RE: https://flipboard.com/@9to5mac/all-stories-54qrgsooz/-/a-lhxE7QfcTU23X0xpSq8wOg%3Aa%3A151168268-%2F0

hey #Federighi, we also want a UI that actually works. Federighi failed at fixing Siri and signed off on the trash known as liquid glass.

#LiquidGlass

Wasn't it maybe 10 years ago now that #HairForceOne #Federighi promised us that iOS devices would use "time of flight" calculations to de-conflict Siri questions between devices?

I have a 1 week-old iPhone 16 Pro right next to me on this Macintosh desk (which does not have an automatic microphone) and a not old iPad Air like 10 yards away around the corner in another room. And they are rolling dice about who answers every time I say "Hey Siri”. 😤🚮

Sam Altman currently runs OpenAI, the leading startup in generative artificial intelligence.
And Apple, racing to catch up in that area, has forged a partnership to integrate OpenAI’s ChatGPT into the iPhone’s operating system.
Though the controversial Altman is unlikely to take the stage at the event, the agreement will be a key focus of Apple’s 🔸Worldwide Developers Conference🔸 next week
— and it shows just how much the power in Silicon Valley has shifted over the past few years.

👉The deal gives OpenAI access to hundreds of millions of Apple users, including ones that might have been hesitant to try ChatGPT otherwise.

For Apple, the arrangement brings the company the hottest technology of the AI era — a chatbot with eerily powerful abilities — that it can pair with its own services.

Apple has been developing a host of AI features, including ones that run on its devices and others that require cloud computing.
It’s also infusing its Siri digital assistant with AI. But the company’s own chatbot isn’t yet up to snuff.

Apple kept its AI ambitions quiet until now. Cook said last year that the company would tread carefully in the new space and only add AI technology on a “very thoughtful basis.”

More recently, he’s argued that Apple will have an edge in AI because of its “unique combination of seamless hardware, software and services integration.”

Behind the scenes, Apple employees have been working furiously to back up that promise.

Around the time of the ChatGPT launch, small teams within the company’s AI and software engineering divisions began working on a competitor to ChatGPT, using a framework dubbed #Ajax.

Software chief #Craig #Federighi pushed managers to pack the latest version of the iPhone and iPad operating system
— known internally as “Crystal”
— with as much AI as possible.

#Eddy #Cue’s services division got to work on new data center infrastructure for powering online AI services.

Staffers also began investigating how AI could come to Apple Music and the company’s office-productivity apps.

Apple found that its AI is capable enough to power features like voice memo transcriptions and photo editing, as well as new search capabilities in the Safari web browser and auto replies in apps like Messages.

But it determined early on that OpenAI and Google were far ahead in chatbots and on-the-fly assistance.

That put Apple in a difficult spot. The company’s own technology wasn’t ready, and executives were concerned about reputational damage from a rogue chatbot.

Some people within Apple even have a philosophical aversion to having a chatbot at all, people familiar with the situation have said.

But it was clear by then that consumers would expect Apple to offer such a service, and that set the company on the path to its deal with OpenAI.

Several months ago, the company began meeting with the startup
— along with Google and other chatbot providers
— about integrating the technology into its iOS software.

By outsourcing the chatbot function, Apple can distance itself from the technology itself, including its occasional inaccuracies and hallucinations, the people said.

But it also links Apple to a startup beset by upheaval and controversy.

Altman, now 39, was briefly ousted last year for reasons that remain murky, and he recently drew the ire of movie star Scarlett Johansson for a soundalike AI voice.

Though Apple remains in talks with Google about using #Gemini in its devices, the iPhone maker reached an agreement with OpenAI first.

In the end, Apple may offer a number of third-party chatbots, but it’s negotiating the deals on a case-by-case basis, according to the people with knowledge of the situation.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/06/05/apple-made-once-unlikely-deal-with-sam-altman-to-catch-up-in-ai/