According to unnamed Apple employees who spoke to Bloomberg, Apple is “secretly” developing an artificial intelligence chatbot, “Apple GPT,” to compete with big tech companies that are developing large language models (LLMs) and generative AI tools.
The rumored AI chatbot could lead to conversational AI capabilities built right into iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS, which can be accessed with Apple ID without the need to download a third-party app.
“Apple GPT” and “Ajax”
Apple has reportedly developed an AI framework called “Ajax” as the backbone of its generative AI chat.
Apple engineers used “Ajax” to create the internal chatbot that some call “Apple GPT” and is similar to the popular OpenAI technology, although details are still scarce.
Apple’s entry into generative AI chatbots comes at a time when companies like Meta and Google are scrambling to release new AI developments months after being surprised by the excitement and capabilities of ChatGPT and other OpenAI products.
training data sources
While not finalized, Apple’s privacy policy for Siri and Dictation suggests the company may use data such as transcripts of Siri interactions to train and improve the AI models that power Siri, Dictation and related ones support services.
The policy mentions using Siri data to “develop and improve” these features and retain some transcripts in excess of two years for “continuous improvement of Siri.”
This could allow Apple to use the data to train the AI models to respond more accurately to user requests.
However, the privacy policy does not clearly affirm the use of Siri data to train AI, merely providing circumstantial evidence that this might happen.
Apple seems cautious about openly admitting this practice. Still, it has a significant amount of technology that has access to vast amounts of data.
Watch ChatGPT closely
In an interview with Good Morning America earlier this year, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company is excited about ChatGPT and is looking into it closely.
However, he expressed caution about the technology’s potential for bias and misinformation.
Competition for big technology and app developers
If Apple successfully develops an AI chatbot, it could have a significant impact on existing AI chatbots — especially those available on the App Store today.
In the productivity category, 11 of the top 50 apps offer an AI chatbot.
This group of apps includes OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Poe with the latest version of Claude 2, and Perplexity with GPT-4.
Screenshot from the App Store, July 2023This category does not include AI chatbots that are accessible through a mobile browser or embedded in other apps offered by companies such as Google, Microsoft, and Snapchat.
It remains unclear when and how Apple intends to make its chatbot technology available to consumers. Some of Apple’s upcoming AI advances were hinted at during the 2023 WWDC event.
Screenshot by Apple, June 2023But Apple’s entry into this space is fueling the AI arms race that could significantly transform the way people interact with technology in the years to come.
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