Apple has not been high in the list of companies that promote AI.
Since the moment it introduced Siri in 2011, as a digital assistant capable of understanding voice queries and natural language, the company rarely use the term AI in any of its products.
After all, while AI has taken off fast, the term is still a complex and confusing concept for many people, and that Apple refrains from using words people don't fully understand. And also because Apple usually positions itself as a brand that is simple to use, using the word "AI" can make its product more complicated that it actually is.
As a company known for its secrecy, even CEO Tim Cook is reluctant in using the word.
But in the world where generative AIs have taken over, Apple cannot deny the huge demand the technology is having.
This is why the company is also eyeing into this lucrative market.
According to reports, the company has been expanding its computing budget for building AI to millions of dollars a day.
The moves come four years after Apple’s head of AI, John Giannandrea, authorized the formation of a team to develop conversational AI, known as large-language models, before the technology became a focus of the software industry, according to people with knowledge of the team.
That move becomes persistent following the rise of generative AIs, which created a boom in chatbot usage across many industries around the world.
The reports are based on previous rumors, which said something about "Apple GPT," an experimental large language models, and "Ajax," an internal chatbot some Apple employees were using.
At first, Apple's "Foundational Models" team only had 16 people to work on this conversational AI. Following the rise of ChatGPT and other chatbots, Apple is ramping up its efforts.
One of its goals is to develop features such as one that allows iPhone customers to use simple voice commands to automate tasks involving multiple steps, according to people familiar with the effort. The technology, for instance, could allow someone to tell the Siri voice assistant on their phone to create a GIF using the last five photos they’ve taken and text it to a friend.
Apple wants users to be able to do this using queries, like when using OpenAI's ChatGPT and some others.
In other words, Apple wants to develop a feature where users can use a voice assistant like Siri to automate multi-step tasks, and create a multimodal AI that can work with images, video, and text.
For starters, it is said that the aforementioned Ajax chatbot that Apple is working with is supposedly more capable than the original ChatGPT 3.5, and has been trained on 200 billion parameters.
Apple is known for having an exceptional marketing prowess.
But in terms of AI, the company is never as flashy as other companies. But regardless, the company has long been using AI, and has been embedded the technology throughout iOS.
So while Apple does not go out of its way to specifically name "artificial intelligence" or "AI" in its marketing campaigns, but the company is never avoiding the technology.
From Siri, which has been the digital assistant, Apple is also using AI on the keyboard, which utilizes machine-learning technology to understand what letter users are going to type next. After that, Apple is also using AI on its TrueDepth camera and Face ID, as well as in the Photos app, the Calendar app, the Journal app, and more.
The company also uses AI on the Camera app. Among others, the AI is being used to power its Deep Fusion feature, which optimizes for detail and low noise in photos.
Machine learning is also present in watchOS with features that help track sleep, hand washing, heart health, and more.
Even the overly-hyped Apple Vision Pro also uses a form of AI.
As mentioned above, Apple has been using machine learning for years.
The only place it lags, in terms of AI, is having a publicly-available generative AI.
With its Foundational Models, and after having a summit that focused entirely on AI, Apple is sending a clear signal that AI has always been part of Apple, and that it's embracing the technology even more.
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