Apple’s Go-Slow A.I. Approach

"The tech giant announced a slew of artificial intelligence-focused features, but also signaled it will be patient in rolling out the technology to users.

A.I., the Apple way

After months of anticipation, Apple finally introduced its plan to infuse its products with artificial intelligence: Meet Apple Intelligence, which weaves the technology into core features of iPhones, iPads and Macs.

But while the tech giant announced a slew of new features, the announcement reflected a very Apple-like cautious approach to A.I. Yes, the company will add OpenAI’s ChatGPT to Siri — but it’s leaving the door open for adding other chatbots.

It all suggests that Apple is hedging its bets (or is simply behind its rivals), while slowly ramping up what A.I. will do for users.

OpenAI got its turn in the spotlight, as the only A.I. services provider name-checked at the Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday. iPhone users will be able to direct queries to the latest version of ChatGPT if Siri can’t handle them on its own.

Sam Altman, OpenAI’s C.E.O., was at Monday’s event, but didn’t speak. He did post on X: “very happy to be partnering with apple to integrate chatgpt into their devices later this year! think you will really like it.”

But the partnership appears more limited than predicted:

• ChatGPT will potentially get millions of new users — but it won’t store those queries, meaning that they can’t be used for training OpenAI’s models, and users’ internet addresses will be obscured.
• Apple isn’t charging users extra for accessing ChatGPT. Our questions: Who is footing the bill, and how large is it?
• And Craig Federighi, the iPhone maker’s software chief, said that the company would eventually bring in other A.I. models, probably including Google’s Gemini. That means OpenAI isn’t getting the kind of exclusive partnership that Google has as the default provider of search on iOS.

It does suggest that Elon Musk’s fulminations about OpenAI being tightly integrated with iOS — he has threatened to ban Apple devices from his companies if that happens — may be overblown.

Still, Apple is laying the groundwork for more disruption. For now, many of its new A.I. features are relatively small-scale, such as proofreading emails, automatically generated transcripts of phone calls and Google-esque photo manipulation.

Many A.I. requests will be handled locally by a user’s device, but more complex requests will be farmed out to Private Cloud Compute, Apple-run cloud servers that run on the company’s own processors (rather than chips from Nvidia, whose business has soared amid high demand from A.I. companies).

And Apple is promising that A.I. will be able to handle more user requests, potentially making a slew of apps obsolete. Pundits have already been speculating about which companies’ days are numbered.

Apple’s shares fell 2 percent Monday, denying the company the sort of boost that A.I. news has given to the likes of Microsoft and Nvidia. That said, the stock tends to fall after the conference, and some commentators said the news may bolster iPhone sales." [1]

1. Apple’s Go-Slow A.I. Approach: DealBook Newsletter. Andrew Ross Sorkin; Mattu, Ravi; Warner, Bernhard; Kessler, Sarah; Michael J. de la Merced; et al.  New York Times (Online) New York Times Company. Jun 11, 2024.