Apple has always gone to great lengths to keep shroud its internal projects in secrecy, but a new report claims that this is having a detrimental effect on the development of artificial intelligence. Whereas companies like Google publish papers on their artificial intelligence research on a regular basis, Apple has yet to publish a single one, even though we know the company is investing a lot of time and money in this area. The researchers teams that are developing artificial intelligence technology for Apple are being forced to jump through hoops to preserve this secrecy, and these restrictions are scaring potential employees away from the company.
Apple’s intense levels of secrecy are preventing the company from making real leaps in the quality of its artificial intelligence, a report said on Thursday. The company for example kept a low profile at last year’s Neural Information Processing Systems conference, to the extent that its representatives wouldn’t admit who they worked for unless asked, Bloomberg observed. The company has also produced zero AI research papers so far, even though researchers at rivals like Google submit them on a regular basis. People on the company’s AI teams are told to lock their offices whenever they leave, and are kept in the dark about what similar internal teams are doing, sources said. Secrecy may also reportedly be scaring away potential hires, who could be worried about factors like work freedom and the ability to stay involved in the scientific community. Without the ability to publish papers, it can be difficult to maintain status in the research world and build on ideas. Google in fact has a new residency program dedicated to AI research and publication, geared to draw in yet more experts. Apple is at least hiring dozens of new people for AI-related work, and acquiring companies like Perceptio and VocalIQ. Rumors from AI researchers suggest that Apple may soon finally publish a research paper, but nothing else is known.
