The race in the world of generative artificial intelligence (AI) continues to heat up as technology giants like OpenAI and Google lead the charge. Now, it appears that Apple is also gearing up to join the fray. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is working on its own artificial intelligence tools similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT to challenge its competitors.
The toolset, informally called ‘AppleGPT’ by Apple engineers, is actually named Ajax, and it has been built using Google’s JAX framework to create a large language model (LLM). The development of this generative AI initiative at Apple is reportedly led by John Giannandrea, who also oversees Siri and its machine learning capabilities. This suggests that Apple might integrate AI-powered features into its digital assistant, Siri, in the future.
Apple has several groups working on the project, with one group specifically focused on addressing potential privacy issues. However, it is not yet clear what exact purposes Apple intends to use the bot for, as the company has not revealed any specific plans, launch dates, or platforms. More information about Ajax and its applications is expected to be disclosed by Apple next year, potentially during its yearly earnings call.
Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, has previously expressed the company’s commitment to AI, stating that they view it as a significant technology and will continue to integrate it into their products thoughtfully.
Meanwhile, Meta (formerly known as Facebook) has also announced its new AI model, Llama 2, as a successor to its Llama models. Llama 2 boasts improved performance over its predecessor and can produce text and code based on prompts, similar to other conversational AI systems. It comes in two versions: Llama 2 and Llama 2-Chat, with different levels of complexity based on the number of parameters, which are components of the model that determine its ability to perform tasks like text generation.
As the competition in the AI space intensifies, it will be interesting to see how Apple’s Ajax and Meta’s Llama 2 fare in the ever-evolving landscape of generative AI.
