Apple is hard at work on closing the gap between it and other companies working on large language models (LLMs) and as part of that process, it's already using one in-house chatbot itself.
That chatbot is in limited use within Apple, according to a report that notes Apple is yet to decide what its chatbot technology will turn into — and what the product handed over to customers will ultimately look like.
The obvious use for such technology is integration with Siri, but it remains to be seen what Apple will do. Siri has appeared long in the tooth for some time and the rise of ChatGPT has only made it look worse.
Apple GPT
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, writing in the weekly Power On newsletter, says that Apple's chatbot helps employees "prototype future features, summarize text and answer questions based on data it has been trained with."
However, Gurman goes on to note that "Apple hasn’t yet determined what its eventual generative AI product will be for consumers, but there a few areas where you can bet the company is looking." Siri is the obvious point of entry for new LLM technology, but Apple is thought to be going further — although it might not be immediately beneficial to customers.
Gurman suggests that Apple is working to give AppleCare support staff new chatbot technology to help them work with customers, while other use cases are sure to follow.
It's still early days for Apple's LLM and chatbot technology, but it's clear that the company isn't willing to sit on the sidelines any longer. Gurman previously said that Apple might be gearing up for a big AI announcement as soon as next year. here's hoping that iOS 18 benefits from some of the work that's already being done today.
