Apple's new AI technology is a step forward, professor says
What new AI technology has Apple recently announced, and what are its main features?
Apple has recently announced its first major foray into the AI space with the introduction of "Apple Intelligence," a systemwide update to software on its devices3. The main features of Apple Intelligence include:
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Personalized and conversational Siri: Apple's virtual assistant is now more intuitive and capable of handling stumbles in speech and understanding context better. Users can now type to Siri, and it can answer questions about using Apple devices.
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Apple Intelligence deeply integrated into iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia: This integration allows users to take advantage of AI capabilities across various Apple devices and platforms4.
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ChatGPT integration: Apple is partnering with OpenAI to bring ChatGPT, an AI-powered chatbot experience, to a range of its devices. Siri users can now route questions to ChatGPT for expertise where it might be helpful.
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Genmoji and Image Playground: Genmoji allows users to create AI emoji-like images of anyone in their photo library or custom emoji. Image Playground is a new image-generating feature that works across apps like Notes, Freeform, Keynote, and Pages, allowing users to create images using various concepts such as themes, costumes, accessories, places, and more.
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AI photo editing: The Clean Up tool in the upgraded Photos app removes unwanted people and objects from photos by using AI.
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Privacy focus: Apple sets a new standard for privacy in AI with Private Cloud Compute, ensuring that most AI features run locally on the device, keeping sensitive data secure4.
Apple Intelligence aims to simplify and accelerate everyday tasks by understanding and creating language and images, taking action across apps, and drawing from personal context4.
How does Apple's new AI technology aim to enhance user experience according to the article?
Apple's new AI technology, called Apple Intelligence, aims to enhance user experience in several ways, according to the article24. Here are the main points:
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Optimization and Streamlining: Apple Intelligence is designed to optimize and streamline the user experience across Apple devices and applications.
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Summarization: The AI can summarize a user's emails before they open a message, allowing for quicker understanding of content.
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Notification Management: It can order notifications from most-to-least important, helping users prioritize their attention.
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Transcription: Apple Intelligence can transcribe voice recordings, which could be useful for various tasks such as note-taking or archiving.
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Proofreading and Editing: The AI can proofread writing and offer editing suggestions, improving the quality of written communication.
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Natural Language Search: Users can search for photos or videos using natural language, making it easier to find specific media.
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Integration with ChatGPT: Apple is partnering with OpenAI to provide ChatGPT—an AI chatbot—into its new suite of writing tools and Siri, further enhancing its AI capabilities.
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Privacy and Security: Apple is placing privacy and security at the center of its discussions around AI integration. Most Apple Intelligence features will run locally, meaning sensitive data will remain on the device. If a user requests a task too complicated for the local AI model to fulfill, the device can pass the request to more sophisticated AI models available on Apple's cloud servers. After the request is completed, the data is deleted from the cloud.
These features collectively aim to make the user experience more efficient, personalized, and secure.
How is Apple addressing privacy and security concerns with its new AI technology?
Apple is addressing privacy and security concerns with its new AI technology, Apple Intelligence, by focusing on on-device processing and incorporating a new feature called Private Cloud Compute. With on-device processing, most AI tasks are handled locally on the user's device, ensuring that sensitive data remains on the device and is not sent to remote servers.
In cases where a task is too complex for the device to handle, Apple's Private Cloud Compute comes into play. This feature sends only the necessary data to Apple's cloud servers, which are built with Apple Silicon and designed to protect user privacy. The data sent to these servers is encrypted, and Apple claims it will not save or use any data aside from what is needed to complete the AI task. Furthermore, the company states that user data is never stored or made accessible to Apple, and is used exclusively to fulfill the user's request.
Apple is also inviting independent security researchers and cryptographers to inspect the code that runs on Private Cloud Compute servers, allowing them to verify the company's privacy and security claims. The entire system is set up cryptographically, so Apple devices will only communicate with servers whose software has been logged for inspection.
By prioritizing on-device processing and implementing strict privacy measures for cloud-based tasks, Apple aims to provide users with a secure and private AI experience.