“Apple’s Wit: Transforming the iPhone with a Twist of Generative AI!”

“Apple Intelligence Will Infuse the iPhone With Generative AI”

“In most respects, those small, inscrutable text strings have been a smashing success. But Apple’s move also underlines an uncomfortable truth about the modern web: Your privacy comes at a price, and for once, tech’s ad behemoths aren’t footing the bill.”

True, when Apple decided to put their charming size-12 boot into the otherwise cheerful world of data harvesting, there were shockwaves. Yet, it also exposed a grim reality of the web today – you’re paying in greenbacks for what seems like an ‘invisible’ commodity. And contrary to popular belief, our darling tech tycoons are no longer picking up the tab.

The announcement that came from iOS14 was indeed shocking – getting one’s privacy back – an unthinkable precept indeed. It was like going home and finding that the very house key you’ve handed out to half the neighborhood had suddenly changed its shape and form. It was a cold jolt for the possessors of those keys, (many of whom have minted considerable fortunes from, let’s just say – a ‘liberal’ use of the keys), to learn that they were locked out and left listlessly staring at the closed door.

Even for Apple, this was an audacious move, subtly redefining the silent contract between Big Tech and users. The message was clear as vodka: the days of rote acceptance of data extraction (yes, data, the new oil of our brave digital age), were unceremoniously coming to an end.

We can only imagine how this paradigm shift caused some bowels to churn among Silicon Valley’s advertising gods. Those worshiped at the altar of user data to fuel their ad enterprise. Apple chose to side with its users by invalidating this ‘heresy’ and cost industry leaders like Facebook and Google a punch below the belt.

Indeed, the verdict is out that privacy comes at a price. But for once, the ones having to scramble to make ends meet aren’t the harmless subjects of data mining but the miners themselves, the tech titans. ‘How tragic!’ – might one mutter as they sip on a cup of tea, basking in the warm, fuzzy feeling of privacy.

In the grand narrative of the Data Age, Apple’s move seems like robbing from the rich and giving to the poor. A proverbial Robin Hood for the internet age, which ironically, has left more than a few merry men unnerved.

Indeed, if we ever chanced on a trembling pixel on our screen, we will now know whom to credit for its jitter.

Read the original article here: https://www.wired.com/story/apple-intelligence-ios-wwdc/