Apple partners with OpenAI to roll out new artificial intelligence system

Keep yourself updated without any cost!

All you have to do is register for the myFT Digest on Artificial intelligence and it will be delivered straight to your email.

On Monday, Apple announced that it had collaborated with OpenAI to incorporate ChatGPT into its products and launched a "Apple Intelligence" system, which Tim Cook, the company's CEO, claimed was the "next major move" for the iPhone manufacturer.

During the yearly gathering for developers at the company, Cook and his crew presented advancements to Apple's software that will utilize artificial intelligence to create a more intelligent Siri digital assistant and personalized features on its products designed to improve efficiency.

Investors have been keeping a close eye on this year's Worldwide Developers Conference to see how Cook plans to position Apple in the field of generative AI. There are concerns that Apple is lagging behind its large tech rivals in this area.

Large companies in the technology industry like Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta are currently in a race to create innovative AI-related products. They're also engaged in competition or cooperation with new businesses exclusively focused on this technology. In particular, Microsoft has spent a substantial amount of money investing in OpenAI.

Apple's "Apple Intelligence" system, which is based on their own generative AI models, is getting a boost from the OpenAI partnership. This partnership will add more intelligence to the system, which is personalised for each user. Apple CEO Tim Cook stated that it is a unique personal intelligence system.

Siri can now inquire from ChatGPT of OpenAI by utilizing its models. However, the voice assistant will first request consent from the user before engaging in conversations with the chatbot.

According to Craig Federighi, senior vice-president of software engineering at Apple, users of Apple devices will not have to subscribe to access this feature. This move towards “seamless integration” is aimed at giving users more control over when and how they utilise ChatGPT.

Siri is expanding its features and abilities to perform more in-depth actions within Apple's own applications. These new tools will enable developers of third-party applications to utilize these capabilities.

Apple made it clear that their strategy for AI would prioritize safeguarding user confidentiality. They plan on using their own chips to support models that run locally on devices and their cloud servers. Cook defined their process of teaching AI characteristics based on a user's personal information to stay within the device as "AI in a way that only Apple can provide."

Federighi stated that it has knowledge about your personal information without actually gathering it.

The group of leaders at Apple displayed some new options for generative AI on the iPhone's system, named iOS 18. Additionally, these options will also be on the newer versions of iPad and Mac at a later date. These updates include the ability to generate images and create personalized emojis.

According to Leo Gebbie, an analyst at CCS Insight, Apple Intelligence has the potential to ease the concerns of anxious investors and give them confidence that Apple is staying competitive with its opponents. The collaboration with ChatGPT is an important advancement that enhances the AI capabilities of Apple, and improvements to Siri will be well-received by users.

The CEO of Tesla and X, Elon Musk, immediately expressed concern about the collaboration and threatened to prohibit the use of Apple products in his organizations. He argued that if Apple were to incorporate OpenAI at the operating system level, it would create a serious breach of security that he cannot accept.

Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman have had a tumultuous relationship. Altman was a co-founder of OpenAI but departed from the company in 2018. Musk filed a lawsuit against OpenAI alleging that it had strayed from its original purpose of serving the greater good of humanity.

Musk runs his own artificial intelligence (AI) company called xAI. He has occasionally expressed disapproval of Apple, since they stopped supporting X's advertising last year. This was due to Musk showing his support for a post that contained antisemitic content.

The conference was anticipated to have significant emphasis on AI technology this year as Apple aims to capitalize on the trend to attract more investors and customers. Nonetheless, the market responded lackluster with a 1.9% decrease in the company's shares on the same day.

Visitors were guided into the premises of Apple Park amidst the bright morning sunshine by enthusiastic Apple members donning pink T-shirts. The colossal cafeteria of the company with multi-level glass doors was made accessible for accommodating numerous attendees for the outdoor event. The Apple employees welcomed hundreds of guests with exuberant cheers and applause.

At the beginning of the presentation, there was an excellently made video featuring Federighi and Apple employees wearing white jumpsuits branded with the Apple logo, skydiving from a plane.

Altman was seen attending an Apple event, but he didn't go up on stage with Cook when they announced the partnership. OpenAI's ChatGPT has become a leading player in generative AI, which has helped the company's value soar to more than $80 billion.

On Monday, OpenAI declared that they brought on board their team Sarah Friar, the former CEO of Nextdoor, as their new CFO, and Kevin Weil, who worked at Facebook, Instagram and Twitter before, as their new CPO.

Apple has declared that it intends to extend the availability of its Vision Pro headset, which was launched in the United States in February, to the worldwide market. In this month, reservations will be accessible for pre-orders in numerous regions such as China, Japan, Singapore, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Canada and Australia.