While we wait for the inevitable cracks in the code to be revealed, generative AI is all the rage in technology with implications for all businesses. Now you can even get ChatGPT on your Apple Watch.
ChatGPT on your wrist?
The watchGPT Apple Watch app is not made by Apple and costs €3.99. Once installed, you'll be able to use natural language or type to ask it questions, which it will respond with results pulled from around the web. The app is also capable of creating longer messages, poetry, or even sick notes, on your behalf.
It has its own complication, which means you can add a small button to the watch face to ask it questions. You can also text, email, or use social media to share these answers; the developer promises that no data leaves the device and is working on a series of updates for the app.
Generative AI seems to have turned the industry upside down. Microsoft has bet big on the technology, Google has sped up its existing work on Bard, others want to join in, and many are now trying to develop their own version of this form of AI. DuckDuckGo has even included OpenAI in its search engine, while Slack has integrated ChatGPT into its own service.
OpenAI doesn't sleep and this month announced new APIs for its ChatGPT and Whisper products. Whisper is used by the MacWhisper transcription app that I recently praised.
Does Apple have an answer?
Apple's recent internal AI presentation reportedly had no response to the technology, with Digitimes saying its appearance is prompting a rethink of the company's AI teams. That may be true, but the company has significant advantages, such as the neural engine built into the processor, that it can choose to implement. Apple's AI chief apparently told engineers gathered at Apple's AI event: "Machine learning is moving faster than ever, and the talent we have here is really at the forefront."
It is true that Apple has found really effective ways to deploy AI in critical vertical applications, such as accessibility, photography or health, but it has not been so successful in other sectors: Siri, despite starting early, clearly lost its voice. wizard wars, unless Apple knows something we don't.
I could.
Humane Inc, a startup founded by former Apple employees, is collaborating with OpenAI in a form of an augmented wearable device. "An embedded device and cloud platform that will allow us and others to create AI-powered experiences that feel natural, fun and necessary," said Patrick Gates, CTO of Humane and former Apple.
Given that we think that's the kind of offering Apple wants to build with its upcoming Reality One AR glasses system, one can't help but wonder if the company has a plan to take advantage of the... huge horde of search information it already has. . assembled to help deliver Spotlight search results.
Maybe so, but so far Apple's AI teams don't seem to be wearing the crown. They may not need it, as you can download and install Siri Shortcuts that allow you to use Siri as the interface and ChatGPT to generate the responses. I am confident that Apple's AI teams will carefully review implementations like this and explore their own potential avenues.
The risk of progress
There are risks in this proliferation. I recently saw US Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt) speak in London. He cautioned that while discussions of applied AI claim employment opportunities, he still expects significant turbulence in labor markets.
The social impact will be huge, Sanders warns, and while there is an opportunity to reinvent work and support lifelong learning, the appetite to go down this path remains weak. There may be a chance that the AI could help provide some avenues for retraining. Sanders is not an outlier in this expectation. (Even Apple's former senior director of artificial intelligence and machine learning issued warnings like these.)
On another part of the political spectrum, former OpenAI co-founder Elon Musk recently told attendees at the World Summit of Governments in Dubai: "AI is one of the biggest risks to the future of civilization." He thinks that AI should be regulated accordingly.
Of course, as more companies coalesce their AI efforts around OpenAI technology, there is a danger that the responses it generates will eventually become homogeneous, which itself can compromise creative thinking and diversity.
The increasingly well-known need to balance AI with human empathy and creativity inevitably means that these core competencies will guide companies through digital transformation and become the most sought-after qualities for the future of work.
However, while digital twins and cobots (collaborative robots) may be part of the rapidly emerging future, in many cases human workers will find themselves training their robot replacements.
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