Just last month, Apple hosted their yearly WWDC - an event where they showcase all the updates to their platforms. Whilst a lot of it is very interesting, and AI centric, I'm going to mostly focus on Private Cloud Compute.
But first…the first half.
WWDC Regular Programming
The first hour of the keynote provided great updates for the Apple ecosystem.
I'm personally excited about Siri getting a huge kick in the pants, and into this decade, plus a bunch of quality-of-life upgrades across each platform, however, like I live-posted during the keynote, the Calculator app with Math Notes automagically calculates equations and graphs, is super cool.
Though, it's not smooth sailing out of the gate…
Touching on Personal AI Assistants, Apple has a huge opportunity with Siri to recapture a lead on the consumer side. Amazon, who have Alexa in so many homes with low-margin speakers, has objectively been getting worse, and below is a great article with some insight into how Amazon's lead in consumer AI Assistant's, declined.
Quick takeaways;
- Almost a year ago, Amazon demoed a significant upgrade for Alexa, however due to organization and technological challenges, it's not ready for prime time and is not as advanced as ChatGPT.
- Amazon once celebrated for it's speed of innovation, is getting weighed down in bureaucracy and siloed teams, with unrealistic deadlines and lack a clear vision
Apple, not Artificial, Intelligence
The second hour of the Keynote focused on Apple Intelligence. By leveraging the high performing neural engines and acceleration in their own silicon, Apple have essentially got AI at the Edge, your pocket. The reality hits hard though - AI needs fast memory, and for Apple, it's at least 8GB of it.