Apple expert Mark Gurman of Bloomberg revealed in his most recent newsletter that the Cupertino corporation appears to have finally signed the long-awaited agreement with OpenAI, citing a number of unnamed insider sources. Reportedly, Apple had previously attempted to court Google for similar purposes. However, it now appears that Apple wants to settle down with the people who are producing GPT-4o.
According to the sources, OpenAI’s technology will be directly integrated with iOS 18, implying that ChatGPT will be integrated with the company’s most well-known product, the iPhone, as well as the forthcoming iPhone 16.
The corporation has created AI internally for use in some of its new products. Gurman mentioned that Siri will initially receive an AI makeover to become more “conversational”.
With AI-powered photo editing, voice memo summaries, and article transcripts, it will largely be similar to what you’ve already seen elsewhere. All of it is material that we have previously seen from Adobe and Google employees, albeit to differing degrees of capacity and usefulness.
The supposedly “multimodal” AI speech and sight features that are currently all the rage are not mentioned. To help with the workload of cloud-based AI, Apple plans to place some of the more powerful M-series CPUs in its data centres.
Apple’s AI ambitions: Navigating the path to on-device intelligence
If Apple, which often has a maverick approach to both hardware and software, appears to be making a valiant effort to keep up with the Joneses, it appears that some Apple executives share this opinion.
Gurman added that a few high-ranking Apple employees are apprehensive about integrating a chatbot into the iPhone due to AI’s propensity for deceit, manipulation, and other mischievous behaviour towards gullible users. Apple wants to build a chatbot for its gadgets eventually, but in the interim, someone else will have to take over.
Although OpenAI released their ChatGPT app for iPhones about a year ago, it feels like a lifetime has passed since we last had the chatbot on iOS. Large language models, on the contrary, will soon be marketed as your “digital assistant”, replacing the chatbot-only way of life. Chatbots are ready to take Siri’s place on iPhones, in essence.
Thanks to Gemini for Android, Google has already started down the path toward that inevitable AI. Unsurprisingly, not every user has been pleased with the update or the fact that Gemini occasionally seems less competent than Google’s previous voice assistant.
You could already make use of Shortcut on iOS to make ChatGPT your go-to assistant, but Apple appears to feel that it wants to take on Google’s Gemini model head-on whether or not customers want it to. That firm devoted the majority of its time to demonstrating how AI is going to permeate every part of Android, Search, Chrome, and other platforms during its developer conference, I/O.
However, it appears Apple wants to showcase its artificial intelligence skills as well. Known as TOPS, or 38 trillion operations per second, the most recent iPad Pro model is equipped with the M4 chip. On-device AI is meant to be usable with that, albeit few apps are able to demonstrate the processing speed of AI well.
At its developer conference, Microsoft plans to emphasise artificial intelligence once more. The latest CPUs from Qualcomm boast 45 TOPS, but all of this will be as useless as a drunk man howling into a ditch unless we can actually identify a use case for on-device AI.
There is no word on when Apple will make the deals public, but the negotiations are apparently still in progress. Regarding the report, Apple and OpenAI have not responded.
Balancing privacy, partnerships, and potential mergers
While it develops a longer-term solution, the tech giant is testing with outside AI services. Separately, a Bloomberg story states that Apple is developing its own artificial intelligence chip for data centres, which are large buildings that house distant computer servers and power chatbots.
A portion of the delay stems from an internal debate about the relative benefits of on-device AI versus cloud-powered AI, with Apple usually favouring the latter due to its privacy features. Apple is one of a select few large corporations that forbade its staff members from utilising ChatGPT due to security concerns.
OpenAI, which already has Microsoft as an investor, might make a significant profit from such a merger. With Google, Meta, and numerous other smaller businesses in an AI arms race, the company is under pressure to offer new capabilities.
(Tashia Bernardus)