Finally, Apple wants to use your iCloud data to improve AI

Apple updated the iOS 10.3 beta version this week, and an interesting clause may have been overlooked by many people.

Leifeng.com learned that the new beta version of iOS has an option that asks users whether they can share iCloud data to help the company improve software products such as the voice virtual assistant Siri.

The notification about this change appeared under the terms of "iCloud Analytics & Privacy", which stated that the data chosen to be shared with Apple will be protected by privacy protection data, and Apple will put privacy first while strengthening AI.

In the public eye, Apple has lagged behind rivals like Google in developing machine learning-driven technologies and embedding them into software and services to provide more personalized experiences because it prioritizes privacy and does not routinely exploit users' personal data.

This is great from a privacy perspective and puts Apple in stark contrast to its competitors, but Apple is facing increasing competitive pressure, especially when it comes to developing software that provides personalized experiences, which often uses machine learning and AI technologies. As hardware growth slows, Apple is under increasing pressure to innovate services, and it needs smarter , more predictive and personalized products based on machine learning. One of the problems is that artificial intelligence needs to be fed by data.

One compromise Apple has adopted is to blur the raw data to a certain extent, and then analyze usage trends in the cloud to draw some broader conclusions.

Leifeng.com (Official Account: Leifeng.com) has reported that Apple introduced its data obfuscation technology called differential privacy at WWDC in 2016, and it is now one of the ways to handle iCloud data. The first batch of applications that have been enhanced by AI and use differential privacy methods include iMessage, Spotlight search, and memos, which can achieve input prediction or more targeted ranking of search results.

In iOS 10.3, Apple wants to use user data on the iCloud cloud storage service, but not to improve iCloud, but to improve services such as the Siri voice assistant. Apple also pointed out in the terms of service that users can choose not to share at any time. Apple is likely to hope that the analysis of a large amount of iCloud data can help improve voice recognition capabilities and enhance the results provided by the voice assistant.

Siri was launched at the same time as the iPhone 4s, which was quite early, and the entire industry was in its early stages of development. But now voice assistants are a highly competitive field, with Google, Microsoft, and Amazon all having their own services, and users' interest in voice products is also increasing. Obtaining a good data source is undoubtedly the key to improving the intelligence of AI assistants.

iCloud can synchronize calendars, emails, memos, reminders, photos, contacts, and even information from communication apps like WhatsApp . There is so much data that Apple can use to make Siri smarter.

While Google has been applying differential privacy technology through its RAPPOR project, Apple’s push is undoubtedly more extensive. It is fair to say that Apple is the first company to integrate differential privacy algorithms so comprehensively into its products.