The rumors are getting stronger and everything points to the imminent arrival (iOS 18) of AI functions to our devices along with Siri and surely implemented within other applications. The latest reinforcement of these rumors is the use of an AI app called “Ask” (question, being an imperative verb) that Apple would have distributed among some of its employees dedicated to AppleCare to generate answers using data from its own database. That is, they are training their AI for AppleCare with this application.
That Apple is betting big this year on introducing AI into its systems no longer seems like a secret, even Tim Cook spoke about how excited he was about the legacy of Generative AI in 2024. Despite this, Nothing is official, nothing has been announced from Cupertino in this regard. However, Apple's AI is simmering and we will be able to see it at WWDC this June.
According to reports from MacRumors, Apple has already launched this pilot program in which the "Ask" app would provide support to employees specializing in AppleCare. This application would automatically generate answers to technical questions based on information from Apple's internal database.
Ask generates a different answer each time you ask it based on how you ask your question and the data you provide (such as the operating system or the affected device itself). The employees themselves would be training the AI by marking whether the response has been helpful or not for their functions.
"Hallucinations", literally translated from Hallucinations in English, are usually a problem in generative language models. It's just a nice way of saying that chatbots tend to make things up and tell them to you with great confidence, making it seem like they're the truth. The “Ask” tool reportedly tries to prevent this behavior training only with its internal database and with additional checks that guarantee that the responses are “objective, traceable and useful.”
There is less and less left to have this technology on our iPhone, iPads or Macs. Siri improvement is (finally) near. We will be able to generate and edit photos much easier and faster. A very nice year is coming for Software and for the possibilities that we are going to have with our devices.