Apple gets into the AI chatbot race with Apple GPT

According to a Bloomberg report, Apple is creating its own AI-powered chatbot that some engineers call "Apple GPT," according to a Bloomberg report. The company reportedly has not yet concrete plans to release the technology to the public. As Bloomberg pointed out, the chatbot uses its own large language model (LLM) framework called "Ajax," which runs on Google Cloud and is built with Google JAX, a framework created to speed up machine learning research. Sources close to the situation tell the outlet that Apple has multiple teams working on the project, which includes addressing potential privacy implications.

As other tech giants, including Meta, Microsoft and Google, have moved quickly by releasing their own generative AI products for businesses and the general public, Apple has been conspicuous by its absence. While Apple has banned its workers from using ChatGPT, Bloomberg reports that engineers have been using the Ajax-powered chatbot internally. Ajax was created to "unify machine learning development," says Bloomberg.

Apple has been quiet in the generative AI space, even though the company has been integrating AI into its software for a long time. Its most famous artificial intelligence system is Siri, the voice assistant that helped fuel the trend among tech companies, but critics have long claimed that Siri still has a long way to go. To help bolster its efforts, Apple 2018 hired John Giannandrea, who previously led AI and search at Google, to oversee Siri and its machine learning teams. According to Bloomberg, Giannandrea and Apple's senior vice president of software engineering, Craig Federighi, are leading Apple's AI initiative.

In a recent interview with Good Morning America, Tim Cook said that AI technology is something Apple is "looking at closely." During an earnings call in May, Cook also raised concerns about AI products, noting that "a number of issues that need to be resolved." Other companies have started working together to offer different LLMs to startups and researchers. On Tuesday, Meta announced that its LLM LLaMA 2 will be available on Microsoft's Azure platform. Microsoft also runs the OpenAI GPT model in its Bing search product.

Although Apple's plans in the AI space are still unclear, sources tell Bloomberg that Apple is looking to make a "significant AI-related announcement" sometime next year.