Apple is revving up its efforts in Artificial Intelligence with a focus on generative AI technology, as it seeks to catch up with competitors like Spotify on the audio streaming side and Google and Microsoft on the product side.
Spearheaded by Apple’s Senior Vice Presidents John Giannandrea and Craig Federighi, the company is investing around $1 billion per year in AI development according to Bloomberg. Eddy Cue, Apple’s head of services, is also reportedly involved in the AI push. Cue’s team is exploring auto-generated playlists for Apple Music, a feature that rivals like Spotify have already implemented.
Giannandrea’s team is focused on revamping Siri, aiming for a smarter version that could potentially be integrated across Apple’s product line by next year. Federighi’s software engineering group is working on embedding AI into the next version of iOS, improving features in Siri and the Messages app.
Apple’s software engineering teams are considering the integration of generative AI into development tools like Xcode, which would align it with services like Microsoft’s GitHub Copilot. This could facilitate quicker app development by offering auto-complete suggestions to developers.
The company is grappling with the deployment strategy for its large language models, weighing the pros and cons of an on-device versus a cloud-based approach. A hybrid model that utilizes both on-device processing and the cloud is also under consideration.
