Like other tech giants, Apple was caught off guard by the success of ChatGPT. Now the company is trying to catch up. There are said to be internal projects that could make generative AI usable for Apple offers such as Siri. At the same time, however, Apple CEO Tim Cook calls for prudence when dealing with the technology and even has employees banned from using it so that no sensitive data escapes. And now Apple is also actively looking for new employees to develop generative AI projects. The IT blog TechCrunch noticed the corresponding job advertisements.
Speech processing and image generators
At least a dozen such ads have appeared on Apple’s careers page. Among other things, Apple would like specialists in machine learning (ML) who bring a “passion for the development of extraordinary autonomous systems”. We are also looking for ML researchers, specialists for integrated systems and natural language processing (NLP) in the field of “input experience” as well as someone who does research in the field of visual generative models for Apple – i.e. in terms of image generators. The sought-after person is said to be involved in visual generative modeling “for applications in the areas of computer graphics, image and video editing, 3D shape and motion reconstruction, avatar generation and much more”.
Apple currently has little to show for this. Although the group is considered a pioneer in the field of AI – the voice assistant Siri has been around since 2011 – the new, generative language models have not yet been cast in products. However, many users don’t want to wait much longer for Siri 2.0, as the systems appear primitive compared to what ChatGPT, Bing Chat or Google Bard can do.
Announcements by Cook on ChatGPT
Apple CEO Tim Cook recently spoke to analysts about his assessment of generative AI. “The potential is certainly very interesting. And, of course, we’ve made tremendous strides in integrating AI and machine learning throughout our ecosystem,” he said. The technology has been in products and functions “for many years”. So far, however, large language models have not been used here – at least Apple has never made this known. When it comes to output, Siri isn’t very creative, and in day-to-day use, users need to know pretty well how to use commands.
Most recently, OpenAI put an official ChatGPT application in the App Store, which has shot up in the US hit list of the most popular apps. In the coming weeks, the application will also appear in other countries, including the EU. Among other things, the application comes with the option of making entries by voice.
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