Apple Inc. is reportedly developing its own AI chatbot known as ‘Apple GPT’ to rival OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard, Bloomberg News reported. Shares of Apple rose as much as 2% in Nasdaq stock market trading after the news.
Apple GPT is based on the company’s proprietary large language models (LLMs) framework called ‘Ajax.’ The chatbot is currently being tested by the iPhone maker’s employees, the report said, citing people with knowledge of the development.
Shares of Apple climbed 2% or $3.80 to $197 after the news, sending the company’s market capitalization up by about $67 billion. After close at Nasdaq, the stock price had pared some of those gains but was still up 0.71% on the day, according to Google Finance.
Apple tests AI chatbot internally
Apple has been integrating artificial intelligence into some aspects of its business, including Siri, autocorrect and its mixed reality headset Vision Pro.
But the California-based technology giant has so far appeared to hold back on generative AI, the kind of technology that allows Bard or ChatGPT to create text, images, or videos in response to user prompts.
Apple’s planned AI chatbot may be an effort to compete with other popular LLMs that have both excited and worried consumers. According to Bloomberg, the chatbot was created for internal use in 2022, but Apple halted its release due to security concerns.
Per the report, Apple’s new virtual assistant is being developed by several teams led by John Giannandrea, the company’s head of machine learning and AI, and Craig Federighi, Apple’s top software engineering executive.
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The chatbot is able to summarize text and answer questions based on the data it has been trained on, just like ChatGPT, Bard or Microsoft’s Bing AI. Apple GPT works as a web application and is currently being used internally for product prototyping.
Bloomberg said Apple employees are not allowed to develop features for customers based on the chatbot’s output – meaning there is no public rollout of the AI expected any time soon. The company is only seen making an announcement on its AI advances next year.
Apple GPT coming to your iPhone next year.
Imagine a language model that has access to years worth of your iMessage exchanges, emails, photos, and health data.
This is why Apple, while late to the game, will win consumer AI. pic.twitter.com/wPY0s3Qq6R
— AI Breakfast (@AiBreakfast) July 20, 2023
Chatbot race heats up
Apple is the world’s largest company with a total market value of more than $3 trillion. AI has long been a part of the company’s products. Now it is looking to compete directly with other tech giants, including Microsoft and Google.
Microsoft invested over $10 billion into OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, and has since incorporated the startup’s tech into its Bing search engine and Edge browser. This week, Microsoft announced that it will start charging businesses for using its AI products.
On the other hand, Google has been developing a suite of artificial intelligence tools designed to improve search and other aspects of its business operations. As MetaNews reported last week, the company added new features to its AI chatbot Bard.
Bard now has the ability to provide answers via audio and respond to image prompts. The chatbot, which is fluent in more than 40 languages, is also expanding to Europe and Brazil, expanding its global reach to compete with ChatGPT.
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