Apple is accelerating hiring efforts for generative AI engineers

'Accused' probably isn't the right word.

If people make the point that Apple is 'behind' it is because they have no equivalent solution on the market to what some competitors have. 

As far as machine learning goes, well most technology companies have been making use of that for years. They include Apple but this area is perhaps more quantifiable as Apple hasn't really made as much use of it as some competitors, and is completely absent from the modeling and hardware field for AI/ML.

AFAIK there is no Ascend/Pangu/Mindspore combo for example. Nothing to compete with Nvidia etc.

Generative AI isn't the be all and end all of everything though. Just a step more. 

Apple could probably ignore it altogether but it looks like they want in to some degree because of these job listings. 

Important distinction, as they have been hiring in this area for years.  OpenAI started in 2015 — does anyone think that they were not on anyone’s radar until just recently?

“AI” should be nominated for the most abused word in the English language these days. ZERO percent of what we see called “AI” is actually Artificial Intelligence, i.e. a machine that can think as a human does.

chasm said:

“AI” should be nominated for the most abused word in the English language these days. ZERO percent of what we see called “AI” is actually Artificial Intelligence, i.e. a machine that can think as a human does.

What we actually have, as ChatGPT continues to prove every day, is an improved version of the maxim “garbage in, garbage out.” Or, if I’m being charitable, I’d say it’s “machine learning at its most basic level, rephrasing or summarizing the LLM data it has been fed using standard pre-programmed rules.”

Will a stronger focus on machine learning lead to better outcomes for technology like Maps and Siri? Absolutely yes. Is any of this actually independent machine intelligence? Absolutely not.

This has been one of the moving targets in 'AI' - defining it. 

Nowadays academia and expert groups largely accept much wider and simplified definitions of AI.

We'll have to try and live with it. 

This is a proposed definition from an EU Expert Group evaluation:

"Artificial intelligence (AI) systems are software (and possibly also hardware) systems designed by humans that, given a complex goal, act in the physical or digital dimension by perceiving their environment through data acquisition, interpreting the collected structured or unstructured data, reasoning on the knowledge, or processing the information, derived from this data and deciding the best action(s) to take to achieve the given goal. AI systems can either use symbolic rules or learn a numeric model, and they can also adapt their behaviour by analysing how the environment is affected by their previous actions.

As a scientific discipline, AI includes several approaches and techniques, such as machine learning (of which deep learning and reinforcement learning are specific examples), machine reasoning (which includes planning, scheduling,

knowledge representation and reasoning, search, and optimization), and robotics (which includes control, perception, sensors and actuators, as well as the integration of all other techniques into cyber-physical systems)"

PDF:

https://www.aepd.es/sites/default/files/2019-12/ai-definition.pdf

AI is short for artificial  intelligence. It is literally the acronym. This used to be reserved for a computer based entity that would pass a Turing test with flying colours and as a side effect decide humanity was the problem and wipe it out (OK. Not always. There was that AI called Holmes IV aka Mike).

that said, I could get all worked up about the corruption of the Acronym AI, but it doesn’t matter. The marketers won on that one.

I also find it incredibly hard to believe, given the fundamental problems of Siri, that Tim Apple hasn’t prioritised this kind of thing years ago.  Either that is the case, replacing Siri was ignored and he is always and foremost about the supply chain and margins, or the community at large just isn’t aware of what Apple has been up to and all will eventually be revealed.