Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) is underway, and the one thing that has caught everyone’s attention is Apple Intelligence. Although Apple has been visibly late to join the AI bandwagon, CEO Tim Cook has a different explanation. The Apple CEO recently sat down with famed YouTuber Marques Brownlee, also known as MKBHD. Cook, 63, spoke at length about Apple’s approach to AI and generative AI, privacy and security, and more.
In the beginning of the interview, the host asked Cook about how Apple defines AI; this was specifically asked because Apple has been consciously not using the term in any of its demos or presentations. Cook revealed that Apple has been revealing AI for a long time.
“It’s at the root of the watch. Think about crash detection, fall detection, and things like AFib—all of this is machine learning at the end of the day. But what has captured people’s imagination is generative AI,” Cook said. He added that Apple sees it as an opportunity for a whole new curve of technology and providing more things for people like an assistant that improves people’s lives. “We approach it very thoughtfully, focused on privacy as a key tenet of our thrust into AI,” he said.
At the WWDC 2024, Apple introduced its AI as Apple Intelligence, bringing a whole lot of functionalities under its ambit. When asked why it was branded as Apple Intelligence, Cook reasoned that initially the company always talks about the benefit to the user and not the technology behind the feature. However, he said that over time, it became clear that people wanted to know Apple’s views on generative AI and that’s how the company embraced it and called it Apple Intelligence.
During the two-hour-long keynote, Apple showcased how privacy and security was at the centre of Apple Intelligence, backed by the company’s proprietary Private Cloud Compute (PCC). With AI now coming up with more complex requests resulting in needing more compute power, Cook was asked to explain how PCC handles the same.
Cook said that the PCC uses Apple’s silicon architecture ensuring that it is as safe and secure as the device. “For world knowledge outside personal context, you may use a large language model like ChatGPT, making a conscious decision each time. No data is sent to OpenAI without explicit user consent,” he said.
As the interview progressed, Brownlee also mentioned the blip in the radar of stand-alone AI devices in recent times. He asked Cook if he foresaw a future where phones will be used less because of how well AI works. In his response, the CEO said that it is a significant possibility. He said that Apple has never been motivated for people to spend their lives on their devices.
“Our model is not one that needs engagement to succeed. Our model is one where we want to empower you to be able to do things you couldn’t do otherwise. We want to give you a tool so you can do incredible things that you couldn’t do without the tool. That’s what motivates us,” he said. Cook believes that as things get smarter with Apple Intelligence, users will take even less time for things that were initially required of them to spend more time.
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First uploaded on: 13-06-2024 at 11:12 IST
