As one of the hottest topics of the decade, artificial intelligence is at the forefront for tech companies like Apple and its competitors. While most people associate AI with sentient robots, the reality is that Apple’s foray into machine learning takes on a less obvious and intrusive role. Read on to learn four ways Apple is innovating with artificial intelligence.
Self-Driving Cars
Self-driving cars appear to be a priority when it comes to Apple’s AI endeavors. As of June 2019, Apple confirmed its plans to buy the self-driving car startup Drive.ai. In the past, the company collaborated with Volkswagen to test its own self-driving fleets. In the company’s latest self-driving attempts with Drive.ai, it plans to use machine learning capabilities to push its self-driving technology forward.
AI Algorithms for Image Recognition
With the purchase of Seattle-based company Xnor.ai, Apple announced its plans to use the startup’s artificial intelligence tools or future projects. In these endeavors, Apple plans to use AI algorithms to run locally on various devices. This is big news considering the fact that most companies that already use machine learning do so by running the algorithms in remote data centers rather than locally.
Apple’s bold decision ensures that the company gets to benefit from AI without the negative aspect of sacrificing the privacy of its customers. This move reinforces Apple’s commitment to maintaining privacy as they continue to explore artificial intelligence.
Internal Development
Apple’s foray in internal development is signaled by the arrival of Overton. Overton is a system that improves and monitors machine learning applications. While Overton works quietly on the backend, it has a significant impact on the user’s experience. For example, Overton takes on lower-level tasks while it manages how Siri arrives at results for queries, letting engineers focus on improving higher-level concepts.
Conversational AI systems like Siri rely on machine learning models to contextualize the user’s query and identify an accurate response. Over time, Apple plans to use this AI-driven tech to help systems like Siri handle more complex problems. With the help of Overton, Apple automates the cycle of monitoring, deployment, and construction–meaning the system will adjust its own machine learning models as it responds to external stimuli, resulting in more accurate responses.
AI-Integrated Cameras
Every year it seems that the camera in the iPhone gets more advanced, which is a direct result of artificial intelligence. With three cameras at its back, the iPhone 11 Pro is the first phone to use AI for photography. These cameras use AI to take eight different images of an object before the final picture is taken. These eight images are then compared to the image taken when you click the shutter, compiling the best pixels to get the final image.
AI-integrated tech is already in use in many of the Apple products customers use on a daily basis. As Apple continues to explore new ways to use this tech, artificial intelligence will go on to take a more active role in their products and services.