iOS 18’s ‘big feature’ is reportedly being made with Google’s help, here’s everything we know
Apple announced the launch of a suite of artificial intelligence features called Apple Intelligence at its WWDC 2024 conference this year. These features are expected to debut with iOS 18 in the upcoming iPhone 16 series, however, beta updates suggest that Apple users will have to wait for the AI features. As some of the Apple Intelligence features are made available to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max users with the iOS 18.1 developer beta, a new report has revealed how Apple’s big rival Google helped the company create these AI tools.
Apple trusts Google
According to a recent Reuters report, Apple used chips made by Google rather than those made by market leader Nvidia to develop two essential elements of its artificial intelligence software infrastructure that will be used in its upcoming AI feature set.
Apple’s move to trust Google’s cloud infrastructure is surprising, given that Nvidia is known for making high-end, in-demand AI processors. After factoring in other cloud computing chip companies like Google and Amazon, Nvidia is said to hold about 80% of the market share.
According to Reuters, Apple’s newly published research paper does not outright deny its use of Nvidia chips. However, it does not mention Nvidia anywhere in the details of the software and hardware infrastructure used to build the AI features. The company declined to comment after the paper was published.
The Cupertino-based tech giant said it used two types of Google’s tensor processors [TPU] assembled into a large chip cluster. It uses 2,048 TPUv5p chips to develop AI models that will run on iPhones and other devices.
Apple used 8,192 TPUv4 processors to build AI models for its servers. Nvidia is not the designer of the TPU, but rather a developer of graphics processing units, or GPUs, widely used for AI tools. While Nvidia sells its chips and systems as standalone products, Google sells access to the TPU through its Google Cloud Platform. Consumers interested in purchasing access to the TPU are required to develop software using Google’s cloud computing platform to use the chip.
Reuters reported on Apple’s reliance on TPU in June, but the exact extent of Google’s hardware reliance was revealed after Apple’s research paper was published. Apple revealed that it could produce larger and more advanced models using Google’s chips than the ones mentioned in the paper.
Apple revealed a slew of upcoming AI features during its developer conference in June. The company also hinted at integrating OpenAI’s ChatGPT technology into its software.
