Apple swooped into the AI assistant market this week when it unveiled "Apple Intelligence" — a suite of new capabilities in iOS 18 that will be powered by OpenAI's ChatGPT.
The collaboration has the potential to transform Siri into a more powerful AI assistant, and boost Apple's competitive advantage with users globally, with one big caveat: not all of the 2.2 billion Apple devices around the world will get these new capabilities.
Features powered by "Apple Intelligence" will only be available in English on the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, as well as other devices made with Apple's M1 and M2 chips.
The announcement, made during Apple's annual developer conference, also seemed to enrage Elon Musk who threatened to ban Apple devices at his companies over alleged security concerns. Notably, Musk is also trying to compete in the generative AI space with his own company, xAI.
Samsung sarcastically welcomed Apple to the AI party in a social media post, poking the Cupertino tech giant for being a late arrival.
Apple's stock has also underperformed over the past year compared to other tech companies that have been making bigger strides in AI, the WSJ reported, particularly Google, Microsoft and Nvidia. But Apple's advantage is having a loyal user base and a massive app ecosystem. The collaboration between OpenAI and Apple also has an unexpected twist: Neither company is paying the other, at least for now, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday.
Rules and regulations
Forbes slammed Perplexity this week for scraping an original story and reposting it across multiple channels without sufficient attribution, nor any formal compensation. It was a stark reminder that standards around fair use and theft haven't been settled in the realms of media and AI.
Perplexity, an AI search startup based in San Francisco, is reportedly gearing up to announce a revenue-sharing program with publishers "soon," Semafor reported on Wednesday.
Forbes Media Chief Content Officer Randall Lane framed Perplexity's product as a "cynical theft" that "represents everything that could go wrong with AI."
Longtime tech reporter Kara Swisher called it "plagiarism."
Semafor reporter Reed Albergotti was more forgiving, writing: "I think we’ve made a mountain out of a molehill and an enemy out of a potential ally."
Legal Watch
Elon Musk dropped his lawsuit against OpenAI, Sam Altman and others on Tuesday. Originally filed on February 29, Musk's complaint alleged that OpenAI, Sam Altman and Greg Brockman had set "aflame" the organization's original not-for-profit, open-source mission. Less than a week after filing the lawsuit, Musk taunted OpenAI to change its name to ClosedAI in exchange for dropping the lawsuit. However, OpenAI was still OpenAI as of Thursday morning.
Fresh Faces
OpenAI scooped up former Nextdoor CEO Sarah Friar to be its chief financial officer. The San Francisco AI giant also hired former Planet Labs executive Kevin Weil as its new chief product officer.
Typeface hired Adolfo Chou as its new head of finance. Chou was most recently CFO at Mural and also previously worked at Coinbase and LinkedIn, according to his LinkedIn. Based in Palo Alto, Typeface is developing generative AI-powered enterprise software.
Funding rounds to know
San Francisco-based venture firm Day One Ventures raised $150 million for its third fund, Bloomberg News reported. The firm has previously invested in AI companies such as DoNotPay and You.com. It has already made five investments from its new fund including a San Francisco-based startup called Cradle Healthcare that's trying to make human cryogenics a reality.
Must reads
An AI Bot Is (Sort of) Running for Mayor in Wyoming -Wired
AI start-up sees thousands of vulnerabilities in popular tools -WaPo
The weird vibe at OpenAI’s office, where secret security guards roam -SF Standard
Welcome to the Era of the A.I. Smartphone -NYT
OpenAI insiders are demanding a “right to warn” the public -Vox
FTC Chair Lina Khan shares how the agency is looking at AI -TechCrunch
