Apple execs explain Apple’s position in the AI race

Apple’s running a different AI race

Marketing head Greg Jozwiak and software chief Craig Federighi share some familiar arguments about Apple Intelligence, Siri’s place in it, and how they aren’t technically in the same AI race.

Apple’s executives rarely speak in interviews, let alone share details about how they think about products beyond them being the best in class. However, a refreshingly honest snippet of an upcoming wider interview showed exactly where Apple sees itself in the bigger picture.

Wall Street Journal‘s Joanna Stern sat down with Apple SVP of Software Engineering Craig Federighi and SVP of Worldwide Marketing Greg Joswiak, and she’s shared a seven-minute snippet focused on AI before the larger interview is released. Much of what Federighi discussed on Apple Intelligence echoed what was seen in an earlier conversation with iJustine, but new details emerged once Joz weighed in.

In both interviews, Federighi explained that Apple had working versions of the contextual Siri powered by app intents, and in fact, what was shown was actually running. Joz even scoffed at the idea of it being “demo ware,” in what seemed to be a pointed comment at Daring Fireball‘s John Gruber.

Stern pressed the executives, asking about the usefulness of Apple Intelligence and if Apple could “keep up” with the competition. She also shared that she didn’t use Apple Intelligence much herself and instead relied on competitors’ products.

Here’s Joz’s response in full:

“Again, it’s important to realize our strategy is a little bit different than some other people, right? Our idea of Apple intelligence is using generative AI to be an enabling technology for features across our operating system — so much so that sometimes you’re doing things you don’t even realize that you’re using Apple intelligence, or, you know, AI, to do them, and that’s our goal.

Integrate it. There’s no destination, there’s no app called Apple Intelligence, which is different than a chat bot, which, again, what I think some people have kind of conflated a bit, like, ‘Where’s your chat bot?’ We didn’t do that.

What we decided was that we would give you access to one through ChatGPT, because, you know, we think that was the best one, but our idea is to integrate across the operating system, make it features that, you know, I certainly use every day.”

His response echoed a lot of the sentiment in my piece I wrote about Apple’s position in the AI race. So much pits Apple as a direct competitor to ChatGPT, and that just seems wrong.

Federighi takes it a step further, explaining that Apple doesn’t need to deliver every technology on Earth. No one asked why Apple wasn’t a shopping destination like Amazon, or why it didn’t build a YouTube competitor, so it seems odd that everyone is clamoring for Apple to supply a chatbot.

You can watch the clip below.

These aren’t new arguments

Instead of a destination, the executives explain that Apple Intelligence is a background framework that enhances what users do every day. They technically shouldn’t even be thinking of the fact that they’re using AI, let alone Apple Intelligence.

Image Playground made this sloppy image when prompted with ‘WWDC’

The on-device, private, personal Apple Intelligence is only just starting to spread out across the operating systems outside of their early feature sets. Developers can start using the on-device model to achieve results they’d have had to pay ChatGPT for and siphon off user data to do so.

There are rumors that Siri will get an LLM backend, and even with those contextual updates via app intents, it doesn’t seem like Apple will release an AI app or chatbot. Instead, the Apple ecosystem will act as a backend for personalized, contextual, and proactive interactions that occur across devices and apps.

As I’ve shared before, it may seem like Apple is behind because Image Playground makes terrible images and Siri still doesn’t know how calendars work, but I wouldn’t bet against them. While Apple pulls back to bide its time and ensure its features are well and truly ready for prime time, the rest of the world will pursue increasingly powerful slop generators running on heavily polluting power sources.

It’s not that Apple is behind in the AI race, or even that it’s waiting to leap ahead at the right moment, as I suggested in a previous piece, it’s that they’re running a totally different race. One that brings powerful apps and systems to iPhone while still giving users access to the tools they need via Visual Intelligence and integrations with ChatGPT.

For now, I’ll continue to use Apple Intelligence every day for my work. I’m excited to see what developers will be able to do with the Foundation Models framework later in the fall.