The general early view of relief almost, is that ‘it works’. In its early beta release.
It’s worth watching the Siri AI and Apple Intelligence demos, along with the AI integrations for third party developers like App Intents and other Apple software tools. I’m now more convinced that Apple can win AI on the consumer side over the next two years.
Despite continuing uncertainties about Apple’s AI strategy while we wait for Siri AI and the new Gemini/Nvidia powered Apple Intelligence later this Fall.
We now know more about how Apple and Google are working together in more detail. Morphing Google Gemini AI tech into shapes and forms Apple prefers for its AI Siri. And Apple Intelligence features. But Nvidia is also part of the AI Cloud package.
More details are emerging that Apple is going with Google and Nvidia software and hardware technologies. Instead of rolling their own with Apple Silicon on the server side. For now.
“WWDC showed off demos of its redesigned Siri, which can speak back and forth with the user, a major improvement over previous versions of the assistant. In a demo, Siri was able to check concert dates, set a reminder to buy tickets, and even get directions to pick up a friend on the way to the concert venue.”
And the key difference vs its peers. A move debated endlessly in ‘Where is Apple in AI’ questions for a couple of years now. Apple responded with one of the sharpest sentences in their keynote by software chief Craig Federighi below. Up and down the AI tech Stack.
“But the announcement also highlighted that Apple has taken a different strategy to many of its Silicon Valley rivals, choosing not to spend billions on infrastructure and the biggest, most advanced models, and instead focusing its message to potential customers on privacy advantages and convenience.”
“Apple executives highlighted the difference in remarks on Monday.”
“Some appear to be racing forward, seemingly pursuing AI for the sake of AI, without clear regard for the people — all of us — that it’s ultimately meant to serve,” said Apple software SVP Craig Federighi in the launch announcement.”
But Apple still recognizes when there are better tech options outside than inside Apple. For now again. Across Apple’s unique platform portfolios.
“But it turns out two of the traditional AI leaders, Google and Nvidia, are helping Apple out with its most advanced model, called Apple Foundation Model Cloud Pro, Apple executives told media in a talk at its headquarters on Monday.”
“While Apple and Google announced their partnership for Apple Intelligence in January, this is the first time that the company has officially confirmed that some of its Apple Intelligence features will run on Nvidia chips.”
“Apple AI executive Amar Subramanya said that AFM Cloud Pro is comparable to Google’s Gemini frontier models. It will run in the cloud on Nvidia GPUs, which are part of Apple’s Private Cloud Compute infrastructure, Apple officials said.”
“We work with both Google and Nvidia to extend our private cloud compute infrastructure to Nvidia GPUs in Google’s cloud, while maintaining Apple’s unmatched privacy guarantees,” Subramanya said.”
“VP of software Sebastian Marineau-Mes said that Apple wanted to use Nvidia’s latest chips, but Apple wanted the chips to be configured in a more private way, where they couldn’t read what was on the servers.”
“Marineau-Mes said that recent Nvidia improvements, such as a technology called “ambiguous confidential compute,” allowed Apple and Google to build a system that met its standards.”
“We wanted to avail ourselves of the latest technology from Nvidia, and so we set out to extend private cloud compute to third-party cloud,” Marineau-Mes said.”
It’s useful to underline the fork Apple has taken vs its peers.
“Apple is distinguishing itself from companies that have more heavily invested in AI by emphasizing that its software is more private — the company isn’t collecting as much data as web-based AI such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Anthropic’s Claude — and that it is using its access to locally-stored user information like a calendar or text messages to personalize AI features.”
“The tech talk on Monday was held so that Federighi and his lieutenants could discuss how Apple built Siri AI and its Apple Intelligence layer and how it differs from AI that consumers might already be familiar with.”
“Apple executives outlined an architecture for the software in which Apple’s operating systems and software have a piece of software called a system orchestrator that routes any AI query to an appropriate model — either on the device or in the cloud — depending on how much computing power and personal data it needs.”
“The system orchestrator is “key to the privacy architecture of our entire system,” said Federighi.”
Stepping back, some useful details on the core Apple Google joint efforts.
“The talk also provided some more details on the Apple-Google partnership.”
“Federighi said that Apple Intelligence, the AI software built into the company’s devices, uses Apple’s own models, not the same Google Gemini available to the public, as many people in the tech industry expected when the two companies announced a partnership in January. He also said it wasn’t using Google’s off-the-shelf cloud infrastructure.”
“Federighi said that Google’s technology was used to help build Apple’s own models — specifically, “third-generation” AFM models for the cloud announced on Monday that are designed and turned to run on Apple’s chips.”
“These four models that we just talked about — AFM Core, Core Advanced Cloud, and Cloud Image —all of these are custom built for Apple Silicon, trained using proprietary data with reinforcement learning and refined using outputs from Gemini frontier models,” Subramanya said.”
All this again underlines Apple’s supremely pragmatic approach to AI this AI Tech Wave vs its peers. Not spending everything they’ve got on AI. And not throwing everything against the AI Wall.
And that should mitigate somewhat the ‘Wall of Worry’ folks have had about Apple’s AI Strategy. It’s here.
Not late in my view. Here just in time and in just the right ingredients and servings.
Apple can win in Consumer AI by being Apple. Despite the naysayers. By being ‘Good Enough’ with their bottom up AI products and their Apple usability.
Apple doing it their unique way vs the peers purveying just the new AI technologies. Apple is leveraging the best from Google and Nvidia. And others as well along the way.
For now it looks like the iPhone with the new AI Software and Services this Fall, will be the AI Device we’ve been waiting for. And that is a plot twist. Stay tuned.
(NOTE: The discussions here are for information purposes only, and not meant as investment advice at any time. Thanks for joining us here)
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