Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) researchers have made significant progress in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). The iPhone maker published its latest research detailing new techniques for training large language models (LLMs) using text and images, potentially leading to more powerful and flexible AI systems.
What Happened: The new methods, outlined in a research paper titled "MM1: Methods, Analysis & Insights from Multimodal LLM Pre-training," were quietly released on arxiv.org. The paper details how combining various training data and model architectures can result in top-notch performance across various AI benchmarks.
The researchers found that a diverse dataset incorporating visual and linguistic information was crucial for the MM1 models to excel at tasks such as image captioning, visual question answering, and natural language inference.
Interestingly, researchers found that the image's resolution also played an important role in the quality of the AI model's output. The higher the resolution, the better the quality of the data and, therefore, the output generated.
Apple has been intensifying its investments in AI to keep up with competitors like Alphabet Inc.'s (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) Google, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT), and Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), which have been integrating generative AI capabilities into their products.
The company is reportedly on track to spend $1 billion annually on AI development.
However, Apple is reportedly in talks with Google to license its Gemini model to power generative AI features on iPhones.
Why It Matters: Apple's recent AI advancements align with its ongoing efforts to enhance its AI capabilities.
The company has been quietly acquiring startups to bolster its AI division.
In February, CEO Tim Cook's first mention of AI during the December quarter earnings call had Wedbush's Dan Ives excited about the iPhone maker's prospects going forward. Ives believes Apple is entering a "new growth cycle," with AI and iPhone being its primary growth drivers.
Apple's plan to bolster the integration of generative AI technology into iPhones is part of the company's larger aim to improve its devices' capabilities and spur innovation in the tech sector.
The company's recent hardware innovations, such as the M3 Max processor for MacBooks and the S9 chip in Apple Watch, indicate its AI ambitions.
The iPhone 15 Pro's A17 Pro chip features a neural engine, accelerating AI processes. Apple's breakthrough in running LLMs on-device using Flash memory facilitates faster, offline data processing.
Price Action: Apple stock closed at $172.63 on Friday, up 0.01%, according to Benzinga Pro.