The future of technology sometimes goes in surprising direction , look at an obvious itinerary and then suddenly double back to go down a road less travel . There was a metre when The Future was underpowered client equipment powered by remote servers until it wasn’t – and then ( thanks to swarm services and AI ) it was again .
The raise of AI as a military group in the tech industry – for good or ill , be it ophidian oil color or world - changing ( it ’s probably in between on both counts)–has upended a lot of laying claim about how tech kit and caboodle and where it ’s go bad . The conventional wiseness has hold that Apple is behind , and AI puts it at a disadvantage . That might be truthful , but … maybe it is n’t .
The power of the device
AI is generally thought of as a line for swarm computation . need to train or deploy AI features ? Build or rent more servers in more data centers , loaded with power - thirsty GPUs .
Apple ’s strength is ( and has always been ) buildingconsumerproducts , not waiter in data marrow . And yet just because AI is view as being a concept that hold out in the cloud does n’t mean it ’ll always be that way .
Apple ’s ability to perform many AI functions on the
Apple’s ability to perform many AI functions on thedevice instead of in the cloud gives it an advantage over other AI implementations.
Apple
When Apple deploy Apple Intelligence , it will do so on millions of Apple devices spread out all over the world . Its investiture in the Neural Engine and Apple silicon , in universal , intend that Apple can deploy AI feature of speech that lead on the machine citizenry already own . ( And , in another encouragement for Apple ’s bottom line , it ’ll provide a incentive for masses to upgrade their hardware to models that endorse Apple Intelligence . )
Some Apple Intelligence feature will require cloud server using Apple ’s secret Cloud Compute system , but many of the feature will happen on the equipment themselves . While local equipment might not be as powerful as cloud servers , they arelocal – no information transfer over a potentially dull net is required — and as a result , they should be faster and more responsive .
Apple’s ability to perform many AI functions on thedevice instead of in the cloud gives it an advantage over other AI implementations.
But it ’s more than that . It ’s a issue of filmy numbers : the calculate power of millions and millions of iPhones ca n’t be undervalue . It ’s an tremendous amount of power , but not in the data essence . And that unlocks a lot of potential drop – for Apple and its app developer .
Distributed computing
Doing AI oeuvre on cloud servers is expensive , but doing it on an iPhone ( or Mac or iPad ) is relatively cheap . ( Though I will head out that by moving AI to the twist , Apple is having user pay for that computing power on their own galvanising bills as they blame their devices ! ) The ship’s company has already adapted several democratic AI frameworks to run efficiently on Apple Si , with more doubtless to come .
Apple Intelligence could reposition the universe of AI from the cloud to the gimmick .
So consider this : A developer is save an app that can benefit from AI functionality , but they ca n’t yield an tremendous swarm infrastructure . conceive of a podcast app that need to generate episode transcripts , for good example . Apple Podcasts does this today , but it does it by consuming every podcast in beingness and throwing massive swarm server tech at the problem . That works , but it ’s expensive for Apple and price - prohibitory for independent podcast apps .
Apple Intelligence could shift the world of AI from the cloud to the device.
Now deal the option : Apps that do n’t use the cloud but rely on drug user devices to do the employment . A podcast app could download an episode and then check to see if there ’s an available copy . If there is , it would download it – task done . If there is n’t , it could use a transcription engine like Whisper to transcribe the episode on the rainfly itself – and then upload that transcript back up to the podcast app ’s database . A developer ( including Apple itself ! ) could use this approach to utilize the combine computing power of its user al-Qaida as an choice to an expensive set of cloud servers .
Over time , as the twist get more capable and the models get more effective , things could get really interesting . envisage that enormous array of cloud servers being bested by a million Macs , iPhones , and iPads working together toward a vulgar end . mighty now it seems a little weird , but if any company can flex the spark of technical progress away from the data core and back toward personal gimmick , it ’s Apple .
