The AI arms race has begun, and technology giants have already taken action.
The new competition was triggered by ChatGPT developed by OpenAI. Microsoft and Google have launched AI products one after another, and many other companies will follow suit.
There seems to be only one company that is not enthusiastic, and it is Apple. Amazon is also preparing to join the generative AI race, but Apple is silent.
Apple is not without AI. The iPhone camera, the SOS function of Apple Watch, and the Siri virtual assistant all use AI technology to some extent. Apple CEO Cook has publicly stated that AI will affect every product and service of Apple.
But now that ChatGPT makes AI more possible, Apple’s AI doesn’t look so sexy.
Embracing AI Apple has no choice
Industry analysts believe that Apple is lagging behind its opponents and it has little time to catch up. Catching up with its opponents is related to Apple’s ability to Whether to remain competitive.
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said: "Apple has no choice. It is an arms race for the technology giants. The market will spend $1 trillion in the next 10 years, and the cake is huge. Microsoft Google has announced that it will speed up, Apple must accelerate, and the AI strategy must also be adjusted. Time is very tight.”
Ives pointed out that Apple has invested about 10 billion US dollars in AI research and development. When it releases new products this summer, it may There will be some big announcements related to AI.
Apple AI has always been "hiding in the background"
In the eyes of the public, Apple is not an AI pioneer. It has always liked to wait until consumers want a specific technology.
Apple has been researching AI for several years, but DA Davidson analyst Tom Forte believes that launching high-profile large-scale AI projects is not Apple’s style and is more likely to be used in the background.
He said: "As one of the world's largest companies, Apple has indeed done some things around AI, but it is not as dazzling as ChatGPT. When Apple uses AI, it is more to enhance its own technology."
In the field of AI, Apple still has a lot of room for improvement. It is generally believed that Siri is not as good as Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. The AI-powered SOS function can detect emergencies or heart problems, but it sometimes gives false alarms.
But Apple’s backend AI is not outstanding either
Launching interesting AI products is a problem Apple needs to solve, but it is not the only problem.
Apple needs to let the public know that it is integrating more AI into its products, and it also has to face supply chain issues. In short, Apple still has many problems to solve. Consumers have always been willing to buy Apple products mainly because they like its design and ecosystem, but it is not enough to convince investors.
Forte said: "As an investor, I prefer to believe that Apple uses AI to enhance existing technologies in different scenarios, because consumers do not buy Apple products because of AI."
Google’s entire business revolves around search engines. It hopes that searches can match or surpass language models, so chatbots are an important breakthrough point. As for Microsoft, it thinks it could surpass Google search using linguistic AI. Apple is not in a hurry yet.
In February 2023, Apple held an employee AI conference at its headquarters. Although ChatGPT and other AI services were not yet popular when the conference was held, Apple has been paying attention to the development of AI.
Cook said at the quarterly earnings call: "We see AI has endless potential and it will impact everything we do. All of our products and services will be affected."
Cook talked about some services that introduce AI technology, such as Crash Detection used by Apple Watch and iPhone, ECG of Apple Watch, and audio books of Apple Book. Next, Apple may use technology similar to ChatGPT to optimize Siri to make it smarter.
ChatGPT has an advantage: it has a stronger ability to understand the environment. Many people believe that ChatGPT is the future of search, making current smart device AI look like bricks.
While Apple may improve Siri, Siri isn't going to get smarter anytime soon. There are two reasons for this assertion: First, Apple adopts an attitude towards almost all new technologies: wait and see first, then act. Secondly, the chat AI still seems not smart enough.
ChatGPT itself also has limitations
On the surface, ChatGPT seems very smart, but the surface is just the surface after all. What ChatGPT writes looks very convincing, because humans have trained ChatGPT with massive documents. From specific phrases to document structures, ChatGPT can basically borrow everything it has seen at will.
Although it has collected a lot of knowledge, ChatGPT cannot distinguish between truth and falsehood, cannot find a rational position from prejudice, cannot find statistical evidence from prejudice, and cannot find reliable data from garbage.
Silicon Valley venture capitalists believe that ChatGPT may end a large number of knowledge jobs, destroy many huge industries, and fundamentally change our learning, consumption and decision-making mechanisms.
While valuations in other tech industries are shrinking and financing is having trouble, generative AI is booming. The market values generative AI companies very high.
OpenAI burns money very quickly, but Microsoft has valued it at US$30 billion. Many people are slowly realizing that technologies like ChatGPT have unlimited potential.
As the leader in Silicon Valley, what role does Apple play in this storm? This is what Apple needs to think about, and what everyone is concerned about.
Of course, we still need to wait and see whether ChatGPT will be a new bubble.
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