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FT editor Roula Khalaf selects her favourite stories on this weekly newsletter.
AI advocates and skeptics alike have been waiting for the technology's defining moment – the event that can substantiate the utility of huge language models for businesses or consumers and at last add weight to rising AI valuations. Enterprise AIs have already been introduced, nevertheless it stays unclear how the technology will drive profits. Consumer applications have been experimental and limited.
For many, essentially the most appropriate consumer use could be a private assistant built right into a smartphone. So it was only natural that Apple, maker of the iPhone and its “digital assistant” Siri, announced its own AI personal assistant this week. Other AI corporations are moving on this direction as well. Google unveiled its AI assistant Astra last month, and OpenAI has focused on making its model more consumer-friendly.
One might think that latecomer Apple's entry into the AI race is the long-awaited turning point. The tech giant's large market share within the smartphone market, its loyal customers and its strong cross-device networks could make it the logical market leader. Its strengths might be enough to usher within the age of AI transformation after the present phase of AI hype.
Yet Apple has long been considered a laggard in AI. Because it has neither a clearly defined AI strategy nor a publicly available model of its own, the corporate was overtaken in stock market valuation first by rival Microsoft and more recently by chipmaker Nvidia. And many AI fans have balked at Tim Cook's modest computing power targets for the corporate's AI division, Apple Intelligence, arguing that rivals Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and Amazon are higher positioned due to larger LLM models.
But Apple's critics forget that since Steve Jobs' death, the corporate's strength has been in execution, not innovation. While the corporate didn't invent the tablet or the smartwatch, its large customer base and deal with sleek design made them fashionable. And using a smaller model in Apple Intelligence arguably higher meets consumer needs. Most users won't need their AI assistant to compose stories within the form of; they'll just need it to put in writing emails. Apple's partnership with OpenAI also addresses concerns about a scarcity of processing power, as users can deploy ChatGPT to perform tougher tasks.
Whether this is actually a milestone, nonetheless, is determined by the market launch. Shaky launches of Google's now-defunct Bard and its newer Gemini tool have slowed adoption. Microsoft's patchy integration of AI into Bing has not given the unpopular search engine a lift. A bumpy launch of Apple Intelligence could further undermine Apple's strong position with similar shortcomings and, within the worst case, bring the momentum of all the industry to a halt.
Data privacy can be a barrier. Consumers are used to sacrificing privacy for greater performance. However, a tool that may work independently with a user's data could also be going too far. Apple has indicated that it’s going to store all user data in silos. However, the corporate has never offered LLMs to consumers and regulation has not focused sufficiently on data transparency.
It's entirely possible that a competitor's AI will prove its mettle before Apple's. Google's lead in processing power and its suite of office applications could push Android ahead of the iPhone. Or perhaps Amazon's popular Alexa will overtake Siri – and this announcement is just certainly one of many within the AI race.
Whether Apple's assistant dominates the market or not, the announcement of its AI strategy has once more made the corporate the most useful on the earth. Perhaps this time, the worth of AI will live as much as the hype.
