What is Apple's ChatGPT Competitor?

Apple Ajax is working on a "AppleGPT" type product for early 2024.

Hey Everyone,

Apple has an internal foundation for AI called Ajax and a small team of engineers have built a chatbot that some call “Apple GPT,” according to the report.

I was pretty impressed how machine learning with embedded into their VR Vision Pro device. That they have been experimenting with foundational LLMs is intriguing.

In recent months, the AI push has become a major effort for Apple, with several teams collaborating on the project, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private. Announced by Bloomberg on July 19th, 2023.

AppleGPT to Launch in 2024

It’s a triumphant moment in a way, if you think about it. After years of weaving Machine Learning into all its software and devices, and silence on the matter at WWDC, Apple appears to be readying its own ChatGPT large language model.

The tech giant has created a chatbot that some engineers are internally referring to as “Apple GPT.” Apple has yet to determine a strategy for releasing the technology to consumers, but is reportedly aiming to make a significant AI-related announcement next year.

The internal rollout of the chatbot was halted for awhile due to security concerns about generative AI, but has since been made available to more Apple employees. Although more employees are getting access to the chatbot, it requires special approval for access. Apple is among the more secretive companies so it’s not clear if this was a leak or a brief amount of PR on the matter.

A lot of these are just internal code names, for Ajax and AppleGPT, the actual name of the product is likely to be very different. And that’s all we basically know for the media brief.

Apple’s most well-known machine learning system remains its Siri digital assistant on iPhones. Apple’s products are packed with machine learning technology, but it was not clear if they would foray into LLMs, I guess now we know.

The move signals Apple is taking recent advances in AI technology seriously and is considering integrating them into future products. Mostly Apple refers to this tech as machine learning and rarely uses the “AI” moniker abbreviation. That is, the company rarely uses the term “artificial intelligence,” instead opting for the more academic “machine learning.”

Apple’s new project is using its internal AI foundation, called Ajax, according to Bloomberg. However, Ajax itself runs on Google Cloud and is built from Google JAX, a machine learning framework that was created to accelerate research.

Some Apple staffers believe the company is aiming for a significant AI announcement next year, according to the report. To some degree, Apple is late to jump aboard the LLM trend. Apple Siri is no longer really up to date and it appears ChatGPT like technology is far superior in many ways.

Apple is unique, it’s a $3.07 Trillion dollar company. It cannot afford to be left behind in such a major trend like LLMs appears to be. For now AppleGPT appears like an internal tool like Apple’s own Bard or BingAI. Apple employees are using the chatbot to help with product prototyping. The chatbot can be used to summarize text and answer questions based on data it has been trained with.

What do you make of an AppleGPT?