ALBAWABA - Apple is reportedly intensifying its investment in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, with a particular focus on augmenting Siri's capabilities.
According to a recent report by The Information, the tech giant has significantly increased its budget for AI development, dedicating substantial resources to creating chatbot features for Siri.
Although Apple's Chief AI Officer, John Giannandrea, was initially cautious about chatbot AI, he established a team dedicated to speech-based AI development four years ago.
Earlier rumors, initially reported by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, hinted at the existence of "Apple GPT" and the company's experiments with large language models.
Presently, Apple's speech-based AI team is led by Ruoming Pang, who brings over 15 years of experience at Google.
Despite its relatively small team of only 16 members, Apple's progress is said to rival that of OpenAI, which spent over $100 million to train a comparable large language model.
Beyond improving Siri's conversational abilities, Apple has broader ambitions in the field of AI. The company aims to develop a feature that enables voice assistants like Siri to automate complex, multi-step tasks.
While such functionality is currently available on iPhones through the Shortcuts app, Apple is speculated to make significant strides in making voice-controlled automation even more seamless, possibly in iOS 18.
