According to reports, Apple has been enticing Google specialists in an attempt to overtake Big Tech firms in the competition to create and implement advanced artificial intelligence models.
It’s been suggested that Apple has been stealing Google experts to bolster its own artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning division.
A story published on April 30 by the Financial Times (FT) claims that Apple has been “hiring spree-ing” these specialists for the past year, especially from Google, drawing in “dozens” of them. According to the report, since 2018, Apple has drawn about 36 AI experts from Google.
Apart from its efforts to assemble elite groups of AI specialists, Apple has also purchased two regional AI start-ups in Zurich, Switzerland. This move prompted the company to construct a “secretive” laboratory in the region, which it has named “Vision Lab.”
According to an FT story, Apple’s researchers in Zurich have played a significant role in developing cutting-edge AI technology that underpin competitors’ services like OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The facility, according to locals, is barely noticeable, and some were unaware that Apple had a presence in the neighborhood.
This occurs at the same time that Apple starts to explore AI development more aggressively. Over the past year, Apple has remained largely quiet while its Big Tech rivals, including Google, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, and OpenAI, have been racing to invest in and develop robust large language models (LLMs).
Since the beginning of the year, Apple’s share price has decreased. On the other hand, Microsoft and Google’s Q2 financial reports showed notable growth in sales and profit, which they attributed to their investments and progress in artificial intelligence technologies.
On April 24, however, Apple made available a set of four small language models on the Hugging Face library called Open-source Efficient Language Models (OpenELM). The models are meant to be used for text-related tasks, such drafting emails.
Industry insiders claim that Apple will prioritize generative AI integration into its mobile devices. This means that instead of relying on data centers and the corresponding cloud services to power them, AI chatbots and applications might operate on the technology that is already there on the iPhone.
The CEO of Apple, Tim Cook, stated back in February 2024 that generative AI software features would be added to iOS and other Apple platforms later that year.
It was reported on April 27 that Apple and OpenAI are holding extensive talks about integrating generative AI technologies into iOS.Apple. Related discussions with Google were also mentioned.
Though not confirmed, these developments suggest Apple’s shift in focus towards artificial intelligence.
