I think very few people might want to argue that Apple is the most innovative company that succeeds in innovating while creating true value for its customers. Yes, the tech giant is usually moving pretty slowly and ends up copying other brands and companies, but it always owns the innovation just adding some Apple touch to it.
It’s been a while since the media have been talking about the possible partnership between Apple and OpenAI, the parent company of ChatGPT. Recently Bloomberg reported that Apple has intensified the negotiations with the AI startup, only a few months away from the big Apple event in September, when the world will be waiting for significant announcements, traditionally.
The Cupertino titan has so many products and services, that when we talk about Apple embracing the power of generative AI, it’s not just iPhone or iPad, but all the Mac lineup, Music, Podcasts, News, Vision Pro, and much more. I personally believe that this year will be incredibly exciting for tech-savvy people and hopefully, Apple will be generous with new announcements and valuable features. But before that, let’s uncover how can Apple introduce AI capabilities in some of its products, starting with Macs.
Taking the Lesson from the Imperfection of Macs
As a huge Apple fan for years, it hurts to say this, but Macs have always been terrible at games. Macs are great – they’re stylish, reliable workhorses for creative people and anyone who needs to get a lot done. But when it comes to running games with super-fast graphics and all the latest effects that serious gamers love, Macs just can’t compete with Windows computers.
And I know that the question about why are Macs bad for gaming interests many of us, but let’s start from the performance. One reason is because Apple focuses on making their own chips use less power and work well for creative tasks like editing videos, making music, and designing graphics. Even the best MacBook Pros with the most powerful M Max graphics can barely keep up with mid-priced gaming laptops that have Nvidia RTX 3070 or AMD Radeon RX 6800M graphics cards.
Forget about playing games in amazing 4K quality or using the highest settings on the newest games – most big-budget games need to be specially changed to work on Apple’s metal graphics system before you can even play them decently on a Mac.
Will Apple ever focus on making Macs better for gaming? Honestly, I doubt it. But with artificial intelligence becoming a huge deal in the tech world, Apple can’t keep treating it like just a fun distraction anymore. For a company that prides itself on making technology easier and more natural to use, the real test of their AI skills might be creating intelligent systems that don’t just help us work better or be more creative, but that blur the lines between what’s on the screen and real life in ways we can’t even imagine yet. Game on, indeed.
A New Possible Competition with Spotify?
As Apple pushes hard to use artificial intelligence (AI) in all their products, one interesting area to watch is the super competitive world of music streaming services. Big companies like Spotify are already using machine learning to make playlists that seem to know exactly what you want to listen to, and to even create new music with AI. This all sets the stage for a major battle between AI assistants that will fight to become our favorite music guide.
Of course, Apple is a big player in digital music. The company that changed the music industry with iTunes and the iPod now has over 90 million people paying for Apple Music, which brought in a whopping $9.2 billion in 2023 alone. With its mix of playlists chosen by real people, recommendations based on algorithms from Beats, and Siri voice controls that work on over a billion devices worldwide, Apple Music is Spotify’s main competitor in the fight to be the top streaming service.
But as AI gets better and better, it will allow for music experiences that are so personal they blur the lines between songs and spoken content. Apple can’t afford to relax just because they’re doing well now. Spotify has already made the first move with their new AI DJ feature, which mixes together songs you’ll like, talks in between them, and even changes the music to match your mood, all in one never-ending stream. This AI DJ is trained on a special kind of language model from OpenAI, and it doesn’t just pick songs you’ll love, it explains why it chose them in a way that sounds eerily real – like a real radio host who just happens to know exactly what kind of music you like.
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