18 October, 2024
Tim Cook says Apple will 'break new ground' in GenAI this year
Apple CEO Tim Cook is promising that Apple will “break new ground” on GenAI this year.
Cook made the pronouncement during the company’s annual shareholders meeting today, which came in the same week the company reportedly scuttled its multibillion-dollar, decade-long plan to build an EV. Some of the staff on the EV project were reassigned to work on various GenAI initiatives, according to multiple publications.
$AAPL
COOK: APPLE WILL "BREAK NEW GROUND" IN GENERATIVE AI THIS YEAR
— *Walter Bloomberg (@DeItaone) February 28, 2024
Apple, unlike many of its Big Tech rivals, has been slow to invest in — and ramp up — GenAI.
During the company’s Q1 earnings call, Cook said Apple was working internally with GenAI but that it was taking a slower, more deliberate approach to customer-facing incarnations of the technology. Indeed, Apple’s only briefly mentioned GenAI in its recent press conferences and announcements, such as when it introduced new autocorrect and text prediction features in iOS last fall.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has reported that Apple is planning to upgrade Siri and iOS’ built-in search tool, Spotlight, with GenAI models, with the goal of enabling both to answer more complex queries and handle sophisticated multi-turn conversations. Apple is also said to be exploring AI-powered features to allow users to automatically generate presentation slides in Keynote and playlists in Apple Music, as well as GenAI-powered coding suggestions in Xcode, the company’s app development platform.
Some of these — or none — could arrive in the next versions of iOS, macOS and iPadOS, which are expected to be demoed at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference this summer.
Perhaps telegraphing Apple’s intensifying GenAI focus, engineers at the company have co-authored an increasing number of GenAI-related academic and technical papers. One describes a system that can generate animated 3D avatars from short videos. Another details Keyframer, a tool capable of animating still images.
Conspicuously, Apple’s also published a slew of open source models and tools for developing GenAI-powered software in recent months.
Ferret, released in October, is a chatbot built on top of an existing open source model, Vicuna, while MGIE, released earlier this year, is a model that can modify images based on natural language commands.
Bloomberg reported in October that Apple was investing $1 billion a year to catch up on GenAI, including efforts like a proprietary large language model called Ajax and an internal chatbot known as Apple GPT — and potentially even new hardware. The upcoming iPhone 16 models are rumored to be in line for a “significantly” upgraded Neural Engine, Apple’s brand of custom on-device chip for accelerating AI processing.
NFX's James Currier will break down MVPs at TechCrunch Early Stage 2024
Everyone has heard of minimum viable products (MVPs), early versions of a future startup’s product that contains precisely what it needs to deliver value — and nothing more.
The tricky bit is sorting out what is required in an MVP and what is extraneous. Build too much and the resulting delay to market could limit learning, leading to wasted development cycles. Build too little, and you could go to market without enough product to actually engage with potential customers. Getting it just right is hard, but possibly very lucrative.
That’s why I am glad to announce that NFX’s James Currier is coming to TechCrunch Early Stage 2024 in Boston to discuss how to build MVPs into today’s startup world.
Currier is a founding partner at NFX, a venture firm with several nine-figure funds under its belt, and a founder in his own right several times over. He founded Tickle, which he says grew to 150 million registered users, as well as several other startups, including IronPearl, whose exit we covered back in 2013.
Regular TechCrunch readers may recognize his firm’s name, as we’ve covered several of its investments in recent years. Currier is also a regular at our Early Stage event, thanks to his experience on both sides of the fundraising table.
If you want to get a head start on the get-together, TechCrunch has covered MVPs extensively over the years.
As with all sessions at Early Stage, Currier will present and then answer audience questions. I am moderating Currier’s Q&A and can’t wait to hear what you want to know — and what Currier will have in response.
Our yearly Early Stage confab is consistently one of most highly rated events of the year, so snag a ticket and I will see you in Boston this April.
Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at TechCrunch Early Stage 2024? Reach out to our sponsorship sales team by completing this form.
Underscore's Lily Lyman will break down venture relationships at TechCrunch Early Stage 2024
Venture capital is sometimes called a sales job by folks in the industry, as investors have to pitch LPs to raise their own funds and then pitch founders to pick their check over other offered term sheets. Founders might feel similarly, given how much time it takes to fundraise for their own businesses. Hell, raising capital is often called a full-time job for founders who are pursuing new backing.
Making the fundraising process pain-free is therefore something that both sides of the venture table value. Enter Underscore VC’s Lily Lyman, who is coming to TechCrunch Early Stage 2024 in Boston to discuss how founders can build investor relationships with the right venture capitalists. She will discuss how to build venture relationships ahead of time, and how founders can — and should! — manage inbound interest, providing enough context to keep investors intrigued and hungry for more.
In today’s more stringent venture environment, founders can’t run a 2021-era playbook (unless they are building an AI foundational model company, I suppose). If you know the folks who might be interested in your startup when it comes time to raise more capital, the entire process can move more quickly and with fewer wasted meetings and emails.
So, bring your notebooks and questions to Lyman’s Early Stage session coming up on April 25. She’ll be joined by a bevy of other startup folks who will be on hand to share their hard-earned wisdom.
Our yearly Early Stage get-together usually sells out, so snag a ticket before March 29 to save $200 on your tickets and I will see you in Boston next month!
Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at TechCrunch Early Stage 2024? Reach out to our sponsorship sales team by completing this form.