Virtually every tech company has been investing in generative AI over the past two years, and Apple is rumored to finally introduced new AI-powered tools will be available to iPhone users in iOS 18. However, the costs of running such tools are quite high, and Meta has just confirmed that it will take years for the company to make money from AI.
Investments in To recoup Meta AI, Will Take Years
When Meta shared results for its first fiscal quarter of 2024 on Wednesday, the company's CEO Mark Zuckerberg told investors about Meta AI, a new Meta assistant that is now integrated. apps like WhatsApp and Instagram, and has also been added to Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses.
Zuckerberg seems quite excited about the future of Meta AI. However, the executive noted that it will take years for the company's investments in generative artificial intelligence to pay off. He noted that such experiments are “a very good long-term investment” and that “initial signs are very positive.” However, profiting from generative AI “will take several years.” (via The Verge)
Meta shares fell more than 10% on Thursday after Zuckerberg confirmed the company would spend even more money on artificial intelligence. Meta recently announced that it intends to purchase approximately 350,000 Nvidia H100 AI chips by the end of the year. Each of these chips costs between $20,000 and $40,000, meaning Meta will spend billions of dollars.
The costs of generative artificial intelligence are indeed quite high, since such chips require a lot of computing power to train and operate. tools, not to mention server infrastructure. Platforms like OpenAI's ChatGPT charge users $20 to access more advanced tools like GPT-4 and DALL-E. Meta does not rule out monetizing its AI through advertising in the future.
What about generative Apple's artificial intelligence?
Given all this, what is Apple's position on its generative artificial intelligence? We won't have final answers until June at WWDC 2024, but we can speculate based on current rumors.
According to multiple sources, Apple is studying language models both on the device and on the server. While Bloomberg's Mark Gurman recently reported that Apple's new AI features will be fully enabled by standalone LLM, there are also reports that Apple is in talks with Google to bring Gemini to its platforms.
Best comment from Graham Jones
I think the public still doesn't understand what AI is. For most people, this is the latest fad and will only become attractive when they see evidence of AI helping them every day and experience its positive effects. Many of the so-called AI features that have emerged over the last few years have seemed hidden to most people, and that's the majority of people you need to convince if you're going to monetize them in any true sense. Until then, Apple will likely offer it as a user-focused feature and determine where it will serve their purposes in the long term. Apple may be good at online tasks, but these systems have shown that they lack memory, so Apple figured out a way to get around it? Apple has always regularly updated device models with similar features over the years, and it would be risky to believe that people will simply buy an iPhone this year based on the words AI, which is currently in vogue in the tech world and on Wall Street. but for most of the world it's just the title of a science fiction movie.
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If I had to guess, I would say that the company will indeed use both offline and online models. Autonomous models have the disadvantage that they are not as powerful and require more advanced chips, but they could also reduce Apple's server costs.
One possible scenario is that Apple makes autonomous AI available for free launch. some basic tasks, while more advanced tools will work online and will be paid for – perhaps combined with an iCloud+ or Apple One subscription. This could help the company cover server costs or even possible deals with third parties like Google.
The company already puts features like iCloud Private Relay behind a paywall, so charging for “Siri+” will not be. This is not a surprise.
And you? Would you pay to use Apple's generative AI? Let us know in the comments section below.
