Apple is on a global hiring spree for artificial intelligence (AI) professionals, with dozens of job openings released in the US, France, and China.
The tech giant intends to build cutting-edge generative AI tools leveraging local processing on mobile devices.
CEO Tim Cook said during an earnings call that Apple has been quietly developing research for years across a wide range of AI technologies. He highlighted that AI and machine learning (ML) is embedded in ‘virtually every product’ the company builds.
“On a research basis, we’ve been doing research on AI and machine learning, including generative AI, for years,” said Cook.
The job postings sought candidates with ‘a proven track record in applied ML research’. Successful candidates will train large-scale language and multimodal models on distributed backends, deploy efficient neural architectures like transformers on devices, and develop personalised learning policies in a privacy-preserving manner.
Apple’s financial commitment to AI research can be assessed in its R&D spending, which hit £17.7 billion ($22.61 billion) for the current fiscal year as reported in their Q3 results. A significant portion of the budget was directed to AI advancements, according to Cook.
Apple has implemented advanced machine-learning models in its products. iPhone cameras and Siri both incorporate machine learning capabilities. The upcoming iOS 17 update also introduced a transformer language model to the autocorrect system, using the same foundational technology found in AI chatbots.
Apple are also rumoured to be working on a AI tool that could rival OpenAI.
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