Apple has been quiet about the artificial intelligence race. With all the other players throwing AI lingo at us left, right and centre, does that potentially become a threat to the Cupertino company? Not at all. Apple’s been in this space for quite a while. They’ve had a neural engine on their chips for many years. They use AI for things like computational photography, which is basically making photos look better. At the moment, all talks are about generative AI.

We think that it’s reasonable to expect that by the time Worldwide Developers Conference takes place — perhaps in June — we will get to hear the company talk to developers as well as users about some of the AI goodies that are in store for its various platforms. And by the time we get to iPhone 16 in September (which is usually the case), there should be plenty around AI. For the moment the question is what could those AI features be and how will they translate into real-world use cases?

We are certain of two things at the moment. First, Apple CEO Tim Cook said during the company’s annual shareholder meeting on February 28 that the iPhone maker sees “incredible breakthrough potential for generative AI, which is why we’re currently investing significantly in this area. We believe that will unlock transformative opportunities for users when it comes to productivity, problem-solving and more”.

‘World’s best consumer laptop for AI’

Second, the new MacBook Air M3 — in 13 and 15 inch sizes — has been introduced and it “continues to be the world’s best consumer laptop for AI”. Apple has been delivering AI features for many years but the company hasn’t spoken about AI this openly before. Apple likes to use other terms, like machine learning.

The new MacBook Air comes at a time when Microsoft has become the most valued company in the world, a few hundred billion dollars ahead of Apple, while NVIDIA is a few hundred billion dollars behind Apple. Sandwiched between two AI-focussed companies? Not quite.

Apple has a big opportunity because it will probably be the only company that will not fall on the uncomfortable side of AI. On the outside, the new Apple MacBook Air looks the same as the previous model. Apple is saying that the new processor can handle AI tasks even better than before and run AI better on machine.

Microsoft is having a “digital event” for Surface, Windows and Copilot on March 21, being labelled as a “new era of work”. We expect to see Surface laptops that are centred around not just having powerful processors for AI, but also having built-in software for AI experiences. What if you can turn everything into a searchable moment in everyday language?

What we may see at WWDC

Apple should up its game at WWDC when the company announces features for its various operating systems. Bloomberg reports that a big part of the iOS and MacOS will be AI features. We are hearing about a tool that will make it easier to build programmes with Xcode, which is Apple’s programming software. Maybe it can predict and complete blocks of code on its own based on what you ask it to do.

What about chatbots? Will there be an Apple version of ChatGPT? Bloomberg has reported that Apple is testing something in this space but not much is known as to how it could be implemented. The report said that “the company has explored new AI features, including ones that would automate the creation of Apple Music playlists and make sideshows in its PowerPoint rival Keynote”.

(Left to right) Eddy Cue, John Giannandrea and Craig Federighi Picture illustration: Mathures Paul

AI can also be used to make search smarter with the Spotlight tool. Perhaps you can search for something across apps in a more conversational way. If AI is made a part of the software, there will be personal experiences, stitching together many points of information into a new thing.

But privacy first

Apple needs to do all this keeping privacy in mind. A lot of generative AI needs to feed off some sort of data to learn and Apple needs to be careful as to how it explores this space. When we say we want a more conversational Siri, there is a line between having a helpful and pesky assistant.

Many of Apple’s customers are the creative types. We don’t want to see AI destroy the value of human-made creations.

AI is already a part of Apple devices. AI algorithms help you take better photos. There is Live Text in which you point the camera at live text and see it get translated. And AI helps you find photos in the Photos app, besides stitching together personal moments/memories. On the Apple keyboard, predictions improve the more you type. A few weeks ago Apple unveiled a new AI model called MGIE (MLLM-Guided Image Editing) that allows users to edit images simply by providing natural language instructions.

Craig Federighi, who is Apple’s senior vice-president of software engineering, knows a thing or two about AI. He knows the importance of LLMs and generative AI. When ChatGPT started to hit the market a couple of years ago, he was the one pushing an investigation in this field. Federighi, along with Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice-president of services, and John Giannandrea, Apple’s senior vice-president of machine learning and AI strategy, are working together to ensure Apple stays on top.