With Apple havingdelayedits most challenging Apple Intelligence feature , you might incur yourself thinking : it ’s belike best if the society just focuses on other effort for the time being , like a rumour iOS redesign or even pushing forward its Vision Pro platform . Nope , not so much . accord toa report from Bloomberg ’s Mark Gurman , Apple is embarking on future AI - based feature , including most conspicuously an “ AI - based physician ” dubbed Project Mulberry .
Yep : Just when you think you ’re done talk about AI , they pull you back in .
It ain’t called ‘hardware’ because it’s easy
On the typeface of it , this venture is no surprise . Apple ’s been to a great extent put in wellness engineering for years — I’ve argued in the past that it ’s asignature endeavor of Tim Cook ’s land tenure as Apple CEO . From the Apple Watch to the Health app , Apple has made it clear that it considers health feature part of the core functionality of its platform .
Apple seems to have polish off a rampart when it comes to developing more wellness features in its computer hardware . So software and AI seem like a rude modulation .
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Apple seems to have hit a wall when it comes to developing more health features in its hardware. So software and AI seem like a natural transition.
But the ship’s company has found itself stymied on the hardware front in recent years . describe attempt to uprise both non - invasive glucose trailing and line of descent pressure monitoring have proved to be difficult egg to crack , and will belike take a few more year before they are practical . basically , those are just very difficult job to solve when you ’re limited to products like a watch on the wrist joint or headphones in people ’s pinna .
Given those limitations , it take a leak sense that Apple would call on to software solution to fill up in the gaps in the health bowl . And on the font of it , some of what AI engineering offers cater a fair option : the power to synthesize and sum up disparate data and sprain that into helpful advice .
But , surprise , surprise , it ’s not without its potential pitfall .
Apple seems to have hit a wall when it comes to developing more health features in its hardware. So software and AI seem like a natural transition.
Doctor, doctor, Mr. MD
According to Gurman ’s report , Apple is working on education this AI MD on selective information from in - house medico . Which , while positive , does n’t inevitably eliminate the risks of relying on AI engineering — specifically , its tendency to make up information . Even in cases where with child oral communication model are train on specific data , it still show those kind of problems . apparently , health is an extremely sensitive area : one would have to be extremely careful not to give incorrect advice that might unknowingly lead to harm .
Image Playground ’s results are n’t very impressive . Can an Apple Intelligence health advisor do better ?
One option would be to carefully see and supervise inputs and outputs as Apple does with some of its other AI - based products , such as Image Playground . But as Image Playground ’s mediocre yield demonstrates , that ’s not without its own problems — a wellness factor that is carefully ensure could result in offering anodyne , common - sensical advice : sleep more , eat good , exercise more . One hardly needs any technology feature , much less an AI - base one , to provide those kinds of “ insights . ”
Image Playground’s results aren’t very impressive. Can an Apple Intelligence health advisor do better?
But the risk is that no matter how well Apple trains its model , it ca n’t avoid the theory of bad advice . The non - deterministic nature of an AI language modelling means you ca n’t predict exactly what output it will give . And if it ’s untrustworthy , just like in the cause of a feature of speech that severalise youwhen to leave to pluck your mommy up at the airport , hoi polloi plainly wo n’t use it . Health is a station where multitude do n’t want to mess around , and even a one - percent chance of bad advice will in all probability be too much for a lot of people .
Health and human services
All of that say , it is deserving noting Apple ’s excellent data track record with wellness and physical fitness . feature like AirPods Pro ’s audition Aid and the Apple Watch ’s A - Fib detection have had meaningful impacts on people ’s lives , and many of those features themselves swear on auto learning in one material body or another .
The Satan is always in the details , and reports like these only give us part of the picture . People — myself included — are , I think , rightly sceptical whenever a new lineament purports to be based on AI , impart the contentious nature of the technology . It ’s solely potential that what we fancy this feature to be is not exactly what Apple will eventually roll out — if it even ends up impart it all the way to fruition , hardly a guarantee give its late track record .
Still , a move like this is classical Apple , not necessarily just about selling more intersection — even service , for which the company is notably athirst for revenue — but about heighten its platform and make it more attractive to consumer . And I even believe , if I may be permitted a non - cynical moment , because the company is in truth passionate about helping its client live felicitous and healthy lives .
