If AI Is So Powerful and Replaces Us, Let It Happen at Least Without Criminal Activity as a Basis for It: Apple's Privacy Pledge At Odds With AI Goals --- Can the tech giant offer personalized artificial intelligence without gobbling up user information?

 

 

In essence, Apple seeks to balance its privacy pledge with its AI goals by leveraging a strategy centered on on-device processing and a unique Private Cloud Compute architecture.

 

On-device processing

 

    Minimizes Data Collection: The core principle is to keep as much data as possible on the user's device, processing AI tasks locally without sending personal information to Apple's servers.

    Examples: Features like Face ID, Touch ID, and Photos' facial recognition are performed entirely on the device, ensuring the data never leaves it.

 

Private Cloud Compute (PCC)

 

    Handles Complex Requests: For more complex AI tasks that require greater computational power, Apple Intelligence utilizes Private Cloud Compute.

    Extends Privacy to the Cloud: PCC is designed to extend the privacy and security of Apple devices into the cloud, ensuring user data is protected even when processed remotely.

    Key Privacy Principles of PCC:

        Stateless Processing: User data sent to PCC is used only to fulfill the specific request and is never stored on the servers.

        No Apple Access: Apple employees do not have privileged access to user data on PCC servers.

        Verifiable Transparency: Apple publishes the software running on PCC servers for independent security researchers to inspect and verify the privacy claims.

 

Additional privacy-enhancing techniques

 

    Differential Privacy: Apple employs differential privacy to gain insights into overall user trends without being able to identify individual users or their specific data. It adds a controlled amount of statistical noise to user data before it is aggregated, making it impossible to reconstruct individual data points.

    Homomorphic Encryption: This advanced encryption technique allows computations to be performed on encrypted data without decrypting it first. This allows Apple to use AI features, such as Enhanced Visual Search in Photos, without ever seeing the raw image content.

    User Control and Transparency: Apple provides granular settings to control which AI features access data, transparency reports showing what data leaves the device (for example, the Apple Intelligence Report), and requires user opt-in for certain privacy-affecting features like sharing Siri audio recordings.

 

By prioritizing on-device processing, employing Private Cloud Compute for more demanding tasks, and utilizing advanced privacy techniques like differential privacy and homomorphic encryption, Apple aims to deliver personalized AI experiences while maintaining its strong privacy stance and not "gobbling up" user data indiscriminately.

 

However, Apple’s privacy-preserving approach may come with trade-offs, such as potentially slower feature development compared to competitors with less restrictive data practices. Essentially, other than Apple AI service providers are stealing valuable user information to get rich from it quickly. The "black box" problem in AI makes it challenging to understand how some models process data and make decisions, raising transparency issues.

These privacy-neglecting AI companies have faced accusations and lawsuits regarding unauthorized data collection or misuse, highlighting the importance of robust data protection practices. If AI is so powerful and replaces us, let it happen at least without criminal activity as a basis for it.

 

The open source path, chosen by Chinese AI companies, e.g. DeepSeek, allows download models to the personal computer. This is important for companies intending to keep trade secrets. Mr. Altman is not able to provide such service, because he craves user data to train his models. Mr. Altman has to encounter bird Dodo fate. Poor Dodo vanished.

“AI is a risk to Apple's way of doing things in more ways than one.

 

The technology doesn't just open the door to possibly replace the iPhone. It seriously threatens Tim Cook's ethos around user privacy.

 

The Current Thing in Silicon Valley, after all, is the idea that personalized artificial intelligence will live and breathe on consumer devices carried everyday and everywhere. Listening, watching, recording.

 

Whether it be smartglasses as Mark Zuckerberg envisions for Meta Platforms or something inspired by sci-fi as Sam Altman has hinted at for OpenAI, these new personal computers are expected to work in large part because they will gobble up user data to provide highly tailored AI services -- part friend, part assistant, part AI god, part a person stealing our most valuable information.

 

That effectively is the antithesis of Apple. Since the days of the late Steve Jobs, the company has prided itself on user privacy.

 

Under Cook, those efforts have only intensified. This has put Apple at odds with its tech peers -- it disrupted Facebook's ad business with rules that limited tracking Apple users' internet usage.

 

It also locked the company in a battle years ago with the Justice Department over unlocking a gunman's iPhone.

 

"None of us should accept that the government or a company or anybody should have access to all of our private information," Cook once said. "This is a basic human right."

 

Yet Cook is now balancing investors' and users' demands for AI and products that supposedly will run better with more and more of our most sensitive and mundane information.

 

To appease investors worried about Apple's investment and pace of AI innovation, Cook last month emphasized the company's increased spending in the area and work to spread "AI features across platforms that are deeply personal, private and seamlessly integrated."

 

The emphasis being on private.

 

The question hanging over Apple is whether it will be able to offer truly personalized AI that competes with rivals taking different approaches to privacy.

 

Apple's early efforts in AI illustrate how it's trying to balance things. Executives have emphasized how certain iPhone AI features that use personal data are processed using computing power on the device. That is in contrast to rivals who ship the data off through the internet to remote servers, or cloud computers.

 

For more complex needs, Apple says, its AI can use what it calls Private Cloud Compute. This sends user data to servers that process the information but never store it. The effort comes after Apple has worked to create end-to-end encrypted iCloud backups for users.

 

But Apple's AI features are still limited. Some of them have been delayed because they haven't worked as developers had first promoted.

 

In other cases, Apple is using OpenAI's ChatGPT to augment chatbot capabilities that it doesn't have. Apple requires users to opt into those offerings.

 

"If you don't sign in to ChatGPT, your requests are anonymous and won't be used to train OpenAl models," a dialogue box tells users.

 

Already, more broadly, ChatGPT users are unloading personal thoughts and feelings to the chatbot in detailed terms. So much so that Altman, OpenAI's chief executive, has been warning that they shouldn't expect the same sorts of privacy protections that come with intimate conversations with psychologists or lawyers.

 

"People talk about the most personal s--- in their lives to ChatGPT," Altman said during a podcast appearance in July. "If you go talk to ChatGPT about your most sensitive stuff and then there's like a lawsuit or whatever, like we could be required to produce that and I think that's very screwed up. I think we should have like the same concept of privacy for your conversations with AI that we do with a therapist or whatever."

 

It's an issue that has garnered attention, in part, because of a lawsuit against OpenAI over alleged copyright infringement and a judge ordering chats to be preserved as evidence.

 

Chatbots are only the tip of Altman's plans. He has teamed with former Apple chief designer Jony Ive to develop an AI device that's reportedly meant to be fully aware of a user's surroundings and life.

 

Similarly, Zuckerberg has been talking about how near advancements in AI will soon enable smartglasses to have superintelligence. He's called glasses the ideal device for AI, allowing the technology to hear and see a user's life.

 

"I wear contact lenses, I feel like if I didn't have my vision corrected, I'd be sort of at a cognitive disadvantage going through the world," Zuckerberg said recently. "And I think in the future, if you don't have glasses that have AI or some way to interact with AI, I think you're kind of similarly . . . at a pretty significant cognitive disadvantage compared to other people and who you're working with, or competing against."

 

Microsoft, too, has talked about making its AI offerings more personal, which will require more user data. Mustafa Suleyman, the company's AI chief, told the "Bold Names" podcast he expects much of the data generated for making such systems workable to become ephemeral and encrypted.

 

"I don't necessarily think there are going to be these persistent large historical personal logs," he said. "Your AI is going to learn the sort of essence of your history of your data, and that in itself will still be personally identifying, so it will be valuable and personalized, but it won't necessarily need the full raw form."

 

While Apple's approach with AI has frustrated some on Wall Street who see the company going too slowly, its adherence to the ethos of privacy has won it some praise.

 

Cook is clearly betting that amid a new wave of technology, his old beliefs will still be a powerful selling tool, even if Apple is late to the party.” [1]

 

1. EXCHANGE --- Technology: Apple's Privacy Pledge At Odds With AI Goals --- Can the tech giant offer personalized artificial intelligence without gobbling up user information? Higgins, Tim.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 09 Aug 2025: B3. 

 

Nepasikliaukite karinėmis technologijomis, kad išgelbėtumėte Vakarus

„Anduril Industries“ yra Amerikos gynybos technologijų bendrovė, žinoma dėl savo revoliucinio požiūrio į karinių technologijų kūrimą. Įkurta 2017 m. Palmerio Luckey ir kitų įkūrėjų, bendrovė išsiskiria iš tradicinių gynybos rangovų tuo, kad aktyviai kuria ir kuria pažangią aparatinę ir dirbtinio intelekto valdomą programinę įrangą, numatydama būsimus karinius poreikius, o ne vien tik reaguoja į vyriausybės prašymus.

 

Pagrindiniai „Anduril“ revoliucinio požiūrio aspektai:

 

Dėmesys dirbtiniam intelektui ir autonominėms sistemoms: „Anduril“ naudoja pažangiausią dirbtinį intelektą, kompiuterinę regą ir autonomines sistemas, kad sukurtų pažangius gynybos sprendimus, įskaitant:

 

„Lattice AI“ platforma: ši platforma integruoja įvairius jutiklius, kameras, dronus ir kitas sistemas, kad būtų užtikrintas vieningas mūšio lauko vaizdas realiuoju laiku, palengvinant greitesnį ir labiau pagrįstą sprendimų priėmimą.

 

Autonominės oro transporto priemonės (AAV): „Anduril“ kuria įvairias AAV, tokias kaip „Ghost“, „ALTIUS“ ir „Fury“, skirtas stebėjimo, žvalgybos ir kovinėms misijoms, teigia Luizianos technikos universitetas.

 

Autonominės povandeninės transporto priemonės (AVV): „Anduril“ plečia savo veiklą povandeninės karo srityje, siūlydama tokias transporto priemones kaip „Dive-LD“ ir „Ghost Shark“, skirtas tokioms užduotims kaip stebėjimas, minų aptikimas ir kova su povandeniniais laivais.

 

Dėmesys greitam kūrimui ir iteracijai: Skirtingai nuo tradicinių gynybos rangovų, žinomų dėl lėtesnių kūrimo ciklų, „Anduril“ taiko Silicio slėnio stiliaus metodą, sprendimus pristatydama per mėnesius, o ne metus.

 

Integruoti sprendimai: „Anduril“ daugiausia dėmesio skiria integruotų sprendimų, kurie sklandžiai sujungia nepilotuojamas sistemas, dirbtinį intelektą ir stebėjimo platformas, teikimui, užtikrinant išsamų situacijos suvokimą.

 

Ekonominis efektyvumas: „Anduril“ siekia kurti novatoriškus ir ekonomiškus sprendimus, siūlydama efektyvesnę alternatyvą brangioms senosioms sistemoms.

 

„Anduril“ poveikis karinėms technologijoms matomas:

 

Sutarčių ir partnerysčių užtikrinimas: „Anduril“ yra sudariusi svarbias sutartis su JAV gynybos departamentu ir JAV muitinės ir sienų apsaugos tarnyba, taip pat bendradarbiauja su sąjungininkais, tokiais kaip JK ir Australija.

 

Revoliucinis sienų saugumo užtikrinimas: „Anduril“ „Lattice“ platforma kartu su „Sentry Towers“ buvo dislokuota palei JAV ir Meksikos sieną, pagerinant stebėjimo ir grėsmių aptikimo galimybes.

 

Kovos su dronais technologijų tobulinimas: „Anduril“ kovos su bepiločiais orlaiviais (CUAS) sistemos, tokios kaip „Anvil“, yra skirtos aptikti, sekti ir perimti bepiločius orlaivius ir autonomines dronų sistemas.

 

Naujos kartos kovos sistemų novatoriškumas: „Anduril“ dalyvauja tokiose programose kaip „Advanced Battle Management System“ ir „Integrated Visual Augmentation System“ (IVAS), prisidėdama prie tarpusavyje sujungtų ir autonominių mūšio lauko valdymo sistemų kūrimo.

 

Hipermastelinė gamyba: „Anduril“ investuoja į gamybos įrenginius, tokius kaip „Arsenal-1“, siekdama kasmet pagaminti dešimtis tūkstančių autonominių karinių sistemų, patenkindama greito dislokavimo ir mastelio keitimo poreikį.

 

„Anduril“ sėkmė ir spartus augimas rodo galimą gynybos pramonės pokytį, didesnį dėmesį skiriant judrumui, technologinėms inovacijoms ir aktyviam požiūriui į karinių pajėgumų plėtrą. Tačiau bendrovė taip pat susiduria su iššūkiais, kuriuos kelia įsitvirtinę konkurentai, turintys daugiau išteklių ir esamus ryšius su vyriausybe.

 

Tiek „Anduril“, tiek Kinijos kariuomenė daug investuoja į pažangių karinių technologijų kūrimą ir diegimą, ypač dirbtinio intelekto, autonominių sistemų ir kovos su dronais pajėgumų srityse. Nors „Anduril“ daugiausia dėmesio skiria greitam iteravimui, daugiadomeniams sprendimams ir cUAS sistemoms, Kinija siekia platesnio dirbtinio intelekto taikymų spektro žvalgybos, vadovavimo ir kontrolės bei kovinių robotų srityse, siekdama tapti pasaulinio lygio karine jėga. 

 

Anduril“ neturi pramoninės galios pagaminti rinkinį tokiais kiekiais, kokių reikėtų realiame konflikte su Kinija. 

 

„Interviu su „Anduril“ prezidentu Christianu Brose'u („Artėjanti karinių technologijų revoliucija“, savaitgalio interviu, liepos 19 d.) Kate Odell rašo, kad „naujos technologijos keičia mūšio lauko geometriją“. Ponas Brose'as priduria, kad „mūsų karinės galios samprata...“ yra tiesiog sistemingai neteisinga.“

 

„Anduril“ tiekia revoliucines karines technologijas, daugiausia nepilotuojamas, santykinai pigias ir kai kuriais atvejais daugkartinio naudojimo ginklų sistemas Pentagonui. Didelė dalis netradicinio pono Brose'o mąstymo atsispindi jo puikioje knygoje „Žudymo grandinė“ (2020 m.), o didelė jo dėmesio dalis skirta taktiniam karo lygmeniui.

 

Tačiau prieš visiškai priimant šią žavią technologiją, labai svarbu suprasti, kad technologija be strategijos yra tokia pat pavojinga kaip ir strategija be technologijos. Trūksta bendros vizijos ir jos tikslų, kaip ir kur „Anduril“ sistemos bus pritaikytos, operacinės konstrukcijos joms naudoti ir supratimo, kaip kiekviena iš jų būtų taktiškai naudojama mūšyje.

 

Kinija ir Rusija yra pamatinės, nustatant Amerikos karinę strategiją. Tačiau vien technologijų nepakaks, kad būtų galima pasipriešinti abiejų šalių karinei galiai. 1940 m. Prancūzijos mūšyje britų ir prancūzų technologijos buvo pranašesnės už sėkmingą nacių žaibišką karą, tačiau Vokietija vis tiek laimėjo šią kovą. Dominuojančios Amerikos karinės technologijos nesugebėjo nugalėti Šiaurės Vietnamo ir Talibano partizaninio karo po dešimtmečių.

 

Ponas Brose'as teisus, kad daugeliu atžvilgių JAV kuria netinkamą pajėgų struktūrą su sistemomis, kurių įsigijimas užtrunka per ilgai, kurios yra per brangios ir sunkiai pritaikomos. Naujų technologijų integravimas į Pentagoną niekada nėra paprastas. Tačiau neturint strateginio, operacinio ir taktinio veiksmų plano, skirto įvertinti „Anduril“ sistemų efektyvumą ir įperkamumą, nesitikėkite, kad naujos technologijos, kad ir kokios kvapą gniaužiančios, bus išeitis.

 

Harlanas Ullmanas

 

Atlanto taryba

 

Vašingtonas" [1]

 

1.  Don't Count on Military Tech to Save the West. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 09 Aug 2025: A12.

Don't Count on Military Tech to Save the West

Anduril Industries is an American defense technology company recognized for its revolutionary approach to developing military technology. Founded in 2017 by Palmer Luckey and other co-founders, the company differentiates itself from traditional defense contractors by proactively developing and building advanced hardware and AI-driven software solutions in anticipation of future military needs, rather than solely responding to government requests.

 

Key aspects of Anduril's revolutionary approach include:

 

    Focus on AI and autonomous systems: Anduril leverages cutting-edge artificial intelligence, computer vision, and autonomous systems to create advanced defense solutions, including:

        Lattice AI Platform: This platform integrates various sensors, cameras, drones, and other systems to provide a real-time, unified view of the battlefield, facilitating faster and more informed decision-making.

        Autonomous Air Vehicles (AAVs): Anduril develops various AAVs like Ghost, ALTIUS, and Fury for surveillance, reconnaissance, and combat missions, according to Louisiana Tech University.

        Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs): Anduril is expanding its reach into undersea warfare with vehicles like Dive-LD and Ghost Shark, designed for tasks such as surveillance, mine detection, and anti-submarine warfare.

    Emphasis on rapid development and iteration: Unlike traditional defense contractors known for slower development cycles, Anduril adopts a Silicon Valley-style approach, delivering solutions in months rather than years.

    Integrated Solutions: Anduril focuses on delivering integrated solutions that seamlessly combine unmanned systems, AI, and surveillance platforms, providing comprehensive situational awareness.

    Cost-Effectiveness: Anduril aims to develop innovative and cost-effective solutions, offering a more efficient alternative to expensive legacy systems.

 

Anduril's impact on military technology is seen in:

 

    Securing contracts and partnerships: Anduril has secured key contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and is collaborating with allies like the UK and Australia.

    Revolutionizing border security: Anduril's Lattice platform, coupled with Sentry Towers, has been deployed along the U.S.-Mexico border, enhancing surveillance and threat detection capabilities.

    Advancing counter-drone technologies: Anduril's counter-UAS (CUAS) systems, such as the Anvil, are designed to detect, track, and intercept unmanned aircraft and autonomous drone systems.

    Pioneering next-generation combat systems: Anduril is involved in programs like the Advanced Battle Management System and Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS), contributing to the development of interconnected and autonomous battlefield management systems.

    Hyperscale Production: Anduril is investing in manufacturing facilities like Arsenal-1, aiming to produce tens of thousands of autonomous military systems annually, addressing the need for rapid deployment and scalability.

 

Anduril's success and rapid growth suggest a potential shift in the defense industry, with a greater emphasis on agility, technological innovation, and a proactive approach to developing military capabilities. However, the company also faces challenges from established competitors with deeper resources and existing government relationships.

 

Both Anduril and China's military are heavily invested in developing and deploying advanced military technologies, particularly in the areas of AI, autonomous systems, and counter-drone capabilities. While Anduril's focus is on rapid iteration, multi-domain solutions, and cUAS systems, China is pursuing a broader range of AI applications for intelligence, command and control, and combat robots, aiming to become a world-class military force. Anduril doesn't have the industrial power to produce the kit in amounts needed in a real conflict with China.

“In her interview with Anduril's president, Christian Brose ("The Coming Revolution in Military Tech," Weekend Interview, July 19), Kate Odell writes that "new technology is changing the geometry of the battlefield." Mr. Brose adds that "our conception of military power . . . is just systematically wrong."

 

Anduril is providing revolutionary military technology, largely consisting of unmanned, relatively cheap and in some cases reusable weapons systems for the Pentagon. Much of Mr. Brose's unconventional thinking is reflected in his excellent book "The Kill Chain" (2020), and much of his focus is on the tactical level of war.

 

But before we completely embrace this fascinating technology, it is critical to understand that technology without a strategy is as dangerous as a strategy without technology. What is missing is an overarching vision and its aims for how and where Anduril's systems will fit, the operational construct for using them and understanding how each would be employed tactically in battle.

 

China and Russia are foundational for determining America's military strategy. Technology alone, however, won't be sufficient to counter the military power of both. In the 1940 Battle of France, British and French technology was superior to the Nazis' successful Blitzkrieg, but Germany still won that fight. Dominant American military technology wasn't able to defeat the guerrilla warfare of North Vietnam and the Taliban decades later.

 

Mr. Brose is correct that in many ways the U.S. is building the wrong force structure with systems that take too long to procure and that are too expensive and difficult to scale. Integrating new technology into the Pentagon is never simple. Yet without a strategic, operational and tactical roadmap to evaluate the effectiveness and affordability of Anduril's systems, don't count on new technology, no matter how breathtaking, to be a remedy.

 

Harlan Ullman

 

Atlantic Council

 

Washington" [1]

 

1.  Don't Count on Military Tech to Save the West. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 09 Aug 2025: A12.