Apple isn’t the only company preferring a privacy-respecting on-device approach to artificial intelligence: Tinder AI processing will use the same approach to pick your most attractive photos for use in the dating app …
Expand Expanding Close
A number of tech giants, including Apple, trained AI models on YouTube videos without the consent of the creators, according to a new report today.
They did this by using subtitle files downloaded by a third party from more than 170,000 videos. Creators affected include tech reviewer Marquees Brownlee (MKBHD), MrBeast, PewDiePie, Stephen Colbert, John Oliver, and Jimmy Kimmel …
Expand Expanding Close
Both Counterpoint Research and IDC have published their latest estimates of the global smartphone market, each showing that Apple is lagging behind.
The worldwide smartphone market as a whole grew by around 6% in Q2, while iPhone shipments were roughly flat year-on-year …
Expand Expanding Close
A new breed of scambaiting AI systems are now being officially used by telecoms companies to protect their customers from fraud. The systems use more sophisticated versions of Lenny, a delightful simulation of a rambling old man keen to engage in lengthy conversation …
Expand Expanding Close
Apple appears to be expecting iPhone 16 sales to substantially outstrip those for last year’s model. A new supply-chain report says that the company has boosted its A-series chip order from TSMC by 10 million.
However, suggestions from some quarters that Apple has changed its chip strategy this year, giving all four iPhone models the same chip, are misleading …
Expand Expanding Close
One of the big questions around Apple’s AI plans has been whether the company would absorb the costs of these features, or charge a fee, aka an Apple Intelligence+ subscription.
So far, the news is that there will be no additional costs involved – but it appears that may change in the future …
Expand Expanding Close
We won’t be able to experience Apple’s approach to ChatGPT integration until a later iOS 18 beta, but owners of some of the latest Volkswagen cars are being offered what sounds like a very similar experience.
A number of VW cars already have a built-in AI voice assistant, and the company has announced that its capabilities are now being supplemented by ChatGPT …
Expand Expanding Close
How Apple Intelligence will work in China remains unclear, as the company has to navigate the country’s generative AI regulations.
A new report says that Apple concluded it was unlikely to get approval to use a system developed outside of China, suggesting that more of the off-device AI will be powered by Chinese companies …
Expand Expanding Close
An interesting piece suggests that Apple’s AI logo* – along with the new Siri icon – is intended to look friendly, unthreatening, and is deliberately non-anthropomorphic.
*Yeah, that could be Apple Artificial Intelligence, or Apple Apple Intelligence. Thanks, Tim.
Other companies appear to have set themselves the same goals with their AI offerings, hence all the simple, colorful graphics …
Expand Expanding Close
Perhaps upset that nobody cares about his own pet chatbot, Grok, Elon Musk launched a baseless attack on Apple’s AI announcements – saying that the iPhone maker wasn’t smart enough to create its own AI, and that ChatGPT isn’t safe.
OpenAI’s chief technology officer has now hit back at the latter part of the claim …
Expand Expanding Close
Apple Intelligence privacy is a key differentiator for the company’s own AI initiative, with the company taking a three-step approach to safeguard personal data.
But Apple says we won’t have to take the company’s word for it: It is taking an “extraordinary step” to enable third-party security researchers to fully and independently verify the privacy protections in place …
Expand Expanding Close
We already knew it was going to be a wait for Apple Intelligence beta access, with the company warning that the new features won’t be available until later in the year, but code found in iOS 18 indicates that there will be a waitlist for access.
Apple has also indicated that, while Apple Intelligence will be available to those outside the US, we may have to put up with delayed responses …
Expand Expanding Close
CEO Tim Cook has admitted in an interview that Apple Intelligence may hallucinate, but says that its responses will be “very high quality.”
He also said that the company has not been willing to compromise on its values to move into AI, and that there are guardrails in place for its upcoming artificial intelligence features …
Expand Expanding Close
The bad news from yesterday’s keynote is that Apple has never listed so many new features as “coming later.” This includes all of the Apple Intelligence ones.
The other bad news is that AI features will initially be limited to US English, although Apple’s wording here does suggest that those of us in other countries will still be able to try it …
Expand Expanding Close
Replacing the iPhone might seem a strange goal for Apple; it’s been the most successful product the company has ever made, and one of the most successful premium products any company has ever made. But it’s been reported that this is the company’s long-term goal.
Specifically, Apple execs were said to believe back in 2019 that an Apple Glasses product would replace the iPhone in roughly a decade …
Expand Expanding Close
iPhone voice transcription is already included in iMessage, and is available in some other chat apps – but not always for free. In Telegram, for example, you have to pay for a premium membership to get the feature.
The latest Bloomberg piece says that Apple is finally bringing audio transcription to the Voice Memo app, and this seems a perfect opportunity to make it a system-wide feature …
Expand Expanding Close
DuckDuckGo is out today with the news that its built-in AI Chat is available for all users. The free functionality offers the choice between four different AI models while protecting user anonymity. Here are all the details.
Expand Expanding Close
A new report suggests Apple may announce a number of iOS 18 Mail app AI features during WWDC.
These include the option to automatically create Smart Replies to emails, as well as the ability to draft a reply yourself and then ask Siri to change the tone – for example, ‘make this sound more professional’ …
Expand Expanding Close
Nvidia has overtaken AAPL in the market cap stakes, as its valuation exceeded $3T. The company’s rise in value has been truly spectacular, increasing from $2T back in February to more than $3T just four months later.
The company is now challenging Microsoft for the title of most valuable company in the world, and for the same reason …
Expand Expanding Close
Apple’s OpenAI partnership – which will be used to bring generative AI features to Siri – is likely just an interim one, while the company expands and deepens its own chatbot tech.
The prediction was made by Dag Kittlaus, who co-founded Siri before the tech was acquired by Apple …
Expand Expanding Close
We’re a little over a week away from the WWDC keynote, in which Apple is expected to announce a slew of new AI features as part of iOS 18.
This is expected to be the point at which Siri gets generative AI smarts, thanks to a deal with OpenAI to incorporate ChatGPT tech …
Expand Expanding Close
A new report says that iOS 18 Siri features will include a better contextual understanding of things like people, companies, events, and locations.
A new ‘catch-up’ feature is also said to be included in the AI feature-set, where you can ask Siri to bring you up to speed on notifications you’ve received while away from your phone …
Expand Expanding Close
Mark Gurman’s latest newsletter suggests that Apple may choose to label the AI features in iOS 18 as a beta or preview, similar to the way the company labelled Siri when it launched.
Gurman’s piece has a lot of impressive details about Apple’s plans for iOS 18, from customizable icon colours to AI-generated personal emoji. But it also contains a criticism I feel is unwarranted …
Expand Expanding Close
A new report says that there was a “secret meeting” between Apple chief operating officer Jeff Williams and the company’s exclusive chipmaker TSMC.
It’s being speculated that the meeting may have been to agree a deal for Apple to reserve all of TSMC’s 2nm capacity, in the same way it reportedly did with 3nm tech …
Expand Expanding Close