Apple Intelligence is too intelligent for our good
Apple has finally, officially, entered the artificial intelligence (AI) race.
Some of its upcoming products will be filled with AI.
The Apple version of AI will be transformative for Apple products.
It will turn some of your Apple devices into assistants that manage your schedule, remind you, guide you and inform you through an upgraded version of Siri.
Apple promised to deliver its AI features wrapped in privacy to safeguard your data.
This, however, has not convinced some who care about AI. A non-believer is Elon Musk.
After AI announcements by Apple, Musk took to X (Twitter) to express his displeasure. Musk said Open AI powered AI for Apple was a recipe for opening the data users to data merchants.
Musk may be on point here. Many will remember that Open AI has been accused by some, including publishers, of using their content to train their systems and provision that in form of answers for ChatGPT.
What will stop Open AI from treating Apple users fairly? It remains to be seen how the Apple relationship with OpenAI will unfold.
The move by Apple is deeply concerning for several reasons. In the past, we’ve been accustomed to Apple products that keep everything Apple.
Other software solutions were entertained only at a surface level. For this reason, users have trusted Apple privacy. One wonders to what extent will Apple deliver on its privacy promises when other AI companies will have back door access to the Apple products.
It has to be emphasised that Apple has been a leader in privacy protections and it promises to do so even with this AI move.
At the same time, users will have understand that some AI solutions are in an experimental stage.
Rules of engagement are being developed. In the process of deploying solutions, tech companies will make mistakes. In future, I will not be surprised when they are fined for some of their actions.
It’s safe to say users will have to tread carefully. AI will deliver major benefits and, at the same time, will surprise us in many ways that we could not have imagined.
We all have to open our eyes as we use the tools.
It won’t be easy. It may be necessary to choose different brands as most trusted brands are beginning to lose their ethics in the interest of being ahead in the AI race. It may be necessary to scale down while everyone is trying to find a balance between innovation and safeguarding human rights. Apple has been a vanguard of privacy but is now entering a slippery slope to the point of return.
If Apple delivered privacy protections while entertaining tech companies, it would have solved a major AI challenge.There’s no doubt that the AI addition may move users to devices that deliver only what consumers want – basic communication.
Tech companies will have to work hard to earn the trust of consumers to avoid an exodus from tech products we’ve trusted for many years.
Wesley Diphoko is the technology analyst. He has been working at the intersection of media and technology as the editor of FastCompany (SA) magazine. You can follow him on X via: @WesleyDiphoko
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