Future Indicative | Apple enters AI with a company with questionable ethics, but its shares soar

Apple got itself into trouble. When presenting its artificial intelligence system, on Monday (June 10, 2024) in Cupertino, California, the company announced that it will use ChatGPT, from OpenAI, whenever its own resources are unable to handle the task requested by the user.

Apple sells itself to the market as the company that most respects consumer privacy and rights – and that’s not just marketing; there is an intention to privilege the buyer over the advertiser, just to compare the company with Google.

The problem is that OpenAI, a company that practically invented artificial intelligence for the masses when it launched ChatGPT in November 2022, does not strive for ethics. He shamelessly copied databases from major newspapers, such as New York Times e Washington Postwhich earned him a lawsuit in the United States Court for copyright infringement, and blatantly imitated the mellifluous voice that actress Scarlett Johansson created for the character in the film “She”. When the actress complained, the company used the old tactic of “it went badly”that he didn’t do that, which is pure coincidence, but he took the copy down.

It’s a bit naive and silly, I know, to demand ethical behavior from companies in Silicon Valley, where the principle of cleverness and rapacity has prevailed since the 1990s. But I wasn’t the one who invented this discourse about Apple as a champion of rights; it was the company itself.

In the short term, it seems that the association will not affect Apple’s image, which is excellent when compared to the rest of technology companies. On Tuesday (June 11, 2024), Apple shares soared by 7%, returning to the level of December 2023, when the company was the largest in the world. It’s an excellent performance.

In the last 6 months, Apple has been overtaken by Microsoft and Nvidia due to the two companies’ pioneering efforts in AI. Microsoft is OpenAI’s biggest backer; Nvidia produced the chips that enabled the technological leap.

Apple is back in the game. It had fallen behind in the artificial intelligence market because it had not found technology that followed its principles of respect for consumer privacy, according to the company itself. Most companies use cloud systems to process AI. Apple did not want to adopt this type of technology because the risks of invasion are not negligible. There were also problems with a very high level of labor. As Apple does not allow its employees to publish development research carried out within the company, the best brains it had in AI left after the OpenAI phenomenon.

The solution to escape the impasse of cloud technology was investment in chips, an area in which Apple dominates with excellence. The company had to make concessions too. The association with OpenAI was one of them. Apple is known for doing everything itself. AI forced the company to change this orientation. There are rumors that the next associate could be Google, which already provides search engines for the company.

Investors’ enthusiasm for Apple’s entry into the AI ​​market is more the result of bets than facts. Because Apple didn’t allow journalists to manipulate the new system or ask questions.

According to the company, AI will allow Siri, a voice system that is already 13 years old and was heading towards oblivion, to organize tasks such as your agenda with never-before-seen intelligence. The example cited is that the agenda will be tough when you try to change the time of a meeting and it coincides with your child’s children’s theater.

The AI ​​system will remember old messages when you write a reply to a message or email. It will make connections between research you have done and appointments. It will allow you to create emojis.

To avoid confusion, Apple does not have any system that allows the creation of hyper-realistic images. There is also the possibility of writing programs with AI resources, something that ChatGPT does very well, according to experts and programmers I spoke with.

Apple has had significant losses over the last year. The company’s revenue fell from US$205.5 billion in fiscal year 2022 to US$200.6 billion in 2023 (the fiscal year, in this case, ends in September). Consulting firms estimate that 270 million iPhone users have not purchased new models in the last 4 years. Cell phones have become the company’s main driver, with 1.334 billion active iPhone users worldwide.

The AI ​​system will only work for the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max, sold for prices starting at R$9,300. The system also runs on the device that will be launched in the coming months. That’s why the market was excited by Apple’s announcement. They may be squalid news, but now there is a tangible reason to sell the company’s cell phones. You just need to see if the consumer thinks so too.