Per Bloomberg, Apple Pivoting Resources from Apple Car to Generative AI Projects
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, The Tech Oversight Project issued the following statement slamming Apple for ending its long-rumored Apple Car project and shifting those resources to generative AI projects. Per Bloomberg’s reporting, the decision was shared by Apple’s COO Jeff Williams, and many of the employees working on the Apple Car would be shifted to the artificial intelligence division. Those employees will “will focus on generative AI projects, an increasingly key priority for the company.”
The announcement comes as the company is under investigation by the Department of Justice for potential antitrust violations that have resulted in higher prices for iOS users, decreased security, and stifled competition across the digital economy.
“While some in Cupertino will try to spin this announcement as a non-story about eliminating a non-profitable project, the fact of the matter is that Apple is trading a potential monopoly in automotive for a guaranteed one in artificial intelligence,” said Sacha Haworth, Executive Director of the Tech Oversight Project. “From our text messages to our location data, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that Apple going all-in on mass surveillance and tracking is not only deeply problematic, it also gives the company an unfair advantage in the AI marketplace. It means that our most personal data will be used to train AI models that people never opted into in the first place. Apple claims to be a leader in privacy, but this announcement proves that there is a massive difference between clever marketing campaigns and the company’s actual business decisions. This announcement raises very real concerns about what data Apple is using to train its AI models, and they will need to answer to lawmakers, regulators, and the American people.”
Background:
- In 2023, France’s data protection authority CNIL fined Apple €8 million for privacy violations. The regulator found that the U.S. tech giant did not “obtain the consent of French iPhone users (iOS 14.6 version) before depositing and/or writing identifiers used for advertising purposes on their terminals.
- In 2019, Apple was caught letting contractors listen to commands that users give to its voice assistant Siri. Apple does not offer the ability to use Siri without users’ voices getting saved to its servers.
- According to a report by independent researchers, Apple collects extremely detailed information on you with its own apps even when you turn off tracking – a direct contradiction of Apple’s own description of how the privacy protection works.
- A Washington Post investigation into the iPhone’s tracking protections found that they were “nowhere nearly as comprehensive as Apple’s advertising might suggest.”
- In 2019, the Wall Street Journal found that 79 out of 80 of the iPhone apps they tested for tracking properties had an average of four trackers each.
- Apple has known for years that apps on the app store were scamming iPhone users out of millions of dollars, yet failed to stop them from invading the app store.
- According to the Washington Post, of the 1,000 highest-grossing apps on the App Store, nearly 2 percent are scams.
- A review from Forbes found that scam apps and fleeceware were rampant on the app store.
- In 2021, it was found that some scam apps on Apple’s app store made millions of dollars and even stayed up on the marketplace for years.