Apple’s desire to compete with companies like Facebook and Google in terms of artificial intelligence research is being hurt by… (drum roll) its obsessive secrecy, according to a new report.
Noted neural network researcher Yoshua Bengio says that Apple has started attending big conferences such as the Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS) conference in Montreal, but tends to keep a low profile. This is in stark contrast with companies such as Google, Microsoft, Facebook and even the Chinese search company Baidu, all of which are scheduled to present research papers at this year’s event.
“Apple is off the scale in terms of secrecy,” Richard Zemel, a professor in the computer science department at the University of Toronto, tells Bloomberg. “They’re completely out of the loop.”
Not wanting to publish papers is only one thing that hurts Apple in the eyes of AI researchers. Another recent report suggests that Apple’s user privacy policy is getting in the way of Apple recruiting some AI students — since they want access to the kind of data Apple doesn’t collect about its customers.
While Apple is gradually recruiting more AI staff (its website lists 42 jobs mentioning artificial intelligence, and 120 which include the words “machine learning”) and is also reportedly set to publish a paper on AI, it’s clear that there’s a lot of catching up to do.
In other words, we’re still a long way from the Cupertino version of Skynet. iNet, anyone?
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
16 responses to “Apple’s secrecy is damaging its AI research”
I’d say its more like their secrecy is hampering other peoples AI development.
In what sense?
In the sense that the world + their dog loves copying from Apple.
Depends on who and what you are referring to, Google AI programme is leagues ahead of Apple and everyone knows that and certainly Google is not copying Apple on the AI front.
What am I missing here? Two people are doing research. One discovers A, and the other discovers B. Both go to a conference. The first person presents his findings, or A, while the other person doesn’t share his research, he just watches the first person present. Now when they go home, the first person still just knows about discovery A, while the second, secretive person, knows both A and B.
This guy, Yoshua Bengio, just wants to know what Apple is working on! I would to, if I was him.
The secrecy approach works in the business community but in science and research it does not.
Pure researchers and scientists do not believe in secrecy, they believe in sharing findings and learnings which helps the growth of a particular field.
You have ignored my logical statement and provided me with your belief that “pure” researchers and scientists (whatever pure means) do not believe in secrecy. Which is “pure” horse puckey by the way. Have you ever met an academic? Any worth their salt are highly competitive, and many are ultra secretive with their research. Its nice to pretend the world is all sunshine and rainbows but that ain’t the world we live in.
And none of what you said relays to the original premise that Apples secrecy is hurting them… in fact you admit that “the secrecy approach works in the business community”.
Nice try. I think your mom is calling you for dinner.
If think you’re missing the fact that person B is not a robot but a human being, a person that given the field is very likely to be a trained scientists. Thus he will hate the idea of not able the share and discuss his own ideas and findings with his collegues and participate actively in the flourishing field. Not everybody will feel this need, but many will, especially in the acamedic environment of machine learning and deep learning.
Apple AI secrecy is not hampering anyone unless you arent observant or understand AI implications and everyday use
Google AI is way ahead of Apple.
Isn’t the entire conversation premised on the fact that Apple’s AI is shrouded in secrecy? How would you know if they are behind or ahead? Its secret. Right?
Do you even know the present application of AI as it is now, AI is what powers Siri and Google Now/Google on tap….
So you want to tell me that Siri application/integration on IOS is better than Google Now application on Android or even Cortana??
Everyone knows Siri lags behind both…
Your kind of an id10T, aren’t you? As if Siri and Google Now represent the cusp of AI technology. You want to turn this into a Google good, Apple bad argument, but this is about whether Apples secrecy is hurting them in the AI field. It has nothing to do with todays Google Now or Siri.
Yes, i agree……Apple must be doing it wrong….that’s why they keep making all the big bucks while the rest struggle.
It would seem like that by not publishing papers or presenting apple isn’t keeping itself out of the loop. It’s just observing it’s competition in silence.
Exactly.
The folks making this claim about Apple’s AI efforts clearly have an agenda…