Five minutes after the start of the I/O conference held by Google in May, Verge The staff started betting on how many times “AI” was mentioned on stage. Every presenter seemed to fall for Sundar Pichai’s bull-butt if he didn’t say it at least once. (Eventually, we stopped betting and super cut) But watching WWDC, the book goes in the opposite direction. Will someone at Apple mention “AI”? JeezAfter all, no, never.
Of course, the technology was mentioned, but always in the form of “machine learning.” This is a more sober and technically accurate description. As many in the field would say, “artificial intelligence” is a very frowned upon term, imprecise and overdetermined, and more of his science fiction than actual concrete technology. It reminds me of mythology. Writer Ted Chan puts it nicely in his recent interview, “What is artificial intelligence?” “1954 was a bad choice of words.”
Apple prefers to focus on AI-provided features
Apple’s AI allergy is nothing new. The company has long been systematically wary of “AI” as the force that powers tech-magic. Instead, the company has prioritized emphasizing the capabilities of machine learning and highlighting the benefits that machine learning offers users like a customer satisfaction company. As Tim Cook said in an interview, Good morning, America Today, “We’re building it into our products.” [but] People don’t necessarily think of it as AI. ”
And what does this look like? Well, here are some of the machine learning-powered features that were mentioned at his WWDC this year and spread across Apple’s ecosystem.
- Autofix improvements for iOS 17 “via on-device machine learning”.
- A personalized volume feature for AirPods that “uses machine learning to understand environmental conditions and listening preferences.”
- An improved smart stack on watchOS. “Use machine learning to show relevant information when you need it.”
- A new iPad lock screen that animates a live photo using a “machine learning model that synthesizes additional frames.”
- ‘Intelligently curated’ prompts in the new Journal app using ‘on-device machine learning’.
- Also, 3D avatars for video calls in Vision Pro are generated using “advanced ML techniques”.
Aside from the 3D avatars, these are all pretty mechanical, which is welcome, but far from world-changing functionality. In fact, when placed next to the giant fence swing of the Vision Pro announcement, that strategy seems not only conservative, but cowardly and perhaps unwise. Given recent advances in AI, the question arises: Is Apple missing an opportunity?
The answer to this is “a little yes, a little no”. But first, it’s instructive to compare the company’s approach to that of its closest technical rivals, Google, Microsoft, and Meta.
Of this trio, Mehta is the most subdued. The company is certainly working on AI tools (such as Mark Zuckerberg’s enigmatic “persona” and his AI-powered advertising) and is often happy to publish industry-leading research, but it’s a big move to the metaverse. With these advances, there is less room for AI. By contrast, Google and Microsoft are doing their best. At I/O, Google announced an entire family of AI language models, along with new Assistant features for Docs and Gmail, and experiments like AI Notebooks. At the same time, Microsoft is rapidly overhauling its search engine Bing, stuffing AI into every corner of Office, and reinventing its failed digital assistant Cortana as the new AI-powered Copilot. These companies have seized the age of AI and are squeezing it hard, expecting a lot of money to fall.
So should Apple do the same? can you do it?Well, I would argue that it isn’t need At least not to the same extent as its rivals. Apple is a company built on hardware, especially his iPhone and its ecosystem. There’s no pressure to reinvent search like Google or improve productivity software like Microsoft. All it takes is to keep selling phones, and we do that by making iOS as intuitive and approachable as possible. (Of course, that may or may not show up in Vision Pro until there’s a new hardware platform to dominate.)
I think there’s only one area Apple misses by not embracing AI. That’s Siri. The company’s digital assistant has been a laughingstock for years, and while Apple certainly invented digital assistants for the consumer market, it’s clear that it’s no longer a priority for the company. The most important news about Siri at his WWDC this year is that its trigger phrase has been shortened from “Hey Siri” to “Siri.” that’s it. In a world where AI language models have vastly improved computers’ ability to parse language, opening up new possibilities in fields like education and health, Apple’s biggest announcement is the product most of us ignore. was to shorten the wake word of by just 3 characters.
Of course, there are reasons to be cautious. As Cook noted in his book, GMA According to interviews, software like ChatGPT has all sorts of problems, from bias to misinformation. And an image-obsessed company like Apple will be particularly wary of the headlines brought by the launches of Bing and Bard. But how long can the company sit on the sidelines? And will his foray into VR prevent him from making relatively achievable gains in AI?We’ll have to wait until his next WWDC. And start counting mentions of “machine learning”.
