Google wrapped up another I/O keynote, and we heard a lot of what we expected: there are several new Pixel devices, a dig at Apple for not supporting RCS (we don’t can’t say we disagree on that), and a massive focus on AI.
It wasn’t just AI speaking at Google’s event, but generative AI. It’s a boring name but an important distinction. Generative AI is one that creates new things, rather than just analyzing and adjusting what already exists. DALL·E and Stable Diffusion create new artwork from a text prompt, they don’t just change exposure and fine-tune an image you provide. Chatbots such as ChatGPT and Bard answer questions and complete tasks by creating new text. There’s an AI that creates new music from a simple description, writes code, or synthesizes voices that sound like real people.
When asked about AI at Apple’s recent quarterly earnings meetings, Tim Cook said, “I think it’s very important to be deliberate and thoughtful in how you approach these things. And there are a number of issues that need to be sorted out, but the potential is certainly very exciting.
The CEO’s statement could be seen as Apple’s typical caution to bring potentially dangerous new products to market, or as a cover for appearing to be light years ahead of the rest of the tech industry in one of the most exciting and groundbreaking advances. in our time. . Either way, it’s clear that Apple’s walled garden approach, with its self-created ecosystem of apps and services, will need an AI strategy that includes generative AI, and fast.
AI is everywhere at Apple
Yes, AI is everywhere at Apple. Every chip Apple has made in recent years (except the Apple Watch processor) incorporates a neural engine to accelerate machine learning code used in artificial intelligence tools and apps so they can run on smart devices. energy efficient and confidential way. protective manner.
AI translates your speed into text, blends a bunch of different camera exposures into one top frame, stabilizes video, identifies objects and people in your photos, produces a faux karaoke mode in almost any songs you’re listening to and lets you copy text. easily from any image. It’s great, and the company shows no signs of slowing down.
But none of this is generative AI. It doesn’t create new things where something didn’t exist before. Apple has AI-powered photography styles while Google is upgrading Magic Eraser to Magic Editor, using a generative AI technique called “inpainting” to let you completely move things around in a photo. Apple’s Latest Mail Feature Is “Search Now Works” While Google Is Here write whole fucking emails.
Don’t just copy, innovate
Obviously, Apple doesn’t need to have everything Google has just because Google has it. Apple doesn’t need the same generative AI capabilities to be successful any more than it needs its own ad network or search engine. But where Apple competes, it must compete.
Apple’s approach is to sell tightly integrated hardware, software and services to work together in a holistic ecosystem. Use your iPhone as a premium wireless webcam. Drag your mouse pointer and keyboard directly from your Mac desktop to your iPad. Messages, photos, files, mail… the things you do and save on one Apple device are synced and available elsewhere.
The company is heavily invested in keeping users in its ecosystem; the “walled garden” approach so often attributed to Apple where everything is nice, safe and works well together. Recent filings in the company’s numerous antitrust cases around the world have shown how far the company will go to keep customers in its own ecosystem. If your iPhone isn’t “sticky” – if you don’t lose something out of the walled garden – you might be tempted by another company’s products.
As Google and Microsoft begin to integrate generative AI into their ecosystems in ways that are powerful, useful, and let’s face it, amusingit’s going to get harder to justify staying within Apple’s walls.
That doesn’t mean Apple has to be a copycat of Google or Microsoft features. We don’t need a SiriGPT chatbot, or the ability to change your iMessages Shakespeare-style. Apple can create and integrate generative AI experiences in its own way.
I can imagine creative apps like Logic, GarageBand, and Final Cut Pro allowing users to generate royalty-free background music tracks with AI in just a few words. Podcasters would love that. That #images button in Messages that lets you search for the perfect GIF? What if it could also generate an AI image based on your latest posts or a handful of keywords? Xcode should definitely have auto-code generation and auto-commenting features. What if you could drag the subject out of a photo and in another, with proper lighting and perspective? Or fix the closed eye on that person who blinked with the AI drawing their eyes open using all your other photos of that person as a reference?
Apple doesn’t often talk about things it’s working on until they’re ready to be released, at least in beta form. So the company might be ready to add generative AI experiences to its devices and we wouldn’t know much about that until the downloads are ready. But otherwise, if Tim Cook’s warnings represent a wait-and-see approach, the company will find that the very foundations of its ecosystem will seem outdated, and the walled garden will look less like a beautiful and magical place to stay and more like a prison to which we can’t escape.
