Artificial intelligence technology remains at the core of the latest technological revolution, and it’s evident that Apple has a keen interest in it. According to recent reports, the tech giant is said to be developing its own version of a text generator, tentatively named Apple GPT. This initiative could potentially rival the well-known ChatGPT by OpenAI.
Usage servers and training servers are different things
As a testament to the company’s interest, Apple’s language model testing is reportedly taking place on the same servers used by OpenAI, Amazon, and Nvidia for their own AI systems. According to Taiwan’s Economic Daily News (via MacRumors), Foxconn, the electronic manufacturing giant, will serve as Apple’s exclusive provider for dedicated servers used in the research and testing of AI services. These servers will be manufactured in Vietnam, aligning with Apple’s strategy to diversify its supply chain away from China.
The relationship between Apple and Foxconn is not new. Foxconn has been a primary data center provider for Apple for years. However, this choice could reflect Apple’s need to leverage Foxconn’s specific expertise in the field of artificial intelligence, as the company already supplies servers to other industry giants.
The news of Apple developing its own text generator comes with some skepticism. According to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple’s progress in generative AI technology significantly lags behind its competitors. On the other hand, Mark Gurman of Bloomberg mentioned that while Apple might be planning a significant AI announcement in 2024, it still lacks a “clear strategy” for creating a consumer-facing product.
Although Tim Cook has reiterated the importance of AI for Apple, it’s essential to remember that the company is extremely secretive about its research and development projects. This penchant for secrecy has left many wondering how advanced the “Apple GPT” project really is and what practical applications it could have. Could we be looking at a more advanced Siri? Or does Apple have its sights set on AI applications beyond personal assistance, such as data analysis, content creation, or even entertainment?
The relationship between Apple and artificial intelligence has been a constant dance of intrigue and expectations. For years, the tech community has eagerly awaited Apple’s next big step in this field. Beyond this, it’s intriguing to think that for a company that values vertical integration – controlling every aspect of its hardware and software – Apple has chosen to outsource a crucial part of its AI project to Foxconn. However, this move might be more strategic than it initially appears.
The company’s chips already feature built-in artificial intelligence engines. The A17 Bionic and all its predecessors come with the renowned Neural Engine, but this is only part of the story, as this engine is designed to use pre-trained models, not to train them. Thus, Apple relying on Foxconn for its AI infrastructure can only be seen as a step forward in the development of these technologies.
These technologies, as Tim Cook himself has reminded us, have been appearing on our devices for many years in various forms – pattern recognition in Photos, app recommendation systems, and even the system’s autocorrector now present in iOS 17. They are now poised to take a new direction with language models. Models that Apple could, sooner rather than later, pleasantly surprise us with.
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