Reuters reports that Apple is working on significantly increasing the number of artificial intelligence specialists it employs as it works to make Siri smarter, but that the company’s commitment to user privacy imposes constraints.
As part of its push, the company is currently trying to hire at least 86 more employees with expertise in the branch of artificial intelligence known as machine learning, according to a recent analysis of Apple job postings. The company has also stepped up its courtship of machine-learning PhD’s, joining Google, Amazon, Facebook and others in a fierce contest, leading academics say.
Machine learning relies heavily on large-scale data-crunching to figure out what users are likely to want to know. But while Google analyses the data of Android users en-masse, Apple’s approach to privacy means that far less data is sent from the iPhone to its servers, making it more challenging to increase Siri’s intelligence …
Craig Federighi, Apple’s SVP of software engineering, said of iOS 9 that it was “adding intelligence throughout the user experience in a way that enhances how you use your device but without compromising your privacy.”
While Apple does impose stricter controls on user data than most other companies, Siri’s servers do still retain data for up to two years – it simply does this in an anonymised form. A former employee said even doing this much is unusual for Apple, with most other services retaining data for far less time – as little as 15 minutes, in the case of Apple Maps.
The ramp up in Apple’s AI hiring may not be as dramatic as the Reuters piece makes it sound.
One former Apple employee in the area, who asked not to be named to protect professional relationships, estimated the number of machine learning experts had tripled or quadrupled in the past few years.
With Siri first launched in 2011, a tripling or quadrupling of what is likely to be a relatively small number of specialists over the course of several years sounds to me pretty unremarkable.
Though some AI graduates reportedly shy away from Apple as they want as much data as possible to play with, John Duchi, an assistant professor at Stanford University, says that others are likely to relish the challenge of combining intelligence with a high degree of privacy. “New flavors of problems are exciting,” he said.
Not everyone is as happy with Apple’s strong commitment to privacy as its customers. A former iAd exec complained that the company’s advertising efforts were hampered by its privacy policy, and lawyers have even suggested that the company’s use of strong encryption could leave it liable to terrorism-related lawsuits.
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I’m happy for Apple to use my data, as they won’t use it to serve up ads, just relevant info. Also, as long as there is a place where I can view what Siri has learned about me, and force Siri to forget things I don’t want it to know, that’s also fine.
Me too! I would like to be able to see what they know of me, and that they use my info to give me a better service… like a better search.
And if they make the info anonymous, they also can use it.
Ha! Obviously, you’ve never read Apple’s privacy policy. It specifically spells out, in no uncertain terms, that Apple uses your data for advertising purposes as well as other purposes. People tend to misinterpret “We won’t share your private data”, and assume it means all your data. Wrong. Again, Apple spells it out in the privacy policy. Reading that policy instead of relying on second hand info passed through forums would give you a true understanding of what Apple does and doesn’t do. So that I’m clear, Apple isn’t doing anything wrong. They use your data to serve targeted advertising. So what. You can opt out of the targeted advertising. You will still get ads, it just won’t be relevant.
Thanks for the clarification. But this is my whole point. I do want that they use my data to serve me better search results… and, ok, ads.
By example, I’m a tech person, so if I look for something with several meanings… use the one related to tech.
What I also want is to be able see what they collected (with my id) and be able to delete/correct.
What I do not want is that they give away my data. I can trust Apple (or any that is first in the row) but I do not want to be sold to others.
It’s refreshing to see a large company doing so much to protect my privacy and follow up on their promises to do the same with my data. Perhaps Apple should adopt the long ago forgotten mantra of Google – “Do No Evil.”
It sounds as though Apple will deliberately take the long way around my privacy to get what they need to improve their AI and its resulting products.
Another reason I’ll stick with Apple and avoid – whenever possible – Google, where my data is their salable product!
no Apple does the same thing as Google they just lie to you about it while Google is up front. I’ve been using all of google services since 2013 and have zero complaints. I promise you if Google and Apple didn’t have your data many other companies and services that you use do.
I believe that you are thoroughly incorrect in your assertion there. Here’s a piece on it:
https://ar.al/notes/apple-vs-google-on-privacy-a-tale-of-absolute-competitive-advantage/
Not only are Apple not lying about it, it simply doesn’t make sense for them. Their business model is to sell you great stuff. Google’s business model is to give you great stuff for free so that they can sell everything about you to the highest bidder.
Those models are very different.
Having to solve a problem like ‘machine learning —big data— with privacy constrains’ is something that only Apple would be delighted to tackle!
So long as it doesn’t hamper their ability to make great services and ultimately a great user experience, then great. Otherwise, it needs to be more flexible in its stance. Privacy does not mean not collecting user’s information / data. It means asking permission. Repeatedly, if need be.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39iKLwlUqBo
AI doesn’t need to spy on users to work correctly and better.
To create better AI algorithms only a few hundreds or thousands of people at most are needed as samples to fine tune the algorithms properly.
Well the whole argument right now is that we don’t need servers because our devices are powerful enough to store and process this data, that’s the current privacy revolution, and it would be great for Apple to do some copyin’ from the indie devs
It seems as if you’re saying the only way for a company to be good at artificial intelligence is if it relies upon user data mining. I didn’t think AI had to rely on something like that.
Well, this is obviously the challenge for Apple. Will it sucked? I do not know.
Remember that before the iPhone, the web experience in cellphones was a lousy one.
Maybe, they got it right.
As I posted before my problem is not on using my data to get better info for me, my problem is with selling my data to others,
I think that here they are speaking of ‘deep learning,’ and I think that you need ‘big data’ to be able to learn. In humanity, it took the form of time and knowledge distribution (printing press).
On the other hand, there is Artificial Intelligence —that I think includes ‘deep learning’—.
For IA it is possible that you do not need ‘big data’: playing chess comes to my mind.
I’m just surprised how little many people care about privacy or security. The school district my wife works at was setting up iPads for teachers, and asked everyone to give them their Apple usernames and passwords. My wife was the only one that did not, and had them set up a new username password for her.
A side point is I don’t think the tech dept was handling this right, (it would not be the first time), and they really didn’t need everyone’s personal info, but I was surprised that people would just willingly hand over such info.
(This of ocurse has nothing to do with Apple asking or not asking for info, just on the general opinion about being secure and private.)
every services you ever use every bank, companies products you buy ect al have access to your data. You like many are doing nothing but wearing Tin Foil Hats Privacy is an illusion.
Your sentence doesn’t make sense.
My bank isn’t selling my transaction history to advertisers (at least, not yet), my iPhone isn’t selling my location history to advertisers, and my Mac isn’t collecting usage on everything I do to be sold to advertisers.
No tin foil hats involved. You’re happy to be the product, and good luck to you, but others aren’t.
The game is to lure your traffic over the web. Once that happens, your data is collected.
I’m sorry but you are delusion if you think Apple doesn’t do the same thing Google does. A least Google is forward about it Apple is just plain deceitful.
You need to do some analysis before projecting your own delusional state on to others.
https://ar.al/notes/apple-vs-google-on-privacy-a-tale-of-absolute-competitive-advantage/