Apple Inc.’s Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams said on Monday that the company sees its mobile devices as a major platform for artificial intelligence in the future.
Later this week, Apple will begin taking pre-orders for its new iPhone X, which starts at $999 and uses artificial intelligence (AI) features embedded in its latest A11 chips.
The phone promises new facial recognition features, such as Face ID, which uses a mathematical model of a person’s face to allow the user to sign on to their phones or pay for goods with a steady glance at their phones.
“We think that the frameworks that we’ve got, the ‘neural engines’ we’ve put in the phone, in the watch … we do view that as a huge piece of the future; we believe these frameworks will allow developers to create apps that will do more and more in this space, so we think the phone is a major platform,” Williams said.
He was speaking at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, a top chip manufacturer, ’s 30th-anniversary celebration in Taipei, attended by global tech executives.
Williams said technological innovations, especially involving the cloud and on-device processing, will improve life without sacrificing privacy or security.
“I think we’re at an inflexion point, with on-device computing, coupled with the potential of AI, to really change the world,” he said.
He said AI could be used to change how healthcare is delivered, an industry he sees as “ripe” for change.
Williams said Apple’s integration of artificial intelligence wouldn’t be limited to mobile phones.
“Some pieces will be done in data centres, some will be on the device, but we are already doing AI in the broader sense of the word, not the ‘machines thinking for themselves’ version of AI,” he said, referring to the work of Nvidia Corp, a leader in AI.
Global tech firms such as Facebook, Alphabet Inc., Amazon, and China’s Huawei are spending heavily to develop and offer AI-powered services and products in search of new growth drivers.
On Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Softbank Group Corp, which has significantly invested in artificial intelligence, plans a second Vision Fund that could be about $200 billion.
TSMC Chairman Morris Chang described his company’s relationship with Apple at Monday’s event as “intense.”
Williams said the relationship started in 2010 when Apple launched the iPhone 4, and both parties took on substantial risk.
He credited Chang for TSMC’s “huge” capital investment to ramp up faster than the pace the industry was used to at the time. Apple decided to have 100 per cent of its new iPhone and iPad chips for application processors sourced at TSMC, and TSMC invested $9 billion to bring up its Tainan fab in a record 11 months, he said. (Reuters)
