Apple Enters the Generative Artificial Intelligence Race

Apple chose to join Microsoft with its OpenAI, Google, Meta and Amazon Anthropic in the race to create artificial general intelligence (AGI). It is a late bloomer and will license the use of OpenAI’s ChatGPT technology on iPhones, iPads, iMacs, and its online service offerings. In an announcement, Apple’s AGI strategy states it will emphasize privacy and data protection. This could be a key differentiator considering the missteps Microsoft and Google continue to make in releasing AGI tools and hastily withdrawing them when found wanting.

Microsoft and Google are the current AGI leaders and in the competitive pace of AI development have rushed offerings into the market that have been somewhat problematic. What’s the latest flavour of Google’s offering? Is it Monica? Is it Gemini? Microsoft has CoPilot, AzureAI, and recently released Recall only to recall it because of privacy and security concerns.

Apple hopes privacy and security will be its key differentiators. It has a native advantage because it has developed its operating system for Apple-only devices. In comparison, Microsoft and Google are generalists with the former’s Windows operating on numerous vendor platforms, and the latter’s Chrome and Android doing the same.

The Apple ecosystem is interconnected and focused solely on the family of its own devices and services creating a cohesive environment for its AGI offering and future developments. No doubt, Apple’s choice of building OpenAI’s ChatGPT into its devices and services is likely a short-term strategy as the company plays catchup while its investment in AI startups and hiring of AI experts bears fruit as early as 2025.

For OpenAI, the deal to put ChatGPT on Apple devices is a big win in its battle with Google. It also gives Microsoft a bit of a win as the prime investor in OpenAI.

The computer industry has gone AI crazy and Apple has joined in. At its announcement, CEO, Tim Cook, told those in attendance that his company’s AI features will prove to be game changers, indispensable, ethical and mindful of the social impact of AGI. Take that Microsoft, Google, Meta and Amazon. Unlike these companies, Apple will not be exploitive in entering the AI ring.

How so? What will differentiate Apple Intelligence? Think of Siri voice assistant with capabilities far beyond what it can do today. Call it Siri on steroids.

Not only will Siri know what’s out there in the world accessible through the information it gleans from the Internet, but it will also know about you. It will know your interests. It will know about the people in your life so when you ask it about a message you received from mom last week, it will find it whether in text, email, or video, and deliver it to the Apple device you are using at the time.

Apple has one distinct advantage over its competition: its enormous homogenous user base. The iPhone and iPad remain top sellers in their product niches. iMacs have a look and feel that makes them distinctive when compared to competitors’ desktops and laptops running Windows and Chrome.

As a testbed for its AGI features and releases, Apple’s promise to understand its users and reflect this in Apple Intelligence will make the 2013 movie “Her” seem closer to becoming reality. That might creep you out but Apple will reassure you that its AGI will not abuse the privilege of knowing you intimately.  Microsoft, Meta, Google and Amazon can only hope to achieve a similar level of understanding of their users.

How will it know you without creeping you out? At the announcement of Apple’s entry into the competition with OpenAI, Craig Federighi, Senior Vice President of Software Engineering, stated, “Understanding this kind of personal context is essential for delivering truly helpful intelligence. But it has to be done right. You should not have to hand over all the details of your life to be warehouse and analyzed in someone’s AI cloud.”

It’s a tall order to deliver what Apple is telling the market about its AGI plans. To not use the cloud means Apple will have to incorporate AGI chipsets into all of its devices with the intelligence fully onboard.

Apple will find it will have competition for onboard AGI. Both Nvidia and AMD announced recently the development of new AI chips for desktop computers capable of running generative AI applications with AMD claiming its latest boards will include a neural processing unit (NPU) designed to handle AI tasks.

Staying ahead of the competition when you are playing catchup will not make Apple’s foray into AGI as easy as Federighi and Cook indicated in launching Apple Intelligence. The corporate AGI gold rush will continue largely unabated in a Wild West where governments remain slow off the mark in applying guardrails, while cybercriminals begin to exploit the security flaws of the technology.