The Apple Inc logo is shown outside the company's 2016 Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco
Apple is reportedly planning to invest a lot of money in generative AI research and development. Reuters

Apple is reportedly developing an impressive array of features that use generative AI, including a revamped version of Siri that could arrive next year.

In his latest "Power On" newsletter, Gurman pointed out that Apple CEO Tim Cook claims the company has been prepping to adopt generative AI technology for years.

The renowned journalist goes on to note that despite this claim, the company's top executives were "caught off guard" by the industry's interest in AI. Gurman notes Apple's executives have been "scrambling since late last year to make up for lost time".

Apparently, Apple's senior vice president of machine learning and AI strategy, John Giannandrea and senior vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi are leading Apple's AI efforts.

Apple's senior vice president of services Eddy Cue is also playing a vital role in the push. Reportedly, Giannandrea is leading the development of the underlying technologies for a new AI system.

A revamped Siri could be in the offing

It is worth noting that Apple was accused of using Siri to listen in to conversations without the user's consent back in 2020. Now, the word on the street is that Giannandrea's team is working on a new, "smarter version of ‌Siri‌" that boasts a slew of generative AI features.

According to Gurman, this newfangled Siri could launch in 2024. Meanwhile, Federighi is overseeing the integration of AI into the upcoming version of iOS by adding Apple's LLM (large language model) powered features. One of the features includes interaction between ‌Siri‌ and the Messages app.

The feature will make users more efficient in terms of fielding complex questions and auto-completing sentences. Aside from this, Federighi and his team are sparing no effort to integrate AI into Xcode to expedite the process of writing codes and bringing it in line with popular services like GitHub Copilot.

Also, Cue is reportedly trying to add AI to as many Apple apps as possible. This includes Apple Music features like auto-generated playlists. Likewise, productivity apps like Pages and Keynote could use AI to help users write or create slide decks.

As if that weren't enough, the Cupertino-based tech giant is trying to integrate AI into internal customer service apps within AppleCare. Apple is expected to spend a whopping $1 billion (about £800 million) per year on AI research.

In other words, Apple will be following in the footsteps of Google, Microsoft and other big tech giants that have been spending a lot of money on AI. These companies have been looking to attract users by integrating AI bots into every service for a while now.

However, Apple did not seem to be interested in jumping on the AI chatbot bandwagon at the time. Nevertheless, some reports suggest the company is gearing up to unveil its ChatGPT rival dubbed AppleGPT.

"There's a lot of anxiety about this. It's considered a pretty big miss internally," a source trusted by Gurman told Bloomberg. Regrettably, we aren't likely to see AppleGPT manifest in Apple devices anytime soon.

However, the AI chatbot is reportedly in use inside Apple. According to reliable industry analyst Ming-Chi, Apple isn't likely to show off its first-ever AI-powered chatbot in 2024.

Possible AppleGPT integration into Apple products, services

Apple is likely to start integrating generative AI into its products and services sooner rather than later. However, it is still unclear what that could mean for Apple product users. Thankfully, Gurman managed to figure out how Apple is spending its money and investing in the AI technology,

Apple Music and other apps

Cue is reportedly leaving no stone unturned in a bid to integrate AI into Apple Music and other apps. So, we might see AI-generated playlists, notes, slide decks and more. Reportedly, the company's AI chatbot tech is internally referred to as "Ajax" in the AppleCare program.

Xcode

Apple's AI plans aren't ignoring developers and the company is reportedly trying to integrate AI-like assistants into Xcode. This could help developers write code faster and more efficiently since they will have access to accurate auto-correct suggestions while they're coding.

Apple's biggest rival Microsoft has already done this by integrating AI into Github. In fact, the Redmond-based tech behemoth is reportedly on the verge of unveiling its first-ever AI chip.

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