Apple and OpenAI have signed a deal to partner on AI

He’s lukewarm on chatbots, not necessarily on LLMs.

> You have to wonder if Giannandrea is what's been holding Siri back all these years.

I think it's more that Siri wasn't central to Apple (though consider homepod and watch, both of which pretty much need to be talked to).

But he's the reason Google had a corporate push on AI at all; he bought Deep Mind etc. I really don't think he's been sitting on his hands.

Apple likely plans to use their own infrastructure [0], and why should they add a major competitor as a middleman?

[0] https://www.reuters.com/technology/apple-power-ai-servers-wi...

Maybe branding/brand recognition? Outside of tech circles, it's likely that very few people know anything bad about Altman, compared to the hundreds of millions who know about "ChatGPT."

You're looking at it the wrong way: Altman really wants this deal. For a long time, accelerated by the OA coup, he has been searching for ways out of the MS trap, where OA becomes an appendix to MS, dependent on MS infrastructure completely. ('Above you, below you, around you...') Apple is one of the few viable alternatives to play off against MS. (This is the same as why Anthropic gets investment from Google & Amazon, as their anti-OA.) The mere fact of any Apple deal at all is a lot of leverage against Nadella. Think of it as like North Korea playing off China and Russia against each other; it is bad to have only 1 patron, but it is good to have 2.

EDIT: ah, there we go: https://www.businessinsider.com/satya-nadella-sam-altman-ope... Mission. Accomplished.

sorry to interrupt your comment thread, this is completely unrelated. are you the tracerbulletx that used to go by davey on an old forum called ultio? i know it's a long shot. i've been trying to get back in touch with him over the years, but all the forms of the internet that we used to communicate over are now dead. anyway, hope you're having a good day either way. if you're not davey, disregard this. if you are, let your pal cass know you're alive? cheers.

From https://www.macrumors.com/2024/05/30/ai-siri-features-ios-18...:

“Apple has been working on a deal with OpenAI to integrate OpenAI's ChatGPT technology into iOS 18, […] but Siri functionality likely relies on Apple's own LLM work.”

It's priced in.

To be fair, launching their own ChatGPT wouldn't be that much more interesting than leveraging OpenAI. What would be amazing is if they get a high-quality GPT model running locally on the device and integrate that with their services.

Why exactly does Apple need to make their own AI? I would prefer if they focused their efforts on what they're already good at - making hardware and operating systems to run on top of it.

Apple has never been about moving fast in response to hype. Think about 3G, VR, foldable screens (apparently coming to iPads in a few years). They do things in their own time and somehow it works.

> but IMO this is a bearish signal for Apple--they're sitting on a ton of cash and can't catch up to OpenAI?

Nobody has caught up to OpenAI, it's absurd to expect Apple to have done it simply because they have the cash.

They aren't interested in joining the same rat race.

Apple's strategy is edge based AI using their superior proprietary chips, particularly in mobile.

So it makes sense to partner with a centralized provider too.

But why when you can rent something good enough, and swap it for something in house later when you feel like it.

Look at Apple Maps.

this... sounds like a good thing?

Hahahahaha... ahh. Optimism.