We’ll leave it to future retrospectives to show us if it turns out be a good or a bad thing, but artificial intelligence will change everything, so of course Apple is building a business around it. That shouldn’t surprise anyone.

Having likely spent billions on Private Cloud Compute, which Apple calls “the most advanced security architecture ever deployed for cloud AI compute at scale,” the company will — and does — want to recoup its investment.

But that investment may yet become the foundation of an Apple AI enterprise.

Putting the $ in AI

As I see it, while Apple has traditionally played its biggest role as a consumer-facing firm, there is a chance to think different when it comes to provisioning AI services.

Private Cloud Compute means Apple can offer generative AI tools to Apple Intelligence users, but it also gives the company a foundation from which to develop an enterprise-focused AI provisioning business.

Think AWS for private, secure, and sovereign cloud-based AI services. 

There is a need for these. Many enterprises want to do more with AI but are unable to do so due to concerns around data security and national boundaries. This is particularly true in regulated industries, where “Trusted Cloud” is a fast-rising buzzword.

Apple doesn’t need to change too much to give them what they need. It doesn’t need to go head-to-head on enterprise AI cloud services; it can simply dance to its usual tune. That’s a jive in which, once Apple has put enough of its newly announced Private Cloud Compute servers in place, it offers fee-based access to those servers to third parties who want to host their own cloud-based services.

The private cloud for the rest of us?

Privacy-conscious Apple developers will want to do this, as will security-minded enterprises running Macs, iPads, and iPhones. That fee will let them offer highly secure private AI, either for internal business or for consumer-focused plays. Of course, consumers will also be able to use these services, and there may be a fee for that.

There is, after all, likely to be a lot of money to be made in offering highly secure, private, sovereign cloud-based infrastructure for AI.

In the future, Apple will want to build on its investment in Apple Intelligence with the introduction of specific AI tools it thinks people will be prepared to pay for. I don’t think those fee-based services will be among the first tranche of Apple Intelligence tools. 

At first it makes sense to offer these services for no additional cost. It may even make sense in the longer term, given the probable spike in hardware sales Apple will enjoy as the AI PC/phone craze translates into Apple device sales — even as app sales decline to make way for AI agents.

Likely, plausible, possible

The most likely way Apple will recoup in the longer term is through offering some of its genAI models as services via iCloud, most likely within iCloud+, but also conceivably on a pay-per-use tariff.

It can also deliver services to Apple’s developer community that will enable them to offer trusted cloud-based AI experiences to iPhone, Mac, and iPad users.

But not every developer is consumer focused, which gives Apple the chance to provide support for proprietary enterprise-specific genAI apps. Given the fast pace at which enterprise users are adopting Apple products, that service may be a big win for the company, consolidating and extending upon its existing gains in enterprise tech.

The more you look at it, the clearer it becomes that Apple has lots of ways to benefit from the AI investments it is already putting into place. These opportunities are great, so it makes no sense at all for the company to ignore them.

All that said, in the EU, at least, Apple will need to convince the regulators that enabling an ecosystem for trusted cloud AI is a necessity, and while the nature and manner in which business is transacted in that space may need to be tweaked, there is real value (and real cost) in creating such an environment — particularly as the looming impact of genAI and quantum computing raises additional threats and opportunities in the computational world.

Please follow me on Mastodon, or join me in the AppleHolic’s bar & grill and Apple Discussions groups on MeWe.

If you believe European Commission Vice President Margrethe Vestager, Apple’s decision to delay introduction of its Apple Intelligence AI is a “stunning declaration” of its own anticompetitive behavior. 

Having spent the morning listening to Vestager’s comments at a Forum Europa event, I’m full of a combined sense of horror and dismay. Because while touting the need to make Europe more competitive, the regulatory chief seems also to be putting barriers in place that will have the opposite effect. 

(You can watch Vastager’s speech and Q&A here.)

Slowing down the renewable transition

Take climate change, for example. China is unique in that once it recognized the growing threat of environmental destruction, it launched a root and branch attempt to migrate to renewable fuels and attack pollution levels. 

That journey is far from over, but one result has been the creation of a strong solar panel manufacturing industry at global scale. Europe doesn’t have anything like the capacity to build renewable energy infrastructure at the same low cost, so in its haste to combat climate change, it just clobbered China with tariffs to make that lower cost renewable infrastructure more expensive to deploy — even as energy costs spiral and the planet heats up.

I see that decision as a suicide note, given the scale of the global crisis. Vestager sees it as a victory. I am unconvinced.

A place for kids

Another Vestager victory involves App Stores. “How good will it be as a parent to open an App Store and know all the apps in there are safe for children,” said Vestager during her presentation.

“How good indeed,” I respond. “It’s why I use the heavily curated, heavily moderated Apple App Store and apply parental controls on the device.” 

Of course, what Vestager is celebrating is Europe’s demand to open up the App Store under the Digital Markets Act, a move that might — as some security experts posit — make children less safe, as not every App Store will be equally secure, resilient, or trustworthy. If events on iOS echo what’s already happening on Android, we will see malware and fraud attempts amplify as criminals exploit the inherent vulnerabilities of sideloading.

But perhaps the chance for European firms to make a couple of Euros matters more. And there is strength to the argument that at Apple’s scale it does need to ensure that competitors can craft viable businesses on its platforms, in order to avoid its power becoming too great.

Pushed out of the garden

On the DMA moves against Apple, Vestager said: 

“For a company who has built a very effective walled garden vertically integrated from the device operating system to the app store, of course, it is more challenging that you need to make sure that competitors can be on your platform, because you have become a gatekeeper. If you were not the essential road for businesses to reach their consumers, of course, we would have no say. But that is exactly the point, that you are an essential route to consumers and that is why you have these obligations. And of course, they go for Apple as well as for anyone else who is a… gatekeeper.”

So now we have a series of European decisions that will make kids (and everyone else using Apple products) less safe, and help ensure the planet gets warmer for longer. What else can the EU regulators come up with?

Damned if you do, damned if you don’t

Artificial intelligence, of course, specifically Apple Intelligence — which Vestager now seems to think shows how anti-competitive Apple is because the company won’t introduce these tools in Europe until it has clarity.

When it announced plans to delay the introduction, Apple said it “was committed to collaborating with the European Commission” to enable it to introduce these features, but was concerned at some of the requirements of the DMA and how they could impact the plan.

During the talk, Vestager was asked: “On Apple, to the best of your knowledge how does Apple’s Walled Garden apply to their AI? How do you interpret their decision not to launch Apple Intelligence for the EU?”

Vestager’s response: Apple said it will not launch the new AI features, “because of the obligations that they have in Europe,” she said. “And the obligations that they have in Europe, it is to be open for competition, that is sort of the short version of the DMA.

“And I find that very interesting that they say we will now deploy AI where we are not obliged to enable competition. I think that is the most stunning, open declaration that they know 100% that this is another way of disabling competition, where they have a stronghold already.”

The struggle for privacy

When Apple announced the delayed rollout, it was quite detailed about its concerns: “Specifically, we are concerned that the interoperability requirements of the DMA could force us to compromise the integrity of our products in ways that risk user privacy and data security,” it said.  “We are committed to collaborating with the European Commission in an attempt to find a solution that would enable us to deliver these features to our EU customers without compromising their safety.”

But Vestager’s arguments, and previous mutterings on the topic of user security and privacy, seem to suggest that the “pro competition” trading bloc that gave us GDPR (ironically wrecking the economics of small website publishers when it did), isn’t going to be terribly receptive to Apple’s arguments that the highly personal data gathered on someone’s device should be protected, minimized, and not simply made available to third party AI competitors without clear user consent, protection, and oversight.  

‘This is surveillance’

As Apple CEO, Tim Cook warned six years ago, the potential for AI-driven surveillance has never been greater; that really is what is at stake in Apple’s struggles with the European Commission. 

If Europe decides in some way to force Apple to open up these features to competitors without agreeing on checks and balances to protect user data in the hopes of stimulating some great (imaginary) European unicorn digital business, then you really can kiss all hopes of digital privacy goodbye — though perhaps a smattering of billionaires will add to their bank balance.

Finally, a question: Why is it, really, that after Vestager has been in command of European competitive policy for over a decade, the bloc has become less, rather than more, relevant on the global stage? 

Please follow me on Mastodon, or join me in the AppleHolic’s bar & grill and Apple Discussions groups on MeWe.

From the editors of Computerworld, this enterprise buyer’s guide helps IT staff understand what the various unified-communications-as-a-service (UCaaS) options can do for their organizations and how to choose the right solution.

Box has unveiled a new set of features in Box AI that includes an integration with GPT-4o, support for image and spreadsheet files and the Box AI for Metadata API.

In addition, the cloud content-management company announced that end user queries in Box AI for Hubs, Documents, and Notes will be unlimited for organizations that are part of its Enterprise Plus plan.

Box said the following enhancements to Box AI, a suite of capabilities launched last year that comprise of generative AI models natively integrated into the company’s Content Cloud, will take place later this year: Support for the new GPT-4o that will help the company’s AI-powered content portal Box Hubs, support for additional file types including natural language queries on image file formats, and the ability for developers to extract “key information from documents at scale” via Box AI for Metadata API.

Company CTO Ben Kus said in a news release that the “combination of AI and unstructured data represents the biggest untapped opportunity in enterprise IT.”

Thomas Randall, director of AI market research at Info-Tech Research Group, said in an email that Kus is “right that the combination of AI and unstructured data is a large opportunity. What is missing from this statement is the solution’s ability to unify such data across different siloes. While organizations stand to benefit from optical character recognition for discovering and summarizing unstructured data, the real value is also ensuring the solution can discover and unify that data from across different systems.”

If an organization uses only Box for document storage, he said, “the problem is solved. If a company is using Box, SharePoint, Dropbox, or any number of other document management systems, organizations risk producing inconsistent business decisions based on disparate data.”

In terms of the overall launch, Randall said that “there is nothing important from a technology innovation perspective. Instead, the importance lies in Box needing to launch its own generative AI function to retain competitive market share. Already, organizations are starting to leverage smaller best-of-breed solutions that offer generative AI-driven knowledgebase and document management systems alongside document information extraction and unified business intelligence. In this context, Box will likely not experience a huge drive in new customer acquisition for their generative AI features alone.”

Box said that “access to GPT-4o for products such as Box Hubs, as well as well as support for new file types including images and spreadsheets in Box AI, is planned to be available later this year and will be included in Enterprise Plus plans.”

Meanwhile, Box AI for Metadata API is now in beta for customers on Enterprise Plus plans. The company said pricing will be announced closer to general availability, along with pricing for other Box AI platform API calls and end user metadata queries in the core Box application.

Randall said that the enhancements will be a welcome addition for “Box customers and prospects already considering Box. However, Info-Tech first recommends that organizations have an AI governance strategy in place to ensure that solutions like Box AI are utilized in appropriate contexts. Organizations need to review that the data Box AI is pulling from is not inconsistent, saving the solution from hallucinating or providing incorrect responses.”

An organization’s user base, he said, “should also be trained on prompt engineering and suitable use cases. The danger is that these tools are rolled out to an untrained workforce, who then become over-reliant on generative AI and lose sight of the proper use of the solution: as an assistant only.”

Adobe wants to make it easier to store, access, and “remix” marketing assets with the addition of a new content hub in Adobe Experience Manager (AEM). 

The content hub is accessible as part of AEM Assets, Adobe’s digital asset management tool, and connects with GenStudio — a separate app for managing marketing content. Unveiled last year, GenStudio is currently in trial by customers.

The content hub has several main features.

Users can search and browse for assets using smart tags that automatically provide key terms for an image. Here, AI is used to detect the contents, such as objects featured, settings (such as “outdoors”), or colors.

Adobe’s lightweight content creation and editing app Express is integrated to make changes to existing assets. Express can be opened directly from within the content hub to make quick changes, creating variations to meet different use cases. This also enables access to Firefly generative AI features in Express that Adobe said will make it even easier to change content. 

“That becomes a really awesome tool for marketers in downstream cases to quickly make a change…without having to flip through five different software [applications],” said Haresh Kumar, senior director for strategy and product marketing for Adobe Experience Manager. Any change made to an asset can then be sent for approval before being used, he said, shortening a process that could otherwise take days.  

Within the content hub, users can also manage permissions for sensitive assets and apply governance controls to ensure AI-generated content meets brand standards. The hub also contains analytics to track asset usage across an organization and understand how content is used. 

Organizations typically store 44TB of data in their digital asset management system, according to a recent IDC survey, with another 143TB scattered across individual user devices, corporate shared drives, and social media platforms, said Marci Maddox, research vice president for digital experience strategies at IDC. 

“Adobe’s Content Hub addresses this issue by promoting reuse and reducing inadvertent duplication of creative efforts,” said Maddox. “By breaking down content silos and fostering collaboration, the content hub empowers teams to work more efficiently, leverage existing assets effectively, and ultimately, deliver a more cohesive brand experience with digital media.”

The creation of digital assets is vital for an organization to tell a “personalized, contextual and relevant story to an increasingly discerning audience,” said Liz Miller, vice president and principal analyst at Constellation Research. “It can also be pure chaos. This is why features like Content Hub are a proving to be a welcome resource for customer experience teams not traditionally part of a digital asset management workflow.”

Miller said that the hub complements the broader AEM Assets application, which serves as the “big firepower solution” when it comes to digital asset management. 

“Content Hub acknowledges that not every nail requires the biggest hammer out there,” she said. “For informal engagement hubs, they need a hammer…, just a smaller, easier one to wield.”

The Content Hub is now generally available to Adobe AEM Assets customers.

More Adobe news:

• Adobe introduces AI assistant to help enterprises exploit data held in PDFs
• Adobe to adapt terms of service on genAI training after customer backlash
• Adobe Experience Platform gets AI assistant for customer data insights

OpenAI has been testing its ChatGPT Mac desktop app among paying subscribers for the last few weeks. Now, it has opened its new desktop app to anyone with a Mac.

Coming so soon after Apple announced at WWDC that ChatGPT will be integrated within Siri and some apps across its platforms, the introduction must be a sign of the times. Apple’s decision to support ChatGPT and other generative AI (genAI) platforms across its ecosystem should expose millions of users to tools they might not have yet tried out.

A nice integration for Mac users

If you’ve already used ChatGPT on a browser or through other applications, you’ll be familiar with what it can accomplish. The smart chatbot can help get things done, source information, improve your work, and much more. (Though, as always, be careful of any hallucinations or errors that might crop up.)

The integration seems to be a solid combination of the ease-of-use of the Mac and the powerful tools within ChatGPT. In effect, that means the tools within the chatbot are easily available from almost anywhere on your Mac.

It is just the beginning, of course, as Apple has already promised deeper integration between its platforms and ChatGPT as an adjunct to Apple Intelligence. Announced at this month’s developer conference, Apple described plenty of uses for the technology, including in Writing tools.

What can the ChatGPT app do on a Mac?

In a series of short videos shared via OpenAI’s Twitter/X feed, the company described some of what you can achieve. On your Mac, the Chat GPT app can:

• Respond to the well-known and familiar Option-Space shortcut to invoke a ChatGPT query.
• Take a screenshot of a specific window or your entire screen to request feedback or advice on what is there — for example, when seeking to improve code.
• Search past ChatGPT conversations for specific items.
• Quickly and easily ask about anything on your computer using copy and paste.
• And of course, as you engage in conversation, you can refine and improve the exchange to produce more useful results.

You do gain access to standard Voice Mode (so you can speak to ChatGPT). But OpenAI has already promised a new version of Voice Mode powered by GPT-4o will be introduced in the coming weeks. That version will introduce the new audio and video capabilities introduced within GPT-4o.

“Whether you want to brainstorm a new idea for your company, prepare for an interview or have a topic you’d like to discuss, tap the headphone icon in the bottom right corner of the desktop app to start a voice conversation,” the company said.

The trickle becomes a flood

While ethical, environmental, and trust issues continue to delay the kind of rapid deployment of AI aficionados had originally anticipated, there’s little doubt usage will accelerate as platforms like Apple’s weave support inside them.

For most enterprises, this demands implementation of device management systems to help protect against unapproved use of these tools, particularly around confidential data. Apple is responding to this need with device management controls in macOS to constrain use of Apple Intelligence/OpenAI. It is already possible to manage app installs on Macs using MDM systems.

The new app is available for Apple Silicon (M-series) Macs running macOS 14 or later. Similar apps are already available for iPads and iPhones, but not Windows, where they’re expected later this year. You can download the Mac app here. 

Please follow me on Mastodon, or join me in the AppleHolic’s bar & grill and Apple Discussions groups on MeWe.

OpenAI has delayed the release of ChatGPT’s much-anticipated new Voice Mode feature, saying it needs another month” to refine the technology before offering it to a limited group of users in an alpha test.

“We had planned to start rolling this out in alpha to a small group of ChatGPT Plus users in late June, but need one more month to reach our bar to launch,” the  company said in social media platform X.

It said it “needs one more month to reach our bar to launch.”

OpenAI was more optimistic back in May, when it showcased Voice Mode during the Spring Update event at which it launched the faster and more capable GPT-4o large language model.

“We plan to launch a new Voice Mode with these new capabilities in an alpha in the coming weeks, with early access for Plus users as we roll out more broadly,” it said then, referring to users of its $20/month ChatGPT Plus subscription service.

With the introduction of GPT-4o, OpenAI said it was able to cut the voice response to time around 320 milliseconds, from 5.4 seconds for GPT-4, creating a more natural and real-time conversational experience.

Safety and scalability concerns take center stage

OpenAI gave two reasons for the launch delay: safety and scalability.

It emphasized its commitment to responsible AI development and the need for the model to effectively “detect and refuse certain content.” This suggests concerns about potential misuse of the technology for generating harmful or offensive speech.

Scalability also appears to be a hurdle. OpenAI said it aims to ensure the feature functions smoothly for millions of users while maintaining real-time responsiveness. This requires robust infrastructure capable of handling the increased processing demands.

“Exact timelines depend on meeting our high safety and reliability bar,” the company added in the post. “We are also working on rolling out the new video and screen sharing capabilities we demoed separately, and will keep you posted on that timeline.”

More competition for ChatGPT

OpenAI’s delay in Voice Mode rollout creates an interesting scenario in the burgeoning field of AI voice capabilities.

Competitors like Anthropic, with its Claude 3.5 Sonnet model, have already showcased voice-enabled interaction during demos.

Similarly, Google’s AI research arm, DeepMind, has been making strides in voice-based AI with its LaMDA language model,.

“Anthropic has joined this year’s intense AI race with models designed to compete head-on with recent announcements from OpenAI and Google,” said Neil Shah, VP for research and partner at Counterpoint Research. “Generative AI is a blue ocean opportunity, and each company, including Anthropic and OpenAI, will need to target specific use cases and segments. Anthropic, for example, is focusing on coding, writing, and workflow optimization.”

Beyond dedicated AI models, large language models such as Bard (Google AI) and Jurassic-1 Jumbo (AI21 Labs) are also constantly evolving, with some incorporating basic functionalities for voice interaction and response generation.

Even Microsoft’s Copilot programming assistant has begun to integrate voice-based guidance for developers.

OpenAI’s iterative approach: safety first

OpenAI’s decision to prioritize safety and scalability reflects a cautious yet responsible approach. Launching a powerful voice-enabled AI requires careful consideration of potential risks and ensuring the technology can handle widespread use without compromising performance.

“As part of our iterative deployment strategy, we’ll start the alpha with a small group of users to gather feedback and expand based on what we learn,” said the company.  

This iterative approach allows them to refine the model based on real-world user interactions and mitigate potential issues before a wider release.

While the delay may disappoint some users eager to experience Voice Mode, it does show a certain caution in the face of recent criticism of OpenAI’s attitude to safety. It has been working to restore confidence in that area with a series of appointments to its new safety and security committee.