Various signs indicate that while Microsoft and OpenAI continue to explore new ways of AI, Google is busy rapidly iterating big models, and Meta is frantically buying graphics cards, Apple, which has not yet demonstrated its AI capabilities, has reached the stage entrance to prepare to showcase the strength of artificial intelligence.
Renowned technology whistleblower Mark Gurman revealed that Apple is preparing to add AI functionality in the next major version update of the iOS programming software Xcode, benchmarking against Microsoft's GitHub Copilot, which relies on OpenAI's GPT model.
Programmers have been using AI since 2021
According to insiders, Apple has expanded its testing of these features internally and accelerated development progress, with the possibility of releasing this feature to third-party software developers as early as this year.
It is very convenient for insiders to say that Apple's programming AI tool features are "very similar" to GitHub Copilot. So to explain what this AI can do, you can directly use Microsoft's products to demonstrate.
GitHub Copilot is an artificial intelligence development tool launched by Microsoft and OpenAI in October 2021. The main usage is to automatically generate or complete code, write test code, provide error correction, optimization suggestions, and write comments based on user provided code (or development requirements).
(Functional demonstration, source: GitHub official website)
At present, GitHub Copilot's pricing for individual developers is $10 per month (or $100 per year), and subscriptions for the enterprise version will be more expensive.
Microsoft introduced at the beginning of last year that after two years of project launch, approximately 46% of the code in various platform projects was written using Copilot, and over one million programmers using AI technology said that AI has increased their programming speed by 55%. It is evident that for the developer community, AI was already a must-have several years ago.
The moment when WWDC becomes the focus in June
In the stock market's view, the WWDC held in early June each year will become Apple's "life and death game" this year. In the past year, the difference in stock price trends between Apple and Microsoft has also shown a difference in "AI content".
(Apple and Microsoft daily chart, source: TradeView)
Under the shadow of ChatGPT, Apple executives such as Cook have already announced that they will release Apple's AI plan this year. According to insiders, Apple's Vice President of Software Engineering, Craig Federick (pictured below), has requested the team to "develop as many AI features as possible" in this year's iOS version upgrade.
It is reported that Apple executives had already demonstrated AI functionality to the board at the end of last year, with Craig's deputy and Vice President of Software Development, Sebastian Marilor Metz, leading most of the demonstrations, while the Xcode mentioned earlier was led by another Vice President of Software Engineering, Andreas Wendker.
(Apple Software Team Architecture, Source: The ORG)
In addition to providing AI functionality to programmers, businesses that contribute to Apple's revenue, such as the iPhone, will not be dragged down. For the upcoming iOS 18, Apple plans to refer to it as "one of the most significant updates in the sixteen year history of the iPhone.". Of course, the new systems of iPad and Mac will also usher in a series of AI features.
According to insiders, the AI features that Apple is exploring include automatically generating music playlists, AI creating slideshows, switching between different functions within specific applications, and supporting Siri to answer complex questions through a large language model.
It is very interesting that insiders also specifically mentioned Samsung's newly released "AI Phone" S24 series in January this year, and stated that some of the demonstrations were exactly what Apple expected to do at the iPhone 16 launch event.