Tag: generative ai

Apple Set for Big Sales Decline as Investors Await Generative AI-Powered iPhone

Apple’s plan to add generative AI to its iPhones and revive sagging sales in the crucial Chinese market will be in focus on Thursday, when the tech giant is expected to report its biggest quarterly revenue decline in more than a year.

Long considered a must-own stock on Wall Street, Apple shares have underperformed other Big Tech companies in recent months, falling more than 10 percent year to date as fears mount about its slow roll out of AI services and as a resurgent Huawei takes market share in China.

Analysts on average see iPhone sales, which account for about half of Apple’s revenue, falling 10.4 percent in the first three months of 2024, according to LSEG. That drop would be the steepest in more than three years.

Analysts estimate Apple’s total revenue declined 5 percent in its second quarter, which included January through March. That would be Apple’s biggest revenue decline since the December-quarter of 2022, when revenue fell 5.5 percent.

Apple earlier this year lost the crown of the world’s most valuable company to Microsoft and its market value now stands at $2.68 trillion (roughly Rs. 2,23,68,017 crore) after the decline in its share price in 2024.

Weak revenue and falling shares have put pressure on Apple to spruce up its flagship device after years without major upgrades.

The company is in talks with OpenAI and Alphabet-owned Google to add genAI features for the iPhone that could be unveiled at what is expected to be its biggest-ever annual developer conference in June, Bloomberg News has reported.

Analysts believe such an AI integration could drive demand for the next iPhone series, expected to be announced in the fall.

While executives at Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta Platforms and other major technology firms have talked up their AI strategies on quarterly conference calls in recent months, Apple CEO Tim Cook has discussed his plans for the emerging technology much less.

Adding AI features to iPhones could also help Apple to compete better with Huawei and Samsung Electronics, which reclaimed the title of the world’s top smartphone vendor from Apple earlier this year, driven by demand for the AI features in its Galaxy S24 smartphones.

“Replacement cycle tailwinds and incremental generative AI features set up Apple well for a strong iPhone 16 cycle,” Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi said this week, upgrading his rating on the company’s shares to “outperform” from “market-perform”.

“We believe prevailing weakness in China is more cyclical than structural, and note historically Apple’s China business has exhibited much higher volatility than Apple overall, given its very feature-sensitive installed base.”

Thursday’s earnings will also be watched closely for updates on the company’s stock buyback plan and the Vision Pro, Apple’s first major product in years that hit the shelves in February.

After initial enthusiasm, there have been signs that demand slowed for the $3,500 device, with an analyst saying this month that Apple has pulled back its production estimates for the mixed-reality headset.

The rest of the company’s hardware business is also reeling from soft demand, with iPads and Mac sales expected to fall 11.4 percent and 4.3 percent, respectively, in the March quarter.

Apple has signaled it is sharpening its focus on the devices, which have also been hobbled by a lack of major upgrades.

The company is hosting an event later this month where a revamped iPad line-up is expected to be unveiled and media reports have said that it plans to update every Mac model with faster, AI-focused M4 processors.

The services business – which includes money earned from App Store and subscription services such as Apple TV – is expected to remain a bright spot with revenue growth of 7.7 percent.

© Thomson Reuters 2024

Apple launched the iPad Pro (2022) and the iPad (2022) alongside the new Apple TV this week. We discuss the company’s latest products, along with our review of the iPhone 14 Pro on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
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OpenAI Signs Deal With Financial Times to Use Its Content for Training AI Models

The Financial Times has signed a deal with OpenAI to license its content for the development of AI models and allow ChatGPT to answer queries with summaries attributable to the newspaper, the latest media tie-up for the Microsoft-backed startup.

Financial terms of the agreement, announced on Monday, were not disclosed. It follows similar deals by OpenAI over the past few months with the Associated Press, global news publisher Axel Springer, France’s Le Monde and Spain-based Prisa Media.

The latest deal will help the startup enhance the ChatGPT chatbot with archived content from the FT and the firms will work together to develop new AI products and features for FT readers, the newspaper and OpenAI said in a statement.

The summaries generated by ChatGPT off FT content will also link back to the newspaper, according to the companies.

“We’re keen to explore the practical outcomes regarding news sources and AI through this partnership,” said FT Group CEO John Ridding.

ChatGPT, which kickstarted the GenAI boom in late 2022, can mimic human conversation and perform tasks such as creating summaries of long text, writing poems and even generating ideas for a theme party.

Some outlets are already using generative AI for their content. BuzzFeed has said it will use AI to power personality quizzes on its site, and the New York Times used ChatGPT to create a Valentine’s Day message-generator last year.

© Thomson Reuters 2024

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OpenAI Said to Court Hollywood in Meetings With Film Studios, Directors

OpenAI wants to break into the movie business.

The artificial intelligence startup has scheduled meetings in Los Angeles next week with Hollywood studios, media executives and talent agencies to form partnerships in the entertainment industry and encourage filmmakers to integrate its new AI video generator into their work, according to people familiar with the matter.

The upcoming meetings are just the latest round of outreach from OpenAI in recent weeks, said the people, who asked not to be named as the information is private. In late February, OpenAI scheduled introductory conversations in Hollywood led by Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap. Along with a couple of his colleagues, Lightcap demonstrated the capabilities of Sora, an unreleased new service that can generate realistic-looking videos up to about a minute in length based on text prompts from users. Days later, OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman attended parties in Los Angeles during the weekend of the Academy Awards.

The ChatGPT maker unveiled Sora in mid-February with a series of high-definition clips that instantly captured the attention of Hollywood and Silicon Valley. Sora isn’t available to the public yet, but OpenAI has already granted access to a few big-name actors and directors.

“OpenAI has a deliberate strategy of working in collaboration with industry through a process of iterative deployment – rolling out AI advances in phases – in order to ensure safe implementation and to give people an idea of what’s on the horizon,” a spokesperson for OpenAI said in a statement. “We look forward to an ongoing dialogue with artists and creatives.”

AI is a divisive subject in Hollywood. Many filmmakers and studios already rely on AI in pre-production and post-production, and recognize the promise of a new crop of artificial intelligence tools. But the rise of generative AI services — which can quickly spit out text, images, audio and, increasingly, short videos in response to queries from users — has also raised concerns about upending the livelihoods of everyone from illustrators to voice actors.

Screenwriters and actors went on strike last year in part to fight for protections with the use of the technology. Both unions later secured some safeguards for how AI is used in the entertainment industry. Media companies are also wary of allowing OpenAI to train its models on their work without compensating them. Outlets including CNN, Fox Corp. and Time Magazine have had discussions about licensing their work to OpenAI, Bloomberg has reported.

OpenAI is courting Hollywood as it tries to catch up with the competition. Technology giants Meta Platforms Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google have previously unveiled text-to-video research projects. A growing number of well-funded AI startups, including Runway AI Inc., Pika and Stability AI, are working on this technology as well.

Runway, a leader in the market, previously told Bloomberg that its Gen-2 text-to-video service is already being used by millions of people, including professionals at production and animation studios who rely on it for previsualization and storyboarding. Film editors are also creating videos with Runway and combining them with other footage to make B-roll or visual effects, the company said.

OpenAI’s Sora is still in the research preview stage, the company said, and no pricing has been set.

© 2024 Bloomberg L.P.

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Apple to Reveal Generative AI Plans Later This Year, CEO Tim Cook Says

Apple plans to disclose more about its plans to put generative artificial intelligence to use later this year, Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook said during the company’s annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday.

Cook said 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.”

Apple has been slower in rolling out generative AI, which can generate human-like responses to written prompts, than rivals such as Microsoft and Alphabet’s Google, which are weaving them into products.

On Wednesday, Cook argued that AI is already at work behind the scenes in Apple’s products but said there would be more news on explicit AI features later this year. Bloomberg previously reported Apple plans to use AI to improve the ability to search through data stored on Apple devices.

“Every Mac that is powered by Apple silicon is an extraordinarily capable AI machine. In fact, there’s no better computer for AI on the market today,” Cook said.

Apple shareholders on Wednesday rejected a measure asking the company to disclose more information about how it uses artificial intelligence in its business and its ethical guidelines for the technology.

The proposal, which did not pass but won 37.5 percent of votes cast, was put forth by the pension trust of the AFL-CIO, the largest American labor union federation, which has also proposed AI measures at other technology companies.

Compared to other leading technology companies, Apple has been behind the curve on disclosing ethical guidelines regarding the use of artificial intelligence,” Brandon Rees, deputy director for corporations and capital markets with the AFL-CIO, said in statement. “We hope that Apple will enhance its disclosure practices on this important issue to investors and other stakeholders.”

A similar proposal will be heard at Walt Disney’s annual meeting in April.

At Apple, the AFL-CIO asked for a report on the company’s use of AI “in its business operations and disclose any ethical guidelines that the company has adopted regarding the company’s use of AI technology.”

In its supporting statement in Apple’s proxy materials, the AFL-CIO wrote that “AI systems should not be trained on copyrighted works, or the voices, likenesses and performances of professional performers, without transparency, consent and compensation to creators and rights holders.”

Apple opposed the measure, saying that disclosures could tip its hand on strategy as it competes against rivals in the fast-moving AI field.

© Thomson Reuters 2024

Apple unveiled its first mixed reality headset, the Apple Vision Pro, at its annual developer conference, along with new Mac models and upcoming software updates. We discuss all the most important announcements made by the company at WWDC 2023 on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
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iPhone to Get New AI Features as Part of iOS 18 at WWDC 2024: Report

Since the launch of ChatGPT, OpenAI’s wildly successful AI chatbot in November 2022, technology companies have rushed to integrate artificial intelligence tools to their hardware and software offerings. Microsoft, which is also an OpenAI backer, moved early last year to launch its own generative AI chatbot, Bing Chat (now renamed as Copilot), in addition to bringing the new technology to its wide range of applications and services. Google, too, rushed out Bard through the gates and has since added a host of AI features to its products after a wobbly start. And Samsung is getting ready to launch its next lineup of flagship Galaxy S series smartphones packed with AI features later this month. Apple, on the hand, has lagged far behind its competitors in the AI race, even as it remains hard at work on its own generative AI offerings. The company is reportedly planning to announce the same at its Worldwide Developers Conference later this year.

In his Power On newsletter for Bloomberg on Monday, Mark Gurman said that Apple’s generative AI push will come packaged as part of iOS 18. The iPhone maker is working on its own large language model (LLM), internally known as Ajax, and will likely announce its AI offerings at WWDC in June, the newsletter added. Gurman claimed that Apple had been testing its AI model since early 2023.

While Google has already released its AI-ready Pixel 8 series of phones and Samsung is set to bring Galaxy AI on its upcoming smartphones, offering a host of on-device AI-powered features, Apple is readying AI services for iPhone in its efforts to catch up to its rivals. Gurman’s newsletter mentioned some of the likely offerings on the way. “Apple is eyeing adding features like auto-summarizing and auto-complete to its core apps and productivity software such as Pages and Keynote,” it said.

Additionally, the Cupertino, California-based company also plans to bring AI to Apple Music for better playlists and recommendations. According to the newsletter, Apple’s on-device assistant Siri is also set for an AI overhaul as advanced chatbots like ChatGPT and Copilot pull ahead in the space. While the company will likely roll out its AI offerings later this year, Gurman said that the company would only be able to fully scale its generative AI vision by at least next year.

Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, too, had said in December that upcoming iPhone 16 models would be equipped with an upgraded microphone designed to significantly boost the Siri experience and voice input. According to Kuo, the Siri team at Apple has been working on LLMs and other AI features since Q3 2023.

Last month, it was reported that Apple is negotiating deals with publishers to train its generative AI systems on news content. The company had reportedly pitched multiyear deals worth at least $50 million (roughly Rs. 420 crore) to license the news article archives from publishers like Condé Nast, the New Yorker, NBC News and more.

Apple launched the iPad Pro (2022) and the iPad (2022) alongside the new Apple TV this week. We discuss the company’s latest products, along with our review of the iPhone 14 Pro on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
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Apple Negotiating Deals With Publishers to Train Generative AI Systems on News Content: Report

Apple has opened negotiations in recent weeks with major news and publishing organisations, seeking permission to use their material in the company’s development of generative artificial intelligence systems, the New York Times reported on Friday.

The iPhone maker has floated multiyear deals worth at least $50 million (roughly Rs. 420 crore) to license the archives of news articles, according to the report, which cited people familiar with the discussions.

The news organisations contacted by Apple include Condé Nast, publisher of Vogue and the New Yorker; NBC News; and IAC, which owns People, the Daily Beast and Better Homes and Gardens, the New York Times said.

Some of the publishers contacted by Apple were lukewarm on the overture, according to the report.

Apple did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Big tech has been investing aggressively to integrate generative AI. On the other hand, Apple has used the technology to improve basic functions in its new gadgets.

Apple also introduced new MacBook Pro and iMac computers and three new chips to power them in October, highlighting that these can be used by artificial intelligence researchers, whose chatbots and other creations are often constrained by how much data can be held in the computer’s memory.

More Chinese agencies and state-backed companies across the country have asked their staff to not bring Apple iPhones and other foreign devices to work, Bloomberg News reported earlier this month, citing people familiar with the matter.

For over a decade, China has been seeking to reduce reliance on foreign technologies, asking state-affiliated firms such as banks to switch to local software and promoting domestic semiconductor chip manufacturing.

Multiple state firms and government departments across at least eight provinces have instructed employees in the past month or two to start carrying local brands, the Bloomberg News report said.

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Amazon Q Chatbot Announced for AWS Customers; Comes Loaded With Generative AI Features

Amazon has hopped aboard the generative AI hype, that boomed exponentially after the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT last year. During Amazon’s re:Invent conference in Las Vegas, it officially lifted the curtains off ‘Q’, a generative AI-enabled chatbot designed for the customers of Amazon Web Services (AWS), most of which are businesses. Through this new AI assistant, Amazon will respond to real-time inquiries, help businesses create content, and process tasks as directed.

Amazon is aiming to improve its customer needs through Q. Company agents will be able to provide real-time responses to queries raised by AWS customers, making communication between the two parties prompt and in real-time.

The chatbot will also be able to identify crucial parts of customers’ calls with company agents using AI, draft professional emails, brainstorm ideas, summarise reports, explain concepts, and write articles for businesses.

“Amazon Q provides immediate, relevant information and advice to employees to streamline tasks, accelerate decision-making and problem-solving, and help spark creativity and innovation at work,” Amazon Web Services wrote in a blog post, explaining the purpose of Q.

To get access to customised features, pricing, and options for Q, AWS users will be offered two or more plans to choose from. The costs of these plans reportedly range between $20 (roughly Rs. 1,666) and $25 (roughly Rs. 2,083).

“Amazon Q can adapt its interactions to each individual user based on the existing identities, roles, and permissions of your business. It searches the documents in connected data sources and creates a relevant and detailed suggestion for a social media post. Amazon Q also tells which document was used to generate the answer,” the blog explained.

The platform is expected to be of essential assistance to software developers, IT professionals, business analysts, and content writers. For now, Amazon Q is available for preview in AWS Regions US East (N. Virginia) and US West (Oregon). The company did not provide a timeline about its expansion to other parts of the world.

Generative AI, as a technology, lets people ask for information or generate content on a big array of topics. ChatGPT and Google’s Bard are among the popular generative AI platforms that have taken the Internet by storm.

Hardware giants like OnePlus, Samsung, MediaTek are also tweaking their products with assistance to incorporate generative AI platforms and services.

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WhatsApp AI Chats Shortcut Rolling Out to Some Beta Testers Alongside Status Filters

WhatsApp has begun rolling out a visual change designed to improve the experience of using the upcoming artificial intelligence (AI) chats feature on the messaging platform. Earlier this year, the Meta-owned firm revealed that it was working on support for AI chatbots on the widely used messaging platform. These AI-powered assistants are currently available to some users in the US. Meanwhile, WhatsApp has also begun testing a new section for status updates that allows you to view and filter a list of status updates.

After updating to WhatsApp beta for Android 2.23.24.26 (via feature tracker WABetaInfo) some beta testers are seeing a new shortcut to initiate these chats, right from the main chat list, via a floating action button (FAB), on the latest beta version. A white button, with a multi-coloured ring is shown above the new chat button.

A screenshot of the new AI button shared by the feature tracker
Photo Credit: WABetaInfo

 

Meta announced in September that it was adding AI assistants to its messaging apps on WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger. These chatbots are powered by Meta’s large language model, Llama 2 and will be able to respond to user queries and search the web using Bing. The assistants will also be able to generate images using text prompts. They will also support AI avatars with a range of personalities, according to the company.

While it might be a while before Meta rolls out AI chats to users in other regions, the addition of the new button should make it easier for users to discover the feature on their own — compared to the additional steps required to create a new AI conversation via the new chat button.

On the other hand, WABetaInfo has also spotted a new filtered vertical list on WhatsApp beta for Android 2.23.25.3, that allows users to view all available statuses — the Instagram stories-like feature that is also available on WhatsApp — via a vertical list. The list of status updates also includes channels, according to the feature tracker.

In order to help users manage the list of statuses, the latest WhatsApp beta adds four new filters — All, Recent, Viewed, and Muted — at the top of the screen. The ability to organise and filter statuses is expected to make its way to users on the stable update channel on both iOS and Android in the future.

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Apple Working on Equipping iOS 18 With AI Features; Apple Music, Siri to Get AI Upgrades: Mark Gurman

Apple is working on iOS 18 — the successor to the company’s latest iPhone operating system (OS) update that rolled out to eligible models last month — and the next major OS upgrade could come with notable AI upgrades, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. In his weekly Power On newsletter published earlier this week, Gurman stated that Apple is working on AI features for apps and services like Apple Music, Siri, Messages, and is exploring the use of AI in its productivity apps.

Gurman reports that Apple is working on adding support for user-facing AI features as part of the iOS 18 update that is expected to arrive next year. The iPhone maker’s competitors Google and Microsoft have already added AI-powered functionality to their products, while ChatGPT creator OpenAI has also introduced several AI features to its mobile apps. The development of AI features for Apple’s apps and services could reportedly cost Apple around $1 billion (roughly Rs. 8,300 crore) over the next year.

With the iOS 18 update, Apple’s Messages app is expected to offer improved reply suggestions, powered by AI, according to Gurman. Rival Google’s Messages app on Android uses on-device intelligence to suggest smart replies for messages that can be sent with a tap. The firm is also looking to introduce AI features for its Xcode platform to equip developers with features like code completion.

Just like the Messages app, Siri is also expected to debut with major upgrades to the voice assistant’s capabilities. The revamped version of Siri will be powered by Apple’s large language model (LLM) that will also support improved suggestions for the Messages app. Gurman states that there are “concerns about the technology” at Apple, but the new AI features for Siri could be ready by 2024.

The company is also reportedly looking to develop other AI-powered upgrades, including the ability to automatically generate playlists, according to Gurman. Meanwhile, Apple’s productivity apps like Pages, Numbers, and Keynote, could also get new AI capabilities — Microsoft earlier this year announced new AI-based features for its Microsoft Office productivity suite, along with its Microsoft Copilot assistant.

While Apple’s existing apps and services perform a lot of machine learning tasks on the user’s device — such as detecting faces in the Photos app — the company could decide to use cloud-based servers for some features that would offer more advanced features offered by its rivals, while some experiences would work entirely on the user’s device — in order to preserve the user’s privacy, according to Gurman.

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Further reading:
iOS 18, Apple, AI, Artificial Intelligence, Generative AI, Apple Music, iMessage, Siri, Apple Messages, iPhone, iOS

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Use of ChatGPT, Other AI Tools Paused by US Space Force Over Data Concerns

The US Space Force has paused the use of web-based generative artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT for its workforce over data security concerns, according to a memo seen by Reuters.

A memo dated September 29 and addressed to Guardians, the name Space Force calls its workforce, prohibits personnel from using such AI tools including large-language models on government computers until they receive formal approval by the force’s Chief Technology and Innovation Office.

It said the temporary ban was “due to data aggregation risks.”

Uses of generative AI, powered by large language models that ingest huge troves of past data to learn, have exploded in the past year, underpinning ever-evolving products such as OpenAI‘s ChatGPT that can swiftly generate content like text, images or video off of a simple prompt.

Lisa Costa, Space Force’s chief technology and innovation officer, said in the memo that the technology “will undoubtedly revolutionize our workforce and enhance Guardian’s ability to operate at speed.”

An Air Force spokesperson confirmed the temporary ban, which was first reported by Bloomberg.

“A strategic pause on the use of Generative AI and Large Language Models within the US Space Force has been implemented as we determine the best path forward to integrate these capabilities into Guardians’ roles and the USSF mission,” Air Force spokesperson Tanya Downsworth said in a statement.

“This is a temporary measure to protect the data of our service and Guardians,” she added.

Costa said in the memo that her office had formed a generative AI task force with other Pentagon offices to mull ways to use the technology in a “responsible and strategic manner.”

More guidance on Space Force’s use of generative AI would be released in the next month, she added.

© Thomson Reuters 2023

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