Is Apple finally working on a ChatGPT rival?

(Image credit: Future)

AI has been garnering all the headlines in recent months, with pandemonium surrounding the release of AI writer ChatGPT, setting off the subsequent launches of rival AI systems such as Google’s Bard and Anthropic’s Claude, to name a few.

With Microsoft heavily backing OpenAI and even Meta looking to prioritize AI over the metaverse, that leaves only Apple as the last big tech firm to announce its plans within the space.

The typically secretive company hasn’t quite done that just yet, but some comments and hints suggest that Apple is now working on language-generating artificial intelligence.

Apple artificial intelligence

Rather than an outright chatbot, Apple seems to be working on a language-generating model to underpin Siri, in a move that will see the voice assistant’s fundamental building blocks change entirely from a template-based system, which has limited Siri for a number of years.

Like some other voice assistants, Siri has struggled to understand different accents and to string multiple commands together, and an AI model may just fix this ahead of its competition as Apple looks towards text-generating artificial intelligence.

9To5Mac reported obtaining information about Apple’s current natural language generation testing, which has been dubbed ‘Bobcat’. Its testing currently expands to tvOS for Apple TVs, though the software is also said to underpin HomePods too. It may then roll out to other devices including iOS and watchOS.

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New foundations with adaptive artificial intelligence may help alleviate what New York Times calls the “clunky code” that led Siri to face so many challenges and setbacks, especially when compared to Google’s Assistant which may already benefit from the company’s own chatbot, Bard.

If history is anything to go by, then AI may be silently embedded into an Apple product designed to improve productivity or capability, rather than an outright, in-your-face solution like ChatGPT; but either way, Apple’s products (and hopefully Siri) hope to be all the better for it.

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With several years’ experience freelancing in tech and automotive circles, Craig’s specific interests lie in technology that is designed to better our lives, including AI and ML, productivity aids, and smart fitness. He is also passionate about cars and the decarbonisation of personal transportation. As an avid bargain-hunter, you can be sure that any deal Craig finds is top value!