Apple must catch up in AI with Google and OpenAI

OpenAI’s new GPT-4o, presented Monday, can translate speech, identify emotions via video and supervise students. Google’s Gemini can connect to Gmail to summarize emails, create spreadsheets based on information, and formulate responses.

Even Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram have integrated Meta AI in the application search fields.

Apple, however, has remained fairly tight-lipped about its own AI ambitions so far – and it’s increasingly evident.

“The buzz around AI, and specifically GenAI, has been so deafening that Apple is visible by omission,” Dipanjan Chatterjee, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester, told Business Insider.

And while it’s Apple’s nature to focus more on products – like announcing its new iPads on May 7 – the low-key culture it’s famous for is “about to cave” in the face of calls for more clarity on its AI strategy. , Chatterjee said.

All of this adds pressure on Apple to stick with the technology at next month’s Worldwide Developers Conference, now that Google and OpenAI have revealed their arsenals.

“Apple is way behind in AI,” Gene Munster, managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management, told BI.

Munster said Apple should view this week’s two events as a “wake-up call.” He predicts that Apple’s only option to catch up is to partner with OpenAI or Google, saying it would be nearly impossible for Apple to “close the gap” with its AI competitors on its own. even.

While Apple has reportedly been in talks with both companies to bring OpenAI or Gemini to the next iPhone, there has been no official announcement about its plans in this burgeoning field – unlike massive, live-streamed presentations from Google and OpenAI.

Apple’s big announcement last week was a new and improved version of the iPad, a product that has been around for 14 years.

Still, if the rumors about OpenAI or Gemini iPhone integration are true, this week’s “strong announcements would bode well for Apple,” said Morningstar analyst William Kerwin.

He continued: “The voice app on the new GPT-4o model seemed ready for Siri integration to me, if it works that way.”

And Wedbush’s Dan Ives warned people not to rule Apple out of “Game of Thrones” AI just yet, even though it appears Microsoft, Google and OpenAI are currently ahead in the game.

The analyst told BI that the new iPad rollout is just an “appetizer to the real meat and potatoes” of Apple’s AI strategy, which is expected to be announced at WWDC in June.