Apple developed an experimental AI chatbot called ‘Apple GPT’ at the end of last year and is currently undergoing internal testing. Apple GPT was created based on Apple’s own framework “Ajax,” which can create large-scale language models (LLMs) such as GPT of OpenAI, according to the news agency. An insider said Apple is working on a generative AI development project with the aim of launching it next year.As a result, all “Magnificent 7” companies, which refer to seven big tech companies that sweep the top market capitalization in the U.S. stock market, will enter the AI market. Apple, Microsoft (MS), Alphabet (Google parent company), Nvidia, Amazon, Tesla, and Meta (Facebook parent company) are Magnificent 7 companies. Apple’s participation in the war seems belated, but it is expected to put strong pressure on leaders such as Microsoft and Google as it is a leading big tech company that ranks first in market capitalization. In fact, when the development of generative AI was announced on the same day, Apple’s stock price rose to a record high of $198.23 during the day, and Microsoft’s stock price fell about 1%.
Apple has already applied AI-related improvements to “Siri,” an iPhone voice AI secretary, and search and map applications (apps), according to the news agency. If the LLM that Apple is building is applied to Siri, Siri can also be reborn as an office AI assistant that is currently popular in the AI market. However, an insider of Apple said that Apple GPT basically has no technical difference from Chat GPT and Google Bard, and it is too early to commercialize it.Attention is focusing on how quickly Apple can speed up the development of relatively lagging generative AI. “Apple has been incorporating AI functions into its products for years, but it has lagged behind in the generative AI market,” the news agency pointed out. Apple is currently hiring a large number of experts such as generative AI engineers.Microsoft, which is leading the AI market in partnership with Open AI, announced its partnership with Meta and began to “solidify its lead.” Microsoft held an annual conference for customers the previous day and announced that it can use its latest LLM “Llama2” released by Meta on the same day through its cloud (virtual server) service Azure. Microsoft, a strong supporter of open AI, has decided to support its competitor Meta to increase its share in the cloud market.Meta also made an unconventional choice not to fall behind in the competition. Meta said it would offer Lamar 2 free of charge as open source (open access) to individuals such as companies and developers. Until now, Meta has provided LLM to academia and others for research purposes only. With this free release, anyone can create an AI chatbot using Lamar 2 or combine it with the service they want.
Analysts say that this is a strategy set up by Meta, a latecomer, to quickly secure a position in the market. This is because it can secure a large number of users in a short period of time through free disclosure. Regarding Meta’s strategy, the British Guardian said, “It also dilutes Google’s competitive advantage by providing all companies with an opportunity to launch chatbots against ChatGPT or Bard.”
JENNIFER KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
