Apple is several years behind in the generative AI space, but one company should not be called out for its lack of foresight, as Google and many others were caught off-guard with the arrival of ChatGPT. Even though CEO Tim Cook states that Apple has been investing heavily in AI, there is yet to be something tangible made from that expenditure. However, a new report states that three of the technology giant’s executives will be spearheading various generative AI departments, with the entire undertaking said to cost the firm $1 billion annually.
Apple reportedly has plans to integrate generative AI into iOS and be paired with as many apps as possible
In the latest edition of Mark Gurman’s ‘Power On’ newsletter, the Bloomberg reporter states that Apple executives have been ‘scrambling’ since late last year to make up for all the lost time. Earlier, we reported that a chatbot dubbed Apple GPT was being worked on, but the company apparently has no direction on where to take it next. At its current stage, the chatbot is being used internally by Apple employees, and it cannot function without special access.
To push into the field of generative AI, Apple executives John Giannandrea and Craig Federighi are the individuals tasked for this push, with Eddy Cue, head of Apple services, also involved. With all three combined to achieve a single purpose, Gurman reports that the total expenditure for this generative AI could reach $1 billion annually.
“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.”
As for each executive’s responsibility, Giannandrea is said to be ‘overseeing development’ of the underlying technology for a new AI system, with his team revamping Siri, making it smarter than its current implementation. Federighi is reportedly adding AI to the next version of iOS, with improved features said to upgrade how Siri and Messages function, such as auto-completing sentences. The software engineering teams are also looking to integrate generative AI into development tools like Xcode, making it compete with the likes of Microsoft’s GitHub Copilot.
Cue’s responsibility will be to bring generative AI into as many applications as possible, starting with the exploration of new features for Apple Music and helping people to write in apps such as Pages. There is also an internal debate going on regarding deploying AI as a completely on-device experience, a cloud-based setup, or something else. Each approach has its pros and cons, so there is not one correct answer.
We may witness a small preview of Apple GPT during next year’s WWDC keynote, and it goes without saying that the company has immense ground to cover, with or without that massive annual budget. As always, we will provide all the information for our readers in due time.
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