Apple vs. Google: Who will be the leader in AI?

If, like me, you think of the tech market as a competition between major companies like Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Samsung, then some of the new products Google announced at its I/O developer conference this week will affect the current competitive landscape.

As the world's second largest mobile operating system supplier, Apple will be the biggest victim of Google's artificial intelligence (AI) technology development. At the same time, many people are looking forward to what AI technology Apple will show at the WWDC developer conference on June 5.

In this developer conference season (Microsoft just held its 2017 Build developer conference), it is clear that all major technology companies are looking for ways to incorporate AI into their products. Specifically, scientists and engineers at these companies are training computers to learn to "speak and see" through technologies such as natural language processing and machine vision.

At Google's developer conference, many new products have taken advantage of AI in some form. For example, Google Lens, an AI image recognition technology, is like a pair of eyes for Google Assistant, which is used to identify and analyze photos taken by users, so that Google Assistant can perform corresponding tasks based on this data.

In addition to being a practical tool, Google Lens can also bring business opportunities to Google. For example, a restaurant can pay Google to display marketing ads on the storefront pictures seen by Google Lens. Over time, I believe that Google Assistant will bring more applications in computer vision.

In addition, Google Photos uses AI to select the best photos taken by users, mark them, and even recommend which friends you should share these photos with (based on the analysis and recognition of the people in the photos). Another feature of Google Photos is to let photos appear on other people's Google Photos applications, also based on the recognition of the people in the photos.

For many users, these new features of Google Photos are very useful because they solve a very common problem: people often have a lot of photos stored on their phones, which take up a lot of space but are never actually used.

Avi Greengart, an analyst at research firm Global Data, said that at the upcoming WWDC developer conference, Apple is likely to show how to further integrate AI into its own photo app to solve the same problem that Google just solved.

Apples to Apples (Comparison)

Right now, Google appears to be ahead of Apple in delivering useful AI experiences.

The comparison between Google AI and Apple AI is significant because both companies want their apps and services to appear on as many user screens as possible every day. The battleground for the two companies is the more than 1 billion iOS devices in the world, and Apple hopes that these devices will stimulate users to consume its digital services. Its goal is to double the size of its digital services business in the next four years.

Carolina Milanesi, an analyst at research firm Tech Knowledge, said that if Google uses more advanced AI to develop more attractive applications and services, it will inevitably damage Apple's business. By then, a large number of iPhone users may abandon Apple applications and switch to Google applications and services. Apple does not want to be just a hardware company, but wants to provide a comprehensive experience, including software and services.

Now, iPhone users have a new choice. At the I/O conference, Google announced that its Google Assistant now supports the iOS platform. Previously, Google has launched a number of applications for the iOS platform, such as the Allo messaging application.

Apples and Oranges (Comparison)

Siri is clearly behind other digital assistants, both in its ability to understand and act on what it hears, but Siri is only one aspect of AI, and it’s not accurate to say that Apple is lagging in the field based on that.

At WWDC, Apple may announce AI capabilities for Photos, Maps and Messages apps to solve real-world problems, but the way it uses AI may be different from Google and other companies.

Patrick Moorhead, an analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, a research firm, said that Apple would not be forced to launch new products or services simply because of competitive pressure, and Apple rarely did so before. Apple has many people researching AI, so it is believed that Apple will think carefully about which products and services to integrate AI into and how to integrate it.

Of course, Apple is unlikely to promote its AI as loudly as Google. After all, Google is a software and service company, while Apple is hardware-based. Therefore, Apple is likely to focus on using AI to solve some practical problems rather than emphasizing its technological foundation.

Apple vs. Google

One of Google's advantages in the field of AI is that it has access to a large amount of user data through applications such as Google Docs, Gmail and Google Calendar. Within the scope of privacy concerns, Google can use as much of this user data as possible to help Google Assistant become an expert in the user's life. This is just like a real-life human assistant. The more he learns, the more valuable he becomes.

For example, the Google Assistant running on a Google Home smart speaker can tell you that traffic is heavy to your next destination and remind you to allocate more time. It might also know that a flight mentioned in your email is delayed and remind you.

In contrast, Apple is relatively cautious in collecting user data due to privacy and security concerns. From the perspective of protecting privacy, Apple's move is undoubtedly a role model. However, this may limit Apple's ability to use the necessary information to improve Siri.

However, Apple has far more control over chips than Google. Apple is particularly good at optimizing its own chips, so it can make better use of the computing power of its devices, which leaves Google far behind, and it needs to rely on third-party Android devices. Of course, some AI calculations can be done in the cloud, but this takes time and increases security risks.

After watching Google unveil the AI ​​capabilities of its Assistant at I/O, we realized that it’s not enough to have technical prowess, but also to be able to use it properly. Google has released some products in the past that were technically impressive but not practical, such as Google Wave and Google Glass.

Apple doesn’t need to be better than Google in terms of pure AI technology, but it needs to better understand how to use AI to improve people’s lives and then combine it with its own AI technology to beat Google.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.