The challenge with generative artificial intelligences (that is capable of producing new contents) is becoming more and more interesting and varied. Especially with regard to conversational chatbots.
The chatbots ChatGPT and Bing Chat, the latter used by Microsoft, are based on the most advanced OpenAI language model, GPT-4. While Google Bard is based on an optimized and lighter version of LaMDA.
And here’s the latest news: Meta has made its language model available (free of charge). It’s called Llama 2 and it’s ready to challenge its OpenAI counterpart.
In this arena, it is easy to see how another tech giant, Apple, is missing. However we should use the imperfect, lacked. Because the Cupertino company would be working on the Apple GPT project, whose name doesn’t need too much explanation.
Apple GPT
As several newspapers rightly report, Apple’s silence on generative AI sounded “suspicious.”
Having discarded the idea that such a giant in the sector (often, indeed, the one most prone to experimentation and displays of ingenuity) could escape the challenge, only one other hypothesis remained. And that is that Tim Cook’s company was working in secret on its own product.
And so it seems to have been. This was revealed in preview by Bloomberg, in an article published on Wednesday 19 July. What do we know?
No official launch date
We don’t have much data to offer. For once, Apple found itself chasing. In fact, on the ground of generative AI, the Cupertino company has not been a pioneer, but if anything it has had to look at the development of other people’s products, more advanced than its own: OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google Bard and Microsoft’s Bing AI.
The suspicion however, as per tradition at Apple, is that Apple GPT will also be a highly innovative and peculiar product. The wait is long, but we do not yet know when it will be met: there is still no official launch date.
Even the name of the product is not official, but given for similarity to existing ones.
According to Bloomberg, the language model developed for Apple GPT is called Ajax and is based on Google Cloud and Google JAX.
The stock soars on the stock market
That the expectation of Apple GPT is high is also demonstrated by the reaction of the markets to what, more than an announcement, is a rumor, even if it comes from an authoritative source.
On the news of an upcoming generative artificial intelligence branded Apple, in fact, the stock soared on the stock market, reaching an all-time high of $198.23.
Tim Cook’s caution
The Apple GPT “delay” may not be accidental. On several occasions the company’s CEO, Tim Cook, has shown himself wary of generative artificial intelligence. Which, as we have repeated in various articles, it is true that it offers various and surprising opportunities. But on the other hand, if used in an incongruous or non-regulated way, it exposes to a series of non-trivial risks.
In a speech last May, Cook called the AI ”very interesting” but added that it still contains “a number of problems that need to be solved.”
And it is difficult to blame him: it is a potentially revolutionary but still immature technology, and it is not infrequent to read about sensational topics taken from the various conversational chatbots.
The suggestion is that Apple wants to enter the game with a more complete and mature product than those of its competitors. The inevitable price to pay, it goes without saying, is represented by the longer times.
L’IA e Series
Artificial intelligence is already applied in several Apple products. Let’s think, for example, of Siri, the voice assistant. Which may have just been taken as an example by Tim Cook, in his preaching of prudence. Not only because Siri’s technology is now clearly lagging behind those of other companies that are developing AI. However, we add, ChatGPT can now be integrated with Apple’s voice assistant.
We also remember that already last March the New York Times had leaked rumors about a possible artificial intelligence produced in Cupertino. And, as we reported in an article, the hypothetical Apple GPT should apply to Siri.
But unfortunately, until Tim Cook’s company releases official statements in this regard, we can only wait. Or make assumptions.