[HN Gopher] Apple and OpenAI have signed a deal to partner on AI
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       Apple and OpenAI have signed a deal to partner on AI
        
       Author : belter
       Score  : 42 points
       Date   : 2024-05-31 21:09 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (arstechnica.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (arstechnica.com)
        
       | mrbishalsaha wrote:
       | Bad news for google. Sundar is dying inside
        
       | throwup238 wrote:
       | _> Another is a change to OpenAI 's structure as a corporation.
       | OpenAI has an unusual structure, with a for-profit corporation
       | beholden to a nonprofit organization. The Information claims that
       | Altman and his allies are seeking to convert it into either a
       | traditional for-profit corporation or a benefit corporation known
       | as a B-Corp. B-Corps allow corporations to have additional goals
       | beyond shareholder interest, protecting them from certain kinds
       | of shareholder lawsuits if they act for reasons beyond profits._
       | 
       | And the penny drops!
        
         | milkshakes wrote:
         | this... sounds like a good thing?
        
       | candiddevmike wrote:
       | Stock didn't really move on this, but IMO this is a bearish
       | signal for Apple--they're sitting on a ton of cash and can't
       | catch up to OpenAI? Not even via acquisition? How far behind are
       | their internal efforts?
        
         | carabiner wrote:
         | It's priced in.
        
         | ghayes wrote:
         | To be fair, launching their own ChatGPT wouldn't be that much
         | more interesting than leveraging OpenAI. What would be amazing
         | is if they get a high-quality GPT model running locally on the
         | device and integrate that with their services.
        
           | Wytwwww wrote:
           | > high-quality GPT model running locally on the device and
           | integrate that with their services.
           | 
           | Unfortunately very few Macs would be able to run anything
           | like that since 8GB is still the base config for consumer
           | models and I wouldn't be too surprised if 80-90% of all Macs
           | sold in the last couple of years only have 16 GB or less.
        
             | jazzyjackson wrote:
             | The good thing is if they choose a model that runs on a 8GB
             | macbook it can run just as well on an iphone
        
               | Wytwwww wrote:
               | I think the difference between 6GB and 8GB might be more
               | significant than it seems when you subtract the OS and
               | any other apps that are running.
        
               | jazzyjackson wrote:
               | 15 Pro is 8GB
        
         | segasaturn wrote:
         | Why exactly does Apple need to make their own AI? I would
         | prefer if they focused their efforts on what they're already
         | good at - making hardware and operating systems to run on top
         | of it.
        
         | mindwok wrote:
         | Apple has never been about moving fast in response to hype.
         | Think about 3G, VR, foldable screens (apparently coming to
         | iPads in a few years). They do things in their own time and
         | somehow it works.
        
         | sk11001 wrote:
         | > but IMO this is a bearish signal for Apple--they're sitting
         | on a ton of cash and can't catch up to OpenAI?
         | 
         | Nobody has caught up to OpenAI, it's absurd to expect Apple to
         | have done it simply because they have the cash.
        
           | turnsout wrote:
           | Especially when they can't use that cash to buy Nvidia cards,
           | due to an epic grudge
        
           | xnx wrote:
           | Google seems caught up, or very close:
           | https://chat.lmsys.org/?leaderboard
        
           | pupppet wrote:
           | Siri was released in 2011. What AI advances have they made
           | since then despite showing early interest and having endless
           | resources? They blew it.
        
       | next_xibalba wrote:
       | Does this mean Siri will catch up to Google Assistant? Or at
       | least be somewhat useful?
        
         | layer8 wrote:
         | From https://www.macrumors.com/2024/05/30/ai-siri-features-
         | ios-18...:
         | 
         | "Apple has been working on a deal with OpenAI to integrate
         | OpenAI's ChatGPT technology into iOS 18, [...] but Siri
         | functionality likely relies on Apple's own LLM work."
        
       | ninjha01 wrote:
       | Ben Thompson of Stratechery raised a good question - why isn't
       | Apple partnering with Microsoft instead of OpenAI? Microsoft has
       | the weights, can provide the requisite infra, is in the process
       | of derisking the OpenAI collaboration via defacto aquihires...
       | 
       | OpenAI is losing people, has a CEO with a mixed reputation,
       | irritates a famous actress who beat Disney in court...
        
         | layer8 wrote:
         | Apple likely plans to use their own infrastructure [0], and why
         | should they add a major competitor as a middleman?
         | 
         | [0] https://www.reuters.com/technology/apple-power-ai-servers-
         | wi...
        
           | ninjha01 wrote:
           | I can't imagine apple has chip production scaled to the point
           | it could support all the inference queries coming from all
           | the iPhones
        
         | consumer451 wrote:
         | Maybe branding/brand recognition? Outside of tech circles, it's
         | likely that very few people know anything bad about Altman,
         | compared to the hundreds of millions who know about "ChatGPT."
        
           | ninjha01 wrote:
           | The brand recognition is surely flowing from the iPhone to
           | ChatGPT.
           | 
           | They'll have to rebrand siri though
        
         | gwern wrote:
         | You're looking at it the wrong way: Altman really wants this
         | deal. For a long time, accelerated by the OA coup, he has been
         | searching for ways out of the MS trap, where OA becomes an
         | appendix to MS, dependent on MS infrastructure completely.
         | ('Above you, below you, around you...') Apple is one of the few
         | viable alternatives to play off against MS. (This is the same
         | as why Anthropic gets investment from Google & Amazon, as their
         | anti-OA.) The mere fact of any Apple deal at all is a lot of
         | leverage against Nadella. Think of it as like North Korea
         | playing off China and Russia against each other; it is bad to
         | have only 1 patron, but it is good to have 2.
         | 
         | EDIT: ah, there we go: https://www.businessinsider.com/satya-
         | nadella-sam-altman-ope... Mission. Accomplished.
        
           | ninjha01 wrote:
           | I understand the motivation from the OAI side. what does
           | apple gain though?
           | 
           | The purported google deal made a lot more sense to me. OAI is
           | terrified of google, and Apple could mitigate Pixel
           | differentiating against iPhone. Google would get a bunch of
           | training data as well.
        
       | __loam wrote:
       | Hope we can turn this off
        
         | talldayo wrote:
         | Hahahahaha... ahh. Optimism.
        
       | ExMachina73 wrote:
       | You have to wonder if Giannandrea is what's been holding Siri
       | back all these years. What can you point to that he's
       | significantly improved at Apple since coming from Google in 2018?
       | And now he's luke-warm on LLMs? Seems like someone we should be
       | seeing present Apple's AI strategy at this year's WWDC keynote,
       | no?
        
         | layer8 wrote:
         | He's lukewarm on chatbots, not necessarily on LLMs.
        
         | gumby wrote:
         | > You have to wonder if Giannandrea is what's been holding Siri
         | back all these years.
         | 
         | I think it's more that Siri wasn't central to Apple (though
         | consider homepod and watch, both of which pretty much need to
         | be talked to).
         | 
         | But he's the _reason_ Google had a corporate push on AI at all;
         | he bought Deep Mind etc. I really don 't think he's been
         | sitting on his hands.
        
       | retskrad wrote:
       | Apple, in 2024, is still unable to implement a functioning
       | autocorrect, which is a primitive version of LLM's, in the iOS
       | keyboard. Why anyone has any faith in Apple in the new age of
       | LLM's is beyond me.
        
       | ChrisArchitect wrote:
       | As previously discussed:
       | 
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40328927
       | 
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40325876
       | 
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40322104
        
       | tracerbulletx wrote:
       | I think this is more strategic than about whether or not apple
       | could make an AI if they wanted to. OpenAI plays MS off Apple,
       | Apple plays Google off OpenAI. Apple probably gets very favorable
       | terms from OpenAI due to the market they're opening up to them.
        
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       (page generated 2024-05-31 23:03 UTC)