Apple is rumored to be interested in generative AI, continuing its pattern of disrupting new markets by entering them late.
At least, that’s what a new Bloomberg story claims. The news source claims that Apple has built its framework for large language models (LLMs) to compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google Bard, citing anonymous sources in the know.
It has been rumored that Apple’s engineers internally refer to their chatbot service, built with the “Ajax” framework, as “Apple GPT.”
The sources claim that the framework and the chatbot were created the previous year. Apple is taking its time, while competitors like OpenAI and Google have rushed to make their products available to the public. Apple does not intend to make Apple GPT available to the broader world.
Instead, the business reportedly has its AI, software, and cloud services experts working together to figure out the specifics, such as integrating AI into their goods and services and selling it to customers.
With ChatGPT and Bard gaining traction in the real world, Apple could have done better to arrive late with a’me-too’ version. Therefore this could be the deciding factor. A new angle on the generative AI industry may be preferable.
Apple isn’t constantly lagging behind the competition. Apple was the first to offer a consumer tablet computer, the iPad, and the first to market a virtual assistant, Siri. However, it always seeks to set itself apart in one or more critical ways to obtain an early footing in a new market.
When it released its Vision Pro augmented reality (AR) headset, the company avoided using the word “metaverse” for obvious reasons.
Competitors like Meta (through Oculus), Sony and HTC have been producing VR gear for years, giving them an advantage over Apple in product launch and marketing expertise.
To avoid falling into the “me-too” metaverse trap, Apple announced Vision Pro using a new term—”spatial computing”—to describe the company’s mixed reality endeavours. The headset’s steep $3,500 price tag is another factor that sets it apart from the competition.
But will that function with AI?
The benefit of releasing a chatbot to the public is that it may receive user feedback to improve the underlying artificial intelligence. Furthermore, OpenAI plans to release version five of ChatGPT by the end of this year, and its rumoured sophistication might herald the era of artificial general intelligence (AGI) when machine intelligence is on par with human intellect.
Apple is reportedly planning a major announcement about artificial intelligence for 2019. On the other hand, by the time Apple GPT launches in whatever shape Apple decides it should take, it will have a steep hill to climb to catch up to OpenAI and Google.
