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Napkin Math


APPLE’S AI EVOLUTION: BUILT-IN AI,
SUPERCHARGED SIRI, AND ECOSYSTEM LOCK-IN

Maybe the new world is the same as the old

by Evan Armstrong

June 11, 2024

49
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DALL-E/Every illustration.

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Apple kicked off its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) yesterday
with three major evolutions in how artificial intelligence will improve its
platform:



 1. Built-in AI: Apple will use a privacy-first, on-device approach to AI to
    inject magical new capabilities into its existing software.
 2. Supercharged Siri: The voice assistant Siri is becoming the meta-layer of
    software, coordinating workflows and reducing the time you spend in
    applications.
 3. Ecosystem evolution: Each of Apple’s devices—iPhone, iPad, Mac—works in
    concert with the other, making the sum greater than the parts.

Each of these elements is exciting on its own and, if the technology continues
to deliver, will be a genuine improvement on how we work and live. For
centuries, new technology has automated an increasing amount of the physical
labor we previously did. It is time for it to do the same for mental labor, too.
Soon, you won’t need to navigate to a website or app to experience generative
AI—it’ll be built into everything you do on your smartphone and computer.


MATHEMATICAL MAGIC (BUILT-IN AI)

The most impressive application of the day was the iPad calculator app. The
company had previously promised not to make one for the iPad until it could “do
something distinctly great.” It was a 14-year wait, but boy, did Apple
deliver. 




Source: Apple.



The calculator is familiar to the form on your iPhone, sprinkled with touches of
AI. You can write out mathematical expressions with the Apple pencil, and as
soon as you write an equals sign, the calculator will solve it for you—in your
own handwriting. It can create graphs in real time and adjust the output as you
update the variables in the equations making the graph. It is beautiful and
intuitive, the demon horror spawn of a math teacher’s nightmares—and it is all
powered by AI calculated on-device. (It apparently drew the loudest cheers of
the day). 

Beyond that one app, Apple demonstrated numerous instances of machine-learning
capabilities enhancing native existing applications and hardware. Photos can now
do semantic search with contacts. So I could type, “Morgan hugging Maple in
front of a tree,” and the Photos app will pull up a picture of my wife with my
puppy playing in front of an Eastern white pine. iMessage can generate custom
emoji using image-generation models. Apple Watch can use machine learning to
analyze the effort you put into a workout. The phone app can record and
transcribe conversations—a boon for writers everywhere. I can do this all
day—and name startups that these features kill.

The main takeaway is that the primary capabilities of generative AI—such as
finding data in large data sets, semantic understanding, and image
generation—are coming to all of your iPhone apps.


*ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER VOICE* I’LL BE AUTOMATED (SUPERCHARGED SIRI) 

I’ve been arguing for a while now that the ultimate form of AI in software is as
a "meta-layer" that automates your repetitive tasks that span multiple
applications. As such, I am grateful to the good folks at Apple for proving me
right. Siri is exactly what I said it would be.The AI update to Siri means that
you can do all the things you want it to do. One example Apple shared in the
presentation was the query, “What time does Mom land?” Siri can search your
messages from Mom for when she shared her flight number, look up its progress,
and tell you the updated arrival time. Siri can also manage notifications,
emails, and messages, summarizing long messages and surfacing the most important
information.







Source: Apple.

As you respond to that incoming information, Siri can generate text or take
actions for you in the applications. So, Siri can compose your answers in emails
or respond to texts for you. These are capabilities we’ve seen in AI apps
before, but never performed by an on-device model that emphasizes privacy. The
value from doing a total vertical integration with Apple silicon, an Apple
device, an Apple AI foundation model, trained on Apple data is a distinct
competitive advantage. 

If—and this is a big if—Apple’s products match the demos from today, this is a
significant improvement in computing for more than 1 billion iPhone users. Of
course, demos are by definition manicured videos, not actual products in action.
After looking at hundreds of AI demos, my experience has taught me that
executing these product rollouts at scale is a near-impossible challenge. The
details are tricky and very hard to get right. Apple has numerous advantages—in
custom silicon, resources, and install base—so maybe it’s the company to finally
deliver. If it works, it is easy to picture Siri being extended to more powerful
workflows on MacBooks.

For every instance of meta-layer AI improvement, there is a requisite decrease
in the power of an individual software application. Siri will have more data and
more access, and—worst of all for SaaS companies—it will be free. There are many
apps in my life that I would love to never have to use again. Hopefully, soon,
Siri will free me from them. At its most fundamental, every application becomes
simply a store of data on top of which sits an LLM, generating insights and
taking subsequent action. Instead of having a CRM, sales reps could record their
phone calls, and AI could transcribe those calls into a database, pull out the
necessary information to fill out the fields required, and schedule the next
meeting—no application interface required. We move into a world where far less
software requires a graphical user interface). We are still many years away from
a world of “"headless everything," but you can see the foundations being laid.

There were also numerous updates that went beyond AI. 


GET ME A BIG OL’ SLICE OF PLATFORM PIE (ECOSYSTEM EVOLUTION)

Apple devices feel like witchcraft to me when I jump from one to the other.
Copying something on my iPhone only to seamlessly paste it onto my Mac makes me
check my closet for black cats and toadstools. On that front, Apple continued to
improve its ecosystem benefits—this time with a new password manager app.




Source: Apple.



The Passwords app is coming to MacOS, iOS, and VisionOS, the operating system
powering the Apple Vision Pro headset. Password apps aren’t new, but Apple’s
products differentiate by nailing the details. A centralized place to store
passwords will be extremely useful.

More visually impressive platform updates came for the Vision Pro, which is
adding the ability to turn 2-D photos into 3-D “spatial” photos. Emotionally
visceral photos and videos are the killer capability for the Vision Pro, and I’m
excited that Apple is making existing photos 3D. The company also improved the
excellent Mac Virtual Display, which lets you grab your MacBook’s screen and
make it an ultrawide display on the Vision Pro.




Source: Apple. 



Individually, none of these upgrades justifies purchasing an Apple device. But
when you add them together, the ecosystem makes it worth it for every device you
own to be made by Apple. It isn’t quite the strong network effects enjoyed by
platforms like Uber or Instagram, but there are strong amounts of ecosystem
lock-in. 


APPLE INTELLIGENCE

Despite the cutting-edge tech, Apple still trotted out age-old tropes.
Capabilities that had been on Windows and Android for years announced to
thunderous applause? Check. Window tiling—which allows windows to easily snap
into place around your screen—is finally coming to Macs. Hilariously obtuse
marketing that co-opts existing technology with sexy branding? Say hello to
AI—branded as Apple Intelligence.

But despite my snark, this is a company that has played its cards correctly.
LLMs are a portion of the tech stack that it mostly develops in-house, like the
vast majority of AI used, according to early reports. It’s formed partnerships
with leaders like ChatGPT for higher-risk queries that take place outside of the
platform. 

Between the Microsoft, Google, and now Apple events, the technology landscape
has…not changed all that much. It turns out that all of the advantages from the
internet and mobile computing paradigm neatly transfer to artificial
intelligence. Custom silicon for iPhones can be repurposed for running Siri
queries. Data used for targeting advertisements can be used to customize
workflows. None of these companies are sitting on their heels—they are all
moving aggressively and spending billions. It is increasingly looking like LLMs
will further entrench the existing tech giants. Maybe the new world is the exact
same as the old, but 20 percent more expensive because now we have to pay for AI
costs.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Evan Armstrong is the lead writer for Every, where he writes the Napkin Math
column. You can follow him on X at @itsurboyevan and on LinkedIn, and Every on X
at @every and on LinkedIn.





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