Apple GPT: What We Know About Apple's Work on Generative AI

[Technerd108]

Despite the context added by this article I don't buy it. It is a good excuse but Apple is a company based on profit. Sure they don't want to have a bad image in AI but that ship sailed a long time ago. Siri has completely sucked for years. Apple phones still don't even have call screening.

I love Apple and think their SOC design and industrial design are some of the best in the world.

But I got to call it as I see it, there work in AI is really far behind. Even if they released a new Siri today it will takes months to years to get it optimized in the real world which Google and others have already been doing.

I don't doubt a trillion dollar company can round up the resources to compete but from the outside looking in it has seemed to be a very unimportant thing to develop and perfect AI within Apple products. Can they catch up to everyone else in time?

I think they can, but they have a lot of work to do and not much time before they have a reputation that is worse than a bad bot.

 

[SoldOnApple]

I want Siri to remember everything i ever interacted with her for all time. Remind me of things i said years ago, keep track of my mood and heart rate and stuff.

 

[NEPOBABY]

I want Siri to remember everything i ever interacted with her for all time. Remind me of things i said years ago, keep track of my mood and heart rate and stuff.

That is an extremely bad idea for users who live in countries or states where authorities will demand that this data be handed over to them. If a woman was asking Siri for abortion advice or if a man was asking how to brew beer, that can get them arrested or worse in some places.

No corporation can be trusted to keep your data private forever. If a government has enough muscle they will get that data and in some cases corporations have a change in their CEO who is happy to help governments oppress citizens.

Do not rule out unfavourable future outcomes whenever an idea pops into your head.

And Siri is not a 'her'. It's an 'it'.

 

[SoldOnApple]

That is an extremely bad idea for users who live in countries or states where authorities will demand that this data be handed over to them. If a woman was asking Siri for abortion advice or if a man was asking how to brew beer, that can get them arrested or worse in some places.

No corporation can be trusted to keep your data private forever. If a government has enough muscle they will get that data and in some cases corporations have a change in their CEO who is happy to help governments oppress citizens.

Do not rule our unfavourable future outcomes whenever an idea pops into your head.

And Siri is not a 'her'. It's an 'it'.

Well my Siri has a male voice, so "it" is a he.

 

[sevoneone]

That is an extremely bad idea for users who live in countries or states where authorities will demand that this data be handed over to them. If a woman was asking Siri for abortion advice or if a man was asking how to brew beer, that can get them arrested or worse in some places.

No corporation can be trusted to keep your data private forever. If a government has enough muscle they will get that data and in some cases corporations have a change in their CEO who is happy to help governments oppress citizens.

Do not rule our unfavourable future outcomes whenever an idea pops into your head.

And Siri is not a 'her'. It's an 'it'.

"Hey Siri, lookup my 23andMe results..."

 

[TheGenerous]

I want to create iJustine fanart so she can sign it for me 🥴

 

[String]

What has intelligence and Siri got in common?
it’s truly awful most times.

 

[Kazgarth]

I think Apple will not use ChatGPT but Claude 2

It's more modern and will differentiate itself from the rest.

 

[Any name]

this sounds fantastic! I hope there's an easy way to remove the service from my device

 

[Hkfan45]

Considering how far behind the competition Siri is currently, I don’t have much hope for Apple AI.

 

[Rygaard]

I don’t understand, the hype cycle on AI-everything has already begun to die down.

Are people looking for Siri to write essays or something?

No but if Siri understood just 1/2 of my VERY simple promts and could anwser it would be nice... Hey siri how much rain today "i found this on the net, look at your phone" .... or could do more complex tasks like summerize todays news .... chatGBT is lights years ahead, and i suspect that you have never tried it since you dont see the difference. then understanding of ChatGBT is the difference between talking to a todler that speak another laungish and trying to get him to turn on the Light VS talking to a well trained butler.

 

[NT1440]

No but if Siri understood just 1/2 of my VERY simple promts and could anwser it would be nice... Hey siri how much rain today "i found this on the net, look at your phone" .... or could do more complex tasks like summerize todays news .... chatGBT is lights years ahead, and i suspect that you have never tried it since you dont see the difference. then understanding of ChatGBT is the difference between talking to a todler that speak another laungish and trying to get him to turn on the Light VS talking to a well trained butler.

I’ve tried it. I just don’t use digital assistants much for anything.

The Bing AI spit out realistic instructions for an M365 feature that didn’t exist when the MS reps were demoing it for me (instead of answering the straightforward question I asked them).

AI has its place, but nothing I do in my personal or professional life benefits from having a *language model* involved. Especially when it spits out realistic sounding gibberish…

 

[Swissfashion]

AI is the first part of the car license plate in the Canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden, whose Webseite is ai.ch

 

[madeirabhoy]

Imagine this - iGPT

I would say iChat but we've been there before...

Most obvious rebrand for Siri..... Iris...

 

[montuori]

Especially when it spits out realistic sounding gibberish…

This, 100%. While fooling around with ChatGPT I asked it to write me some Python code; the results were spectacular if you overlook the inconvenient fact that it relied on a non-existent library. I can only imagine the world of hurt if one starts asking for medical, legal, or financial advice.

Siri may not be much -- although it sets timers and shuts the lights off just fine -- but other MLish iOS/MacOS features like the photo searching work really well. I'd like to see more ML integrated into applications. How nice would it be to ask Maps "Create a scenic motorcycle ride to a BBQ spot about an hour away avoiding highways and preferring unpaved roads?"

 

[NT1440]

This, 100%. While fooling around with ChatGPT I asked it to write me some Python code; the results were spectacular if you overlook the inconvenient fact that it relied on a non-existent library. I can only imagine the world of hurt if one starts asking for medical, legal, or financial advice.

Siri may not be much -- although it sets timers and shuts the lights off just fine -- but other MLish iOS/MacOS features like the photo searching work really well. I'd like to see more ML integrated into applications. How nice would it be to ask Maps "Create a scenic motorcycle ride to a BBQ spot about an hour away avoiding highways and preferring unpaved roads?"

This is the part that worries me. Because these language models output stuff that *sounds* right, the general public trusts that it is.

If in your work you keep in mind that it’s your responsibility to verify it, it can be a great tool.

Regular people, however, don’t understand that there is nothing *intelligent* going on here. So there’s good reason to be concerned that major decisions will be based off false assumptions because “that’s what the computer said”.

I don’t think humanity as a whole has the capacity to keep that important caveat in mind at all times. We will soon be awash in news, policies, and decision making based off the casual assumption that “it’s right because the computer spit it out”. That’s wildly dangerous.

 

[JungleNYC]

It's been disappointing for years now to say "hey Siri, what's the _________" and be given a link to a wikipedia page… that you have to read.

Hopefully this will help Siri become actually useful.

 

[delsoul]

You’ll get one feature for one price, but you won’t get the other features. Then when you “upgrade” to that higher price, you’ll get THAT feature, but you won’t get the feature from the lower price you just came from.

This is the Apple Way.

It’s important to keep in mind that true AI is uncontrollable and unpredictable. This “AI” is still programmed by humans and parameters set into place. Ask it a question it doesn’t like, it’ll give you an answer that the programmers wanted it to. The bias of the programmers will soon reveal itself rather quickly

 

[jchap]

But I got to call it as I see it, there work in AI is really far behind. Even if they released a new Siri today it will takes months to years to get it optimized in the real world which Google and others have already been doing.

I don't doubt a trillion dollar company can round up the resources to compete but from the outside looking in it has seemed to be a very unimportant thing to develop and perfect AI within Apple products. Can they catch up to everyone else in time?

As Tim Cook said, Apple is being very “deliberate“ about their approach towards AI, and with good reason.

As the article explains, there are different levels of artificial intelligence, and simple machine learning algorithms are at the core of most of them. Apple is already doing a fair amount in terms of ML.

Does Apple absolutely need to cross over into offering a full-fledged AI bot like their competitors? It’s clear that Siri isn’t cutting the mustard as a personal assistant for most people, due to its simplicity. Introducing a true AI-powered personal assistant that surpasses Siri’s well-meaning but often feeble efforts at guessing what the user wants would be a beneficial step for Apple. I think that Apple will do it their own way, in their own style and time, and in a way that differentiates themselves from the other chat bot-style AI tools already out there.

Apparently the current capabilities and limitations of Siri and Apple’s other onboard machine learning technologies aren’t enough of a reason for people to shun Apple products for now.

 

[Technerd108]

As Tim Cook said, Apple is being very “deliberate“ about their approach towards AI, and with good reason.

As the article explains, there are different levels of artificial intelligence, and simple machine learning algorithms are at the core of most of them. Apple is already doing a fair amount in terms of ML.

Does Apple absolutely need to cross over into offering a full-fledged AI bot like their competitors? It’s clear that Siri isn’t cutting the mustard as a personal assistant for most people, due to its simplicity. Introducing a true AI-powered personal assistant that surpasses Siri’s well-meaning but often feeble efforts at guessing what the user wants would be a beneficial step for Apple. I think that Apple will do it their own way, in their own style and time, and in a way that differentiates themselves from the other chat bot-style AI tools already out there.

Apparently the current capabilities and limitations of Siri and Apple’s other onboard machine learning technologies aren’t enough of a reason for people to shun Apple products for now.

"Apparently the current capabilities and limitations of Siri and Apple’s other onboard machine learning technologies aren’t enough of a reason for people to shun Apple products for now."

Not a good business practice to do what is just barely good enough for now. Competition on AI is fierce. Google, Amazon, Microsoft are dumping huge sums of money just to be a part of the space. These companies would not invest so much money unless they knew the potential would pay off.

I understand levels of AI. I understand that Apple has a deliberate approach. However, you don't continue with the same approach when it is clearer failing. You adapt or get left behind.

Right now, Apple is getting left behind. I used to have an iPhone and have several other Apple products that I love but as a case in point the amount of spam texts and calls I get on my iPhone were pretty bad. I didn't realize how bad until I got a Pixel. A big part of why I like Pixel phones is call screening and photo chops. Both are AI features. Apple doesn't have them and it was a feature I considered on the Pixel 8 Pro over the iPhone 15 Pro Max.

I can't be the only one. Text to speech on Siri? Laughable. Just using Siri as a basic digital assistant is practically useless while on my Pixel I can use the phone hands free, dictate an email, find an address, all just using voice commands. Try that with Siri.

Now I have no idea what Apple is doing in the background. They could have an AI assistant ready to blow Google out of the water today. It will still take time for it to work in the real world. And from what I can tell Apple isn't ready to launch a new AI assistant.

So I don't see how this situation is going to change unless Apple shifts strategies and becomes a lot more aggressive with the use of AI. Regarding security concerns at least for now Apple could put a disclaimer that the new AI is a beta feature and once it is finalized a security audit will take place and any changes that need to be made will be implemented to improve privacy. That way they could get in the game and fix things later. Pretty common in software business.

 

[rulymammoth]

TBH Apple are really behind the 8 ball when it comes to AI. I have no doubt they've got the resources, financial and intellectual clout to pull something off.

But they always appear to be several steps behind the other players and there track record with Siri is not good.

I refuse to believe that a company as forward-thinking as Apple doesn't have some significant AI work in development. Or rather, I refuse to believe that they're as aimless as the article is making them sound. Anyone in Silicon Valley understands how important AI will be, and they've known this well before the whole AI craze this year.

 

[Beautyspin]

Blame that to Apple stands on user privacy. Siri can only guess what you want, she can't steal that information from your browser. She is not allowed.

It can use the data that it collects from your device though, or is it restricted to Apple Advertisements only? Open your eyes.

https://www.cpomagazine.com/data-privacy/privacy-lawsuits-accuse-apple-of-ignoring-analytics-data-preference-settings-on-devices/

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[solarflab]

The problem with most AI is that they are not artificial at all. The output of the AI is programmed to be random, but only within the parameters as set by the programmers.

Things like personal (and other biases and what the programmers consider offensive is taken into account. This makes their attempt at AI totally worthless.

True AI is unpredictable. It might output something the programmers of it do not like or find offensive. It might output the inconvenient truth.

All of the companies listed above,
google, microsoft, amazon and meta, as well as Apple all have strong views on what is offensive and have spent large amounts of money lobbying in areas far outside the scope of their business. Are they even capable of setting aside their biases to create a truly artificial intelligence. Their history says no, they can not. However I am willing to be surprised if the actually do it.

That is not true at all. The AI is not programmed, it is basically taught to predict outcomes based on an input and context. If you provide the algorithm enough training data it will find relationships and meaning of words and context that might be alien to us, but more often than not it gives the illusion of understanding. It's all math, statistics and compute. There are no programmers sitting and actively giving it a bias, the bias is in the training data. Fine tuning however is currently done by humans to some degree, that part might induce some bias, but not enough to actually affect the model in any meaningful way.

Humans are not truly unpredictable, I dont know what makes you think that "true" AI should be.

 

[Jackbequickly]

Siri could use some help for Sure.

 

[No5tromo]

I don't think that Steve Jobs would have tolerated the current state of Siri if he was around. It's embarrassingly bad.