By Ricardo Lezama 
Apple’s Deployment of AI Takes Centre Stage in an Ongoing Debate On Large Language Models’ Place In Consumer Devices
While some may be tempted to chastise Apple over their slow entry into usage of Large Language Models, there is something to be said of their over 1 billion users. The tech giant has used AI, Machine Learning to provide powerful security and user experiences on their coveted mobile devices. Nonetheless, they have now made their most significant overture to the tech world post-GPT chat devices and some of the innovations seem more like capitulation to an AI industry that has moved beyond them.
Apple As Platform For AI
Instead of innovating their own AI, Apple seems content to leverage their large user base and allow Open AI to augment some of their searches via SIRI. Overall, the company seems focused on exploiting GPT’s, not building them for their own sake.
Apple’s Launch of In-house AI …is not quite its own AI.
Apple’s introduction of its own in-house artificial intelligence (AI) system, dubbed as ‘Apple Intelligence‘ has sparked a debate on Twitter. This proprietary system operates locally and is said to guarantee user privacy. In addition, ‘apple intelligence’ features a separate Chat GPT section, which is off-device, and does not have access to user data unless explicit permissions are granted.
Elon Musk’s Remarks and the Business Implication
The divisive Tesla CEO Elon Musk joined the debate, with his comments sparking even greater discussions.On X/Twitter, Must took to pointing out the business and privacy implications of Apple’s use of Chat GPT, he remarked that building AI into the OS would impact security. Thus, if it could impact Tesla and any of his companies privacy in unforeseen ways, then those devices would be banned in his companies.
Must took issue with specific interaction between Apple and Chat GPT whereby the consumer data could go into Open AI’s databases without any clear transparency. You can see his thoughts on the tweet below.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 10, 2024
Other Twitter users are speculating about new features on iPhones and iPads. The introduction of home screen customization and newly added calculators have been warmly received so far. With the integration of AI into Apple products, the tech giant’s moves are being watched by industry pundits and general users alike for their potential game-changing implications.
AI Security and Privacy Debate
The chatter spurred concerns over user privacy, as some Twitter users argued that the use of Chat GPT inevitably means sharing of user data, regardless of the company’s assurance of maintaining privacy. The critics argued that in order to fully utilise the services of an AI system like Chat GPT, access to user data is a necessary evil.