Apple's Big Conference Will Spotlight AI Privacy Issues
The privacy-conscious tech giant is expected to reveal many new AI features at its annual developers conference on June 10, and will stress user data security.
While some critics fault Apple for being behind on AI, rivals like Google and Microsoft have had mixed results in rushing out AI-stuffed products, including a new type of PC with special AI chips aboard. But Apple's been quietly building AI circuitry into its phones and computer chips for years. If the rumors are correct, then Apple will reveal the other half of the equation next week at its annual World Wide Developers' Conference: new software jammed with AI smarts that will really maximize the silicon power already inside millions of iDevices.
Apple has a history of being very cautious about jumping into wholly new tech, and it takes privacy very seriously. So if it reveals new AI-powered products, they will likely be designed to keep information more private than its rivals.
Seriously smart Siri
Long before ChatGPT there was Siri, the Apple's digital assistant that could be summoned with a voice command and then perhaps write a note for you, Google a fact or start a cooking timer when your hands were sticky. While Siri got smarter over the years as Apple added skills, it looked very limited compared to offerings from the recent AI revolution. Now, if Apple watchers' rumors are true, Apple may be making Siri truly smart.
According to noted Apple writer Mark Gurman at Bloomberg, Siri is about to become much more conversational, and make big leaps in its capabilities, which have been useful but hardly essential non-pro level tools until now. Apple is said to be building a system that could let Siri take control over almost any feature of any app on a phone, thanks to Apple's own Large Language Models (LLMs)--the sophisticated code that underpins AI systems like those from OpenAI. Far from merely being used to set timers, Siri could thus allow users to AI-edit photos (perhaps with commands like "make that photo sunnier"), delete emails, summarize documents, and much more. With much more advanced skills like these, Siri could also move out of being a casual curio to being a serious tool that could help many work-centric tasks carried out on iPhones or Macs.
Apple's use of its own LLMs is notable, since it implies the company is keeping control over user data, and likely won't be automatically taking everything a user uploads to help train the AI, which many rival systems do. Apple may run some of this AI processing on the special "neural engine" parts of the chips already present in current iPhone and Mac models, which keep sensitive data only on their devices . That would reduce the risk of any personal info "leaking" out via a cloud-based AI. Similar concerns just led to the House of Representatives setting a "strict ban" on House staff using Microsoft's Copilot AI system.
Curiously, according to news site The Information, Apple is also thought to have signed a deal with OpenAI to bring some of the market-leading power of ChatGPT to the iPhone--it's going to be interesting to see exactly how Apple manages to incorporate this tech without compromising its longstanding approach on protecting user privacy.
Apple's use of its own LLMs is notable, since it implies the company is keeping control over user data, and likely won't be automatically taking everything a user uploads to help train the AI, which many rival systems do. Apple may run some of this AI processing on the special "neural engine" parts of the chips already present in current iPhone and Mac models, which keep sensitive data only on their devices . That would reduce the risk of any personal info "leaking" out via a cloud-based AI. Similar concerns just led to the House of Representatives setting a "strict ban" on House staff using Microsoft's Copilot AI system.
Curiously, according to news site The Information, Apple is also thought to have signed a deal with OpenAI to bring some of the market-leading power of ChatGPT to the iPhone--it's going to be interesting to see exactly how Apple manages to incorporate this tech without compromising its longstanding approach on protecting user privacy.
Nevertheless, a smarter assistant would be a landmark Apple feature that could appeal to both business-minded and regular users, so expect the company to make a lot of fuss over this if it supersizes Siri.
More AI chips
As for the hardware that makes AI work, Apple may also reveal, or at least tease, the chip that will power this year's generation of iPhones--which may be called the A18 chip, following Apple naming conventions, according to news site the Economic Daily News. The A18 will likely use some of the same tech as Apple's brand-new M4 chip, installed in the new iPad Pro models the company only launched a few weeks ago.
At the iPad Pro launch, Apple took pains to talk up AI, noting that the M4's AI power was "faster than the neural processing unit of any AI PC today." Some of that power will end up in the A18 chip, for sure. While Apple revealed a few things that the tech can do on iPad Pros, like identifying objects in photos and videos, we can expect that the new chip could have many more AI capabilities to tout.
Again, by keeping much of the AI computer power in devices like the iPhone versus relying on powerful chips accessed via the internet, Apple will set itself apart from its rivals.
AI in everything else
Other rumors suggest that Apple is also going to build AI into its useful note-taking app, add AI-powered playlists in Apple Music, and allow AI-generated replies to emails--which actually sounds like it could be a time-saver for both business and regular iPhone and Mac users.
Safari, Apple's web browser, may also get an AI makeover, which could include things like auto-summarizing web pages to convey their salient points more quickly. It could also include an AI-powered search function. AI search is likely the next big change coming, and may upend the standard way everyone hunts for specific information online. Though it's controversial (thanks to worries over how Google's AI search could upset the ad industry) there are smart examples like Arc's web browser that show how the tech really can save users' time.
Apple may well reveal other details of its AI blitz next week--but it's not a bad bet that "AI" and "privacy" may end up being the two most frequently uttered words when CEO Tim Cook and other Apple executives take to the stage at 10 a.m. (PDT), Monday, June 10.