Each June, Apple unveils its newest software features for the iPhone at its futuristic Silicon Valley campus. But at its annual developer conference on Monday, the company will shine a spotlight on a feature that isn’t new: Siri, its talking assistant, which has been around for more than a decade.
What will be different this time is the technology powering Siri: generative artificial intelligence (AI).
In recent months, Adrian Perica, Apple’s vice president of corporate development, has helped spearhead an effort to bring generative AI to the masses, said two people with knowledge of the work, who asked for anonymity because of the sensitivity of the effort.
Perica and his colleagues have talked with leading AI companies, including Google and OpenAI, seeking a partner to help Apple deliver generative AI across its business. Apple recently struck a deal with OpenAI, which makes the ChatGPT chatbot, to fold its technology into the iPhone, two people familiar with the agreement said. It was still in talks with Google as of last week, two people familiar with the conversations said.
That has helped lead to a more conversational and versatile version of Siri, which will be shown today, three people familiar with the company said. Siri will be powered by a generative AI system developed by Apple, which will allow the talking assistant to chat rather than just respond to one question at a time. Apple will market its new AI capabilities as Apple Intelligence.
Apple, OpenAI and Google declined to comment. Apple’s agreement with OpenAI was previously reported by The Information and Bloomberg, which also reported the name for Apple’s AI system.
Apple’s move into generative AI will test whether the company can once again enter a new market and redefine it. While Apple didn’t make the first digital music player, smartphone or smartwatch, it transformed those categories with the iPod, iPhone and Apple Watch. Now, after two years of watching Microsoft, Meta, Google and Samsung integrate generative AI into products, Apple is going from observer to potential challenger. Weaving generative AI into iPhones is also set to be a key moment for the technology, which can answer questions, create images and write software code. Apple will broaden generative AI’s reach to more than a billion users and determine how useful it is for everyday iPhone customers.
To date, the technology’s promise has been undercut by its flaws. Google has introduced and pared back generative AI search abilities that recommended people eat rocks, while Microsoft has been criticised for the security vulnerabilities of a personal computer that uses AI to record every second of activity. “We’re still figuring AI out because it’s so complicated,” said Carolina Milanesi, president of Creative Strategies, a tech research firm. “Apple is pretty conservative when it comes to everything, so I don’t know that they will ‘wow’ people.”
Wall Street investors, and not Main Street consumers, are a major reason Apple is jumping into AI The technology has lifted the values of Microsoft, a big player in generative AI, and Nvidia, which sells AI chips. In January, Microsoft dethroned Apple as the world’s most valuable public tech company.
– After two years of watching Microsoft, Meta, Google, and Samsung integrate generative AI into products, Apple is going from observer to potential challenger
– Apple will broaden generative AI’s reach to more than a billion users and determine how useful it is for everyday iPhone customers
©2024 The New York Times News Service
First Published: Jun 10 2024 | 12:04 AM IST