Apple CEO Tim Cook has announced that the company will be making significant advancements in Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) this year. The announcement was made during Apple’s annual shareholders meeting, coinciding with reports that the company had abandoned its long-term plan to build an electric vehicle. As a result, some of the staff from the EV project have been reassigned to work on various GenAI initiatives.
Unlike its competitors in the Big Tech industry, Apple has been relatively slow in investing and developing GenAI. During the company’s Q1 earnings call, Cook mentioned that Apple was internally working on GenAI but taking a more cautious approach to its customer-facing applications. The technology has only been briefly mentioned in previous press conferences and announcements, such as the introduction of new autocorrect and text prediction features in iOS.
However, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple is now planning to incorporate GenAI models into Siri and iOS’ built-in search tool, Spotlight. The goal is to enhance their capabilities to handle more complex queries and engage in sophisticated multi-turn conversations. Additionally, Apple is exploring the integration of AI-powered features into Keynote, Apple Music, and Xcode, allowing users to generate presentation slides, playlists, and coding suggestions respectively. These features may potentially be showcased in the upcoming versions of iOS, macOS, and iPadOS at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference this summer.
Apple’s increased focus on GenAI is evident through the growing number of academic and technical papers co-authored by its engineers. One paper describes a system capable of generating animated 3D avatars from short videos, while another introduces Keyframer, a tool for animating still images. Furthermore, Apple has released several open-source models and tools for developing GenAI-powered software in recent months. For instance, Ferret, a chatbot built on top of an existing open-source model called Vicuna, was released in October. Another model called MGIE, released earlier this year, allows image modification based on natural language commands.
To catch up in the GenAI field, Apple has reportedly invested $1 billion annually. This investment includes the development of a proprietary large language model called Ajax and an internal chatbot named Apple GPT. There are also rumors that the upcoming iPhone 16 models will feature a significantly upgraded Neural Engine, Apple’s custom on-device chip designed to accelerate AI processing.
Apple’s commitment to GenAI signifies its determination to remain at the forefront of technological innovation. With the potential integration of GenAI into various Apple products and services, users can expect enhanced capabilities and a more seamless user experience in the near future. As the company continues to break new ground in this field, the possibilities for GenAI applications are endless.