Why is Apple behind in generative AI and how much of an advantage do Google, OpenAI and Meta have?

Advances in technology Artificial intelligence (AI) generative Apple They are more than two years behind major industry leaders such as Google, OpenAI and Meta Platforms, according to internal reports.

At the latest Apple Developer Conference (WWDC), the technology company emphasized the implementation of Apple Intelligence, its own AI system, developed to understand the needs and context of users.

Also then, it was announced that this technology would reach services such as Siri, applications such as Mail, Notes, Pages and other third-party applications with functionalities such as ‘Rewrite’ or Priority Messages, which places the most important communications received in the email in the email inbox.

Other applications of AI in Apple services are the Genmoji tools, which allow you to create these icons with generative AI, and Image Playground, a service capable of creating images in a matter of seconds and in three different styles (drawing, animation or illustration).

Some Apple Intelligence features will soon be available in beta as part of an update to iOS and iPadOS 18, as well as macOS Sequoia, both on the iPhone 16 models and on the more advanced models of the previous family, iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max. .

This ecosystem will not be exclusive to iPhone, as it will also be integrated into iPad and Mac models with M1 chip, and will first be available in United States English. It will arrive in Europe, with languages ​​such as Spanish, French, German and Portuguese, throughout 2025.

The first tablet to debut this ecosystem will be the iPad mini, with an A17 Pro processor, which was presented a week ago and will be released by Apple Intelligence five days after reaching stores and distributors.

More specifically, it will reach tablets through a software update and not with all the announced functions, but will be made available to users only with some capabilities. The most advanced will arrive later, between the months of December 2024 and March of next year.

This delay shows that Apple’s AI “is still far behind” the advances shared by its main competitors, such as Google, OpenAI or Meta Platforms, as Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman has learned from sources related to the company, and collects in its newsletter ‘Power On’.

Internal studies suggest that ChatGPT is 25 percent more accurate than Siri and could answer 30 percent more questions, leading some Apple employees to think its generative AI technology is more than two years away. behind that of industry leaders.

Even though Apple is considered to “have a beloved brand, nearly unlimited resources, the ability to deploy features across a massive base of devices, and a history” of several successful comebacks, there are still gaps in the AI ​​space.

However, Apple is working to expand the availability and capabilities of Apple Intelligence, in devices such as Vision Pro. Likewise, it is expected that future home equipment will be compatible with this ecosystem.

Thus, Apple “has not yet demonstrated that it can achieve real competence in AI,” said Gurman, who observes that “there are few reasons to buy products” from the brand if only the characteristics of Apple Intelligence are taken into account.

In any case, consider that the brand’s customers have a greater preference for other aspects of Apple, such as the camera advances of the new iPhone, for example. To take advantage of this interest, the brand has recently focused on incorporating new features in the video and photography sections, such as the camera control button that the iPhone 16 has released.

Finally, Gurman points out that once the company “becomes a true AI player” and stops being behind other technology companies, Google and Samsung Electronics will have difficulties implementing new features and updates at the same pace, since they have “more fragmented” operating systems and both their ‘hardware’ and their ‘software’ or their services “are not closely integrated”, as is the case with the Cupertino company.

By Editor

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