Tim Cook has promised that Apple will "break new ground" on generative AI in 2024.
Cook's comments were delivered during Apple's annual shareholders meeting. They follow explanations from Cook during Apple's Q1 earnings call in which he said Apple was developing gen AI internally but emphasised a cautious and deliberate approach to introducing consumer-facing gen AI iterations.
Compared to the likes of Microsoft, Google, Cisco, Amazon and Zoom, AI hasn't been at the forefront of what Apple has been promoting or selling.
Apart from Apple adding new autocorrect and text prediction features in iOS last autumn, news also broke last July that Apple employees were using the tech giant’s in-house generative AI, nicknamed Apple GPT, to boost their productivity.
Bloomberg reported then that Apple had been creating a framework through which to develop its own large language models (LLMs), named Ajax. Ajax allows Apple to possibly create a generative AI product to rival OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Bard or Microsoft’s Copilot.
A more recent Bloomberg report suggests Apple intends to enhance Siri and iOS' built-in search tool, Spotlight, by integrating GenAI models. This aims to empower both platforms to address more intricate prompts and manage advanced multi-turn conversations.
However, as this latest earnings call illustrated, any significant gen AI service designed for sophisticated enterprise or consumer use cases seems far off. Whether this "groundbreaking" gen AI reveal will feature Ajax or an entirely new LLM and product is currently up in the air.
A shareholder proposal to release a report on AI and ethics was also voted down during Apple's annual shareholders meeting.
How Might the Vision Pro Impact Collaboration?
It’s still very early days for both the Vision Pro and the concept of XR and spatial computing technology being utilised for communications and collaboration, but UC Today canvassed its panel of experts on this month’s Big UC News show for their thoughts so far on the device and their predictions for its future.
“What I think is most interesting about this is the timing of the entrance of Apple into the market,” said Maribel Lopez, Principal Analyst at Lopez Research. "There is opportunity in the market, and it is at the enterprise level. As consumers, we get all excited, and we’re like, ‘Well, who’s going to pay $3,500?’ But it’s not your average consumer. It’s a big business; it has a business use case."
