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Apples AI boss, John Giannandrea, is stepping down after seven years on the job. Apples stock price got a slight boost on the news, as some investors saw Apple signaling a new urgency to bring AI to its devices. Following a transition period, Giannandrea will retire next spring, Apple said in a press release Monday. Most of Giannandreas AI group will now be tucked into Craig Fedherigis software development group, which owns development of the various operating systems in Apple devices. While the reasons for Giannandreas departure are no doubt complicated, its a wonder he lasted so long. For years, hes been linked to Apples failure to seize on generative AI to improve its Siri voice assistant and make the iPhone and other iDevices smarter and more personalized.He may have made errors in judgement. Reports said he waffled several times on the preferred architecture for Siri — on how much of the assistants AI processing should run on the device versus a server in the cloud. But its also possible that his plans for integrating AI into Apple products encountered friction from other Apple leaders, or were hampered by fears among the leadership team that generative AI would compromise user privacy or create new legal exposure. At any rate, by 2024 Apples leadership — including Tim Cook — had lost confidence that Giannandreas group could turn AI research into useful (and safe) AI features and products. Before coming to Apple, Giannandrea had been prolific as the head of search and AI at Google. Under his leadership, the search giant began relying on AI to refine its understanding of certain user-preferred search terms, in hopes of returning more relevant and useful results. He was at the helm of Googles AI efforts when its researchers invented the transformer language model architecture that sparked the generative AI boom and new apps like ChatGPT. Apple poached Giannandrea in 2018 to inject new life into its floundering AI efforts. This gave Apple the time and leadership it needed to develop its own models and inject its devices and services with new intelligence. Apple combined the Siri and AI/machine learning groups and put them under Giannandreas control, creating a single point of accountability for infusing the companys operating systems, services, and developer tools with AI. Giannandreas work during his first years at Apple was kept largely under wraps by the company. Fast Company, which had been granted meetings with the companys AI group, was repeatedly denied access to Giannandrea. As the starting gun of the generative AI revolution sounded with the release of ChatGPT in late 2022, Apple stayed largely silent and remained so even as its peers raced to develop their own large AI models and apps. Then in June 2024, Apple announced at its developer conference that it would bring Apple Intelligence” features to its devices, enabling them to offer intuitive and proactive help based on the users personal data. It also announced plans to use generative AI to create a smarter next-gen Siri. For a time, hope was restored that Apple would catch up with the AI revolution. But neither Apple Intelligence nor next-gen Siri have shown up. (Apple now says theyll arrive in 2026.) In lieu of its own AI, Apple tried to integrate OpenAIs ChatGPT into Siri, but the user experience is clunky. In March, Apple announced it would be taking Siri out of Giannandreas control and placing it inside Fedherighis software group. Just six weeks later, Apple removed its robotics research group (which it hoped would lay the groundwork for future Apple home devices) from Giannandreas AI group. Apple believes Amar Subramanya, the Microsoft executive theyve tapped to replace Giannandrea, can and will get things back on track. A 16-year veteran of Google, Subramanya led engineering for the companys Gemini Assistant. He has an impressive resume, and very likely a price tag to match. His hire, along with Giannandreas departure, should be read as Apples acknowledgment of falling behind its peers in AI — and a signal that it intends to catch up. Interestingly, it was Giannandreas departure that got top billing in the press release Apple put out Monday, not the arrival of a new AI chief in Subramanya. Apple stock got a slight bump on the announcement, closing up $4.25 (1.52%) at $283.10. Giannandreas departure is very much about what kind of tech company Apple wants to be in the long term. Does it want to develop and control its own AI models, or pay to rely on big AI models like Googles Gemini? Apple has distinct advantages with its sticky and trusting relationship with users, and control over both its software and hardware, including the chips inside the devices. Its in a unique position to leverage smaller, more specialized AI models running on those chips to deeply understand and effectively assist users. Whatever the move, you can expect to see a lot more focus and pressure within Apple to realize new AI features and a smarter Siri in iDevices.
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E-Commerce
A Pennsylvania police officer responding to a tip from the manager of a McDonald’s testified Tuesday about confronting Luigi Mangione during the intense manhunt last year for UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s killer. As soon as Mangione doffed his medical mask at the restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania, Officer Joseph Detwiler said, I knew” he was the suspect whose face had been all over the news since the shooting five days earlier on a Manhattan sidewalk. It’s him I’m not kidding. Hes real nervous, and he didnt talk too much, Detwiler told a supervisor by phone from the restaurant parking lot moments after meeting Mangione, according to the officer’s body-camera video. It was played in court Tuesday, the second day of a hearing about evidence in the case. Mangione indeed said little initially to Detwiler and another officer, giving only what turned out to be a false name, home state and driver’s license. But Detwiler testified that hed noticed the man’s fingers shaking as they interacted and officers patted him down. Over the ensuing minutes, Mangione placidly ate a hash brown as the officers waited for colleagues and claimed they were simply responding to loitering concerns at the eatery. I was trying to keep him calm, Detwiler told the court, adding that he at one point started whistling over the restaurant’s holiday-season music to make him think that nothing was different about this call than any other call. Lawyers for Mangione, 27, want to block prosecutors from showing or telling jurors at his eventual Manhattan trial about statements he allegedly made and items authorities said they seized from his backpack during his arrest. The objects include a 9 mm handgun that prosecutors say matches the one used in the killing and a notebook in which they say Mangione described his intent to wack a health insurance executive. The defense contends the items should be excluded because police didn’t get a warrant before searching Mangione’s backpack. They also want to suppress some statements Mangione made to law enforcement personnel, such as allegedly giving a false name, because officers started asking questions before telling him he had a right to remain silent. The laws concerning how police interact with potential suspects before reading their rights or obtaining search warrants are complex and often disputed in criminal cases. In Mangione’s case, crucial questions will include whether he believed he was free to leave at the point when he spoke to the arresting officers, and whether there were exigent circumstances that merited searching his backpack before getting a warrant. Detwiler testified that he never told Mangione he couldn’t leave, nor mentioned the New York shooting. Defense lawyers, however, have argued in court filings that officers strategically stood in a way that prevented him from leaving. Mangione, the Ivy League-educated scion of a wealthy Maryland family, has pleaded not guilty to state and federal murder charges. The state charges carry the possibility of life in prison, while federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Neither trial has been scheduled. Mangiones lawyers want to bar evidence from both cases, but this weeks hearing pertains only to the state case. Manhattan prosecutors haven’t yet laid out their arguments for allowing the disputed evidence. Their federal counterparts have said in court filings that police were justified in searching the backpack to ensure there were no dangerous items and that Mangione’s statements to officers were voluntary and made before he was under arrest. Five witnesses testified on Monday, including a Pennsylvania prison officer who said Mangione told him that, when arrested, he had a backpack with foreign currency and a 3D-printed pistol. Surveillance video showed a masked gunman shooting Thompson from behind as the executive walked to a midtown Manhattan hotel for his companys annual investor conference on Dec. 4, 2024. Prosecutors say delay, deny and depose were written on the ammunition, mimicking a phrase insurance industry critics use to describe how companies avoid paying claims. Thompson, 50, worked at the giant UnitedHealth Group for 20 years and became CEO of its insurance arm in 2021. He was married and had children who were in high school. Jennifer Peltz, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
Students applying to college know they cantor at least shouldntuse AI chatbots to write their essays and personal statements. So it might come as a surprise that some schools are now using artificial intelligence to read them. AI tools are now being incorporated into how student applications are screened and analyzed, admissions directors say. It can be a delicate topic, and not all colleges are eager to talk about it, but higher education is among the many industries where artificial intelligence is rapidly taking on tasks once reserved for humans. In some cases, schools are quietly slipping AI into their evaluation process, experts say. Others are touting the technologys potential to speed up their review of applications, cut processing times, and even perform some tasks better than humans. Humans get tired; some days are better than others. The AI does not get tired. It doesnt get grumpy. It doesnt have a bad day. The AI is consistent, says Juan Espinoza, vice provost for enrollment management at Virginia Tech. This fall, Virginia Tech is debuting an AI-powered essay reader. The college expects it will be able to inform students of admissions decisions a month sooner than usual, in late January, because of the tool’s help sorting tens of thousands of applications. Colleges stress they are not relying on AI to make admissions decisions, using it primarily to review transcripts and eliminate data-entry tasks. But artificial intelligence also is playing a role in evaluating students. Some highly selective schools are adopting AI tools to vet the increasingly curated application packages that some students develop with the help of high-priced admissions consultants. The California Institute of Technology is launching an AI tool this fall to look for authenticity in students who submit research projects with their applications, admissions director Ashley Pallie said. Students upload their research to an AI chatbot that interviews them about it on video, which is then reviewed by Caltech faculty. Its a gauge of authenticity. Can you claim this research intellectually? Is there a level of joy around your project? That passion is important to us, Pallie said. The prevalence of AI usage is difficult to gauge because it is such a new trend, said Ruby Bhattacharya, chair of the admission practices committee at the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC). NACAC updated its ethics guide this fall to add a section on artificial intelligence. It urges colleges to ensure the way they use it aligns with our shared values of transparency, integrity, fairness and respect for student dignity. Some schools have faced blowback over using AI The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) faced a barrage of negative feedback from applicants, parents, and students after its student newspaper, The Daily Tar Heel, reported in January the school was using AI to evaluate the grammar and writing style of applicants’ essays. The university declined to comment for this article and referred to its admissions website, which it updated after the criticism. UNC uses AI programs to provide data points about students common application essay and their school transcripts, the website says. Every application is evaluated comprehensively by extensively trained human application evaluators. At Virginia Tech, Espinoza said he has been contacted by several colleges that are interested in the new technology but wary of backlash. The feedback from a lot of colleagues is, You roll this out, were watching you, and well see how everyones reacting, he said. He stressed the AI reader his school spent three years developing is being used only to confirm human readers’ essay scores. Until this fall, each of the four short-answer essays Virginia Tech applicants submit was read and scored by two people. Under the new system, one of those readers is the AI model, which has been trained on past applicant essays and the rubric for scoring, Espinoza said. A second person will step in if the AI and human reader disagree by more than 2 points on a 12-point scoring scale. Like many colleges, Virginia Tech has seen a huge increase in applications since making SATs optional. Last year, it received a record 57,622 applications for its 7,000-seat freshman class. Even with 200 essay readers, the school has struggled to keep up and found itself notifying students later and later. The AI tool can scan about 250,000 essays in under an hour, compared with a human reader who averages two minutes per essay. Based on last years application pool, Were saving at least 8,000 hours, Espinoza said. Colleges see benefits of AI tools for applicants The messaging is sensitive for colleges, many of which now have students certify that they have not used AI unethically for essays and other parts of the application. But schools say AI tools can help admissions offices eliminate errors in tasks like uploading transcripts and can simplify the process for students. Georgia Tech this fall is rolling out an AI tool to review the college transcripts of transfer students, replacing the need for staff to enter each course manually into a database. It will allow the school to inform applicants more quickly how many transfer credits they’ll receive, cutting down on uncertainty and wait times, said Richard Clark, the school’s executive director of enrollment management. Its one more layer of delay and stress and inevitable errors. AI is going to kill that, which Im so excited about, Clark said. The school hopes to expand the service soon to all high school transcripts. Georgia Tech also is testing out AI tools for other uses, including one that would identify low-income students who are eligible for federal Pell Grants but may not have realized it. Stony Brook University in New York is also using artificial intelligence to review applicants’ transcripts and testing AI tools for a variety of tasks, like summarizing student essays and letters of recommendation to highlight things an admissions officer should consider, said Richard Beatty, the schools senior associate provost for enrollment management. Maybe a student was fighting a disease sophomore year. Or maybe a parent passed away, or theyre taking care of siblings at home. All these things matter, and it allows the counselors to look at the transcript differently, Beatty said. Colleges are interested in AI summaries of transcripts, extracurricular activities nd letters of recommendation that tell human readers the students story in a more digestible way, said Emily Pacheco, founder of NACACs special interest group for AI and admission. Humans and AI working togetherthat is the key right now. Every step along the way can be greatly improved: transcript reading, essay reviews, telling us things we might be missing about the students, said Pacheco, a former assistant director of admission at Loyola University Chicago. Ten years from now, all bets are off. Im guessing AI will be admitting students. ___ The Associated Press education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find APs standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org. Jocelyn Gecker, AP education writer
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