Apple joins forces with OpenAI and launches Apple Intelligence, its new generative AI system

Apple on Monday presented Apple Intelligence, a new system for optimizing its devices, from the iPhone to the Mac, using generative artificial intelligence (AI) and a partnership with OpenAI.

At the center of Apple Intelligence, the American firm has placed the Siri assistant, which has benefited from a radical update, supposed to allow it to catch up with recent products launched by OpenAI or Microsoft.

To do this, the Apple company entered into a partnership with OpenAI, which opened a new era for generative AI in November 2022 with the arrival of ChatGPT.

Apple Intelligence will feature in the new version of the iOS 18 operating system, also unveiled Monday at the developers conference. This should last all week in Cupertino, California.

“We believe that Apple Intelligence will become indispensable to products that already have an essential role in our lives,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook during a presentation broadcast online.

Apple Intelligence is intended to be a feature that improves and simplifies the use of devices and their applications. It will be available during the summer, but only to users of the iPhone 15 Pro and to iPads and Macs equipped with the M1 chip, the first models of which were marketed at the end of 2021.

Generative artificial intelligence requires, in fact, considerable computing capacities, which can only be ensured by the most recent semiconductors.

Apple Intelligence will notably make it possible to create your own emojis based on a description in everyday language, to find a photo or a series of photos by describing them orally or to generate succinct summaries of emails in the mailbox. The user can make requests to Siri in writing or orally.

This new nomenclature is similar to the interface launched last November by Microsoft, Copilot, which allows you to navigate between applications and software intuitively. But unlike Copilot, Apple Intelligence does not require a paid subscription and will be automatically available on iOS 18.

Elon Musk protests

Shortly after the presentation, entrepreneur Elon Musk lambasted the partnership between Apple and OpenAI, ensuring that he would ban iPhones in his companies because of threats to data security. “Apple has no idea what will happen once it entrusts your data to OpenAI. They stab you in the back,” assured the billionaire on the social network X.

If Apple Intelligence will use ChatGPT for certain requests, in a way identified for the user, its technology and architecture are distinct from that of OpenAI, underlined Carolina Milanesi, analyst at Creative Strategies.

The group’s managers who took turns during the presentation insisted, on several occasions, on the protection of personal data, one of Apple’s workhorses for many years.

Craig Federighi, vice president in charge of software design, notably highlighted the concept of “private cloud”, thanks to which a user can benefit from the computing power of remote servers for a request, without the data being stored or used by others.

Apple highlighted the ability of its generative AI interface to make decisions and choose relevant elements, based on user-specific characteristics.

“Even if the event did not give rise to any major surprises, we are impressed by the integration of AI across the Apple ecosystem,” commented Angelo Zino, of the research company CFRA, for whom these innovations are likely to fuel the group’s growth.

“It was a historic day for Apple; and Cook and company did not disappoint, from our point of view,” analysts at Wedbush Securities commented in a note.

Launched more than 12 years ago, Siri appeared for a long time as a dated functionality, outdated by the new generation of assistants, such as the one included in GPT-4o.

The latter has caused a lot of talk since its introduction in mid-May, notably because actress Scarlett Johansson accused OpenAI of having copied her voice to make her play the assistant. The start-up denied but suspended the use of this new voice in its products.

“Apple Intelligence will make Siri smarter and ChatGPT will make it smarter,” commented Carolina Milanesi of Creative Strategies.

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AFP

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