The news: Apple, previously quiet in the "AI wars," is now actively developing its own chatbot and other AI tools to rival OpenAI and Google, as reported by Bloomberg. Details: Apple has created its own framework called "Ajax" to build large language models, similar to ChatGPT and Bard, and has used it to develop a chatbot referred to as "Apple GPT" by some engineers. According to Bloomberg, Apple has quietly made a significant push in AI development, with multiple teams collaborating on the project in recent months. The company's AI efforts are led by John Giannandrea and Craig Federighi, and the new virtual assistant is being used internally for product prototyping. Why it matters: While Apple has integrated AI features into its products over the years, it has been playing catch-up in the generative AI market. Siri, in particular, has faced criticism for lack of progress, and Apple's AI development is perceived as lagging behind competitors. Despite Apple's relative silence on AI, the company is reportedly planning a significant AI-related announcement next year, although it has yet to come up with a clear consumer release strategy. What the numbers say: Apple's chatbot comes as no surprise considering the company has ramped up its AI hiring. Even so, a glass.ai analysis reveals that Apple still lags behind other tech giants in terms of AI employee count. Amazon leads with 10,113 AI employees, followed by Microsoft (7,287), Meta (5,590), Google (5,341), and Apple (4,773). Notably, Meta has the highest concentration of AI employees relative to its total workforce, surpassing Google and Microsoft.
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