Apple's next event is upon us — it starts at 10 a.m. ET on Tuesday — and while the focus is typically on the latest and greatest hardware, investors and consumers alike are hoping to learn more about how and where the tech titan plans to take on. A bold move to harness artificial intelligence.
The secretive, Cupertino-based company hasn't telegraphed anything, although late reports suggested new iPads were coming when the event's logo was first revealed by the Telegraph last month, according to noted Apple reporter Mark Gurman. While new features and apps will no doubt be announced to take advantage of the updated specifications, industry watchers will have to wait until next month for solid AI news.
June brings the annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), where AI is expected to be integrated into the Apple ecosystem.
More importantly, Gurman suggests that Apple plans to partner with OpenAI or Google to replace or improve Siri with a generative AI model. Apple is also reportedly planning to add i-powered summary and auto-complete features to its Pages, Numbers and Keynote apps, following Microsoft's similar moves.
According to Bloomberg, Apple's software development tool Xcode will get AI features to go along with Microsoft Copilot and Github Copilot. Generative AI chatbots help manage AppleCare services. Even Apple Music is expected to get an AI upgrade, allowing the platform to create personalized Spotify-like playlists.
Meanwhile, Apple Insider says the iPhone's web browser Safari will get an AI update, including an advanced content blocking tool called Web Eraser. Apple-centric media also said the company is working on an AI-powered visual search feature.
Apple's latest quarterly earnings call last week included talk about AI, and Apple CEO Tim Cook said the Apple Watch could save people's lives.
We're using AI and machine-learning lifesaving features like regular pulse notifications and crash detection. “We see Generative AI as a key opportunity for our products, and we believe we have a differentiating advantage there.”
They went so far as to say that the company's current MacBook Air laptop is “the best consumer laptop for AI.”
When pressed to explain that AI could be a major factor in consumer purchasing decisions while software upgrades often don't generate the kind of buzz that new hardware does, Cook expressed frustration.
“I don't want to go ahead with our announcement, obviously,” he said. We'll talk more about it as we go through the coming weeks.
While Apple has never been seen in the global AI arms race with the likes of Google, Microsoft and Amazon, the company says it has been working with emerging technology for years.
“We've been researching AI technologies for many years. We'll continue to invest in these technologies to help enrich our products and develop innovation and responsibility in people's lives,” Cook told Reuters in August.
Speaking to singer Dua Lipa on the Services podcast in November, Apple CEO Tim Cook emphasized that AI needs to be developed with security in mind.
“What's needed in this new form of AI, generative AI, is some rules of the road and some rules,” Cook said. “I think a lot of governments around the world are now focused on this and how to do it, and we're trying to help with that. And we are one of those who say that this is required, as required is a certain regulation.
In December, Apple released MLX, an open-source framework for machine learning on its M-series CPUs, entering a field traditionally dominated by Linux and Microsoft.
In February, Apple partnered with the University of California, Santa Barbara to develop Multimodal Large Language Model-Guided Image Editing (MGIE) software, an AI model that can edit images based on natural language.
And just last month, to challenge Microsoft's Phi-3, Apple released a series of smaller AI language models, known as OpenELM, in 270 million, 450 million, 1.1 billion, and 3 billion parameter versions.
Apple's push into AI has not gone unnoticed by regulators such as US Senator Elizabeth Warren, who has called the antitrust lawsuit against Google critical, highlighting potential deals with Apple.
“Google controls 90% of the search engine market, paying Apple billions to be the default web browser,” Warren wrote on Twitter. “What's next? Google is in talks to embed its AI tools into iPhones.
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.
