Apple Planning to Test AI Services Using Foxconn Servers

Foxconn will exclusively supply Apple with dedicated servers for training and testing artificial intelligence services, according to Taiwan's Economic Daily News (via South China Morning Post).

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The servers are to be made in Vietnam due to Apple's plan to diversify its supply chain away from China. Foxconn currently supplies servers to Amazon, OpenAI, and Nvidia for AI applications. Foxconn is already Apple's primary supplier of data center servers.

Last month, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said that Apple was working on "Apple GPT" artificial intelligence projects that could rival OpenAI's ChatGPT. Apple does not yet have a "clear strategy" for creating a product for consumers, and while it could be planning to make a "significant" AI announcement in 2024, Gurman claims it has no concrete plans as of yet. According to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the progress of Apple's generative AI technology is significantly behind its competitors and there is no sign that the company plans to launch AI services next year.

During Apple's earnings call last week, CEO ‌Tim Cook‌ said that AI and machine learning are "core fundamental technologies integral to virtually every product" that Apple builds. AI is apparently "absolutely critical" to Apple, with Cook confirming that Apple has been investigating generative AI "for years."

Top Rated Comments

ghanwani Avatar
8 weeks ago

AI is the biggest threat to Apple's entire ecosystem.

GPT4 is demonstrating that an LLM can be your super personal assistant. And if LLMs can be your super personal assistant, your iPhone is suddenly no longer that important.

For example, need to plan and book a trip? Just tell your LLM to do it. It can even book tickets for you.

The flight is canceled and you're stranded? No problem. Ask your LLM to automatically call the flight company's customer service department to get a refund and check to see if their terms and service will provide a hotel for you. If so, have the LLM book a hotel.

None of this requires anything other than a screen, an internet connection, and your LLM personal assistant. You don't need to juggle different apps to do this. Just tell your LLM what you want. Therefore, it doesn't matter if you're using an iPhone or a $50 junk phone.
Yeah except that instead of booking the hotel in London, Kentucky it’ll book a hotel in the UK and then you’ll be stuck with paying for it because it’s too late to cancel. Not sure which world you’re living in. The one where I live, big tech cannot even get spam filtering right.

The AI bust, just like the AI boom, is gonna be epic.
Score: 30 Votes (Like | Disagree)
senttoschool Avatar
8 weeks ago

Not yet with the recently deteriorating quality of the answers.
Sure. It's still amazing. I throw a very technical document at it, ask it complicated questions, and GPT4 gets it right every time.

Maybe it isn't GPT4, maybe GPT5, or GPT6 or another company that will succeed at providing a super assistant.

Bottom line is, AI is a huge threat to Apple.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
senttoschool Avatar
8 weeks ago
AI is the biggest threat to Apple's entire ecosystem.

GPT4 is demonstrating that an LLM can be your super personal assistant. And if LLMs can be your super personal assistant, your iPhone is suddenly no longer that important.

For example, need to plan and book a trip? Just tell your LLM to do it. It can even book tickets for you.

The flight is canceled and you're stranded? No problem. Ask your LLM to automatically call the flight company's customer service department to get a refund and check to see if their terms and service will provide a hotel for you. If so, have the LLM book a hotel.

None of this requires anything other than a screen, an internet connection, and your LLM personal assistant. You don't need to juggle different apps to do this. Just tell your LLM what you want. Therefore, it doesn't matter if you're using an iPhone or a $50 junk phone.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
sw1tcher Avatar
8 weeks ago

AI is the biggest threat to Apple's entire ecosystem.
Apple's ecosystem is made up of their devices and services.

You'll still need a device to use A.I. and you're still going to buy an Apple Watch for its fitness and health tracking features.

How is A.I. going to replace an Apple sevice like Apple Pay, Card, Savings, iCloud, News, Music, TV+, etc.? Is A.I. going to make people consume less content (news, music, video, games)?


GPT4 is demonstrating that an LLM can be your super personal assistant. And if LLMs can be your super personal assistant, your iPhone is suddenly no longer that important.
You're telling me people will be using their iPhone less? People won't be browsing Facebook/Instagram, X (Twitter), TikTok, etc? People are going to be taking less pictures/videos and posting them online? People are going to give up being influencers and content creators? On the contrary, I think generative A.I. will see more people creating and editing content on their iPhones.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
bobmans Avatar
8 weeks ago

Sure. It's still amazing. I throw a very technical document at it, ask it complicated questions, and GPT4 gets it right every time.

Maybe it isn't GPT4, maybe GPT5, or GPT6 or another company that will succeed at providing a super assistant.

Bottom line is, AI is a huge threat to Apple.
"AI" in the form of LLM's aren't a huge threat to any company that has money. Everyone with enough money to purchase 10's of thousands of A100/H100 from Nvidia can easily catch up and create the next LLM that beats all the current ones.

Also, not a single company is going to release a LLM assistant like there's Google Assistant / Siri / Bixi. It's way too expensive to operate.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
lkrupp Avatar
8 weeks ago

I'm an AAPL investor. I think about competitive threats to Apple all the time. AI is the single biggest threat. It might not come to fruition. But it's currently the biggest threat.

If a company ever creates an AI super assistant, watch out.
Yes, the classic “this time it’s different” response. You are welcome to your opinion, of course.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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