Why Apple Intelligence will grab hearts and minds

If personal privacy remains a human right, one day Apple’s approach to artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI (genAI) will be emulated by the industry, at least to some extent. Because Apple is going where public opinion already is and will benefit from that stance with Apple Intelligence.

This view comes after Ive looked over the 10th Mobile Ecosystem Forum (MEF) Consumer Trust Study, which shows a growing public consciousness around data collection, use, and privacy. And it also tells us that people trust the companies that handle their data less and less.

Tech firms, consumers don’t trust you any more

This should be alarming at this stage of the evolution of AI and shows the clear advantage Apple has as it works to create a trusted, private, powerful model of personal AI. The idea of edge-based, completely private intelligence seems to reflect what users want, rather than feeding the fast-growing industry around surveillance capital.

Apple’s core message about personal privacy — and its recognition that if you are giving up control of your data to use a product, you are the product — were ahead of their time when the company began to promote those thoughts. And now, it is precisely where consumers are going.

Apple’s attempt to deliver a trusted AI may be difficult to accomplish, but the company has already shown a pragmatic awareness of how to get there. Yes, you can use third-party services with Apple Intelligence if you want. But the company will also provide far more private services you can use for specific domains. 

I expect the goal is that eventually the tasks people most want genAI to do for them will be available at the edge, or in trusted iCloud.

What’s changed? 

Convenience isn’t as attractive as it used to be. MEF tells us consumers are less convinced by arguments around ease and convenience and far more likely to question the hidden privacy costs of so-called “free” services. That consciousness means they are searching for and will migrate to trusted services offering high degrees of privacy and control. 

At present in Big Tech, only Apple really provides this.

There are numerous additional relevant insights buried in the MEF report:

• The rise of the “Savvy Consumer” — people who are cautious about data sharing and demand greater control and transparency. They want to be in control of their own data. 
• Consumers are becoming more aware of how data is collected and used and less happy to share their information. Just 12% of online users are unconcerned about data control, and that number is shrinking.
• People are also increasingly concerned about identity theft and data breaches, which once again makes them less likely to share information.  MEF claims 67% of users globally avoid sharing personal data.
• Consumers want clear privacy policies and transparent tools that put them in control of the information they share.
• In the absence of these tools, people limit what they share in an attempt to control what’s known about them. This is a direct challenge to businesses that exploit personal data, particularly for advertising, and for some of the emerging business models around those.

So, where does this leave Apple and AI?

Consumers understand the link between data and privacy

The MEF survey makes it crystal clear that the frontier era of internet privacy has moved into history. While a lot of people became super-rich through various velvet-gloved business plans that involved privacy abuse, the lack of security, care, transparency and respect for consumers has had its cost; people now demand better.

It is true that users continue to be concerned at the overarching power of Big Tech (including Apple), the need to prevent proliferation of harmful content, and a desire to eliminate misleading advertising. But consumers are now also developing awareness of the connection between AI and data privacy.

That they have developed such awareness should be an alarm to incumbents in this space, as that recognition will translate into changing consumer behavior and regulation in double-quick time. It also means Apple’s unique combination of privacy and convenience looks a lot better than what rivals are doing.

People have become ambivalent about technology

MEF tells us the awareness of the challenges of data and privacy is fostering a deep sense of disappointment in technology on an existential level. “Levels of positivity towards tech advancements have stopped increasing, and most users felt either ambivalent or negative towards developments such as artificial intelligence and virtual reality,” MEF said in its executive report.

That’s a bad thing for tech, even for Apple. It’s probably an inevitable disappointment, as utopian promises devolve into increasingly dystopian reality. “The focus is on collaboratively building the next paradigm for a data economy that prioritizes user trust and data control,” wrote MEF CEO Dario Betti.

And which company is already doing more than any other to build something like that? Apple, of course, which has been on precisely this journey since Apple CEO Tim Cook delivered a speech in the EU to warn: “This is surveillance,” and the company intensified its work to build a data economy that prioritizes user trust and data control.

It is fair to say Apple has faced resistance since it set off on this path. Being ahead of your time can generate headwinds. But enterprise and consumer users are catching up fast.

The industry will need to keep up

A pro-privacy, pro-data protection approach will be a key stratagem to put wind under the wings of Apple Intelligence. But it is also the approach consumer and enterprise users will demand from all services in this space.

In this, Apple is already ahead of the game.

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More by Jonny Evans:

• RCS now works on iPhones running the iOS 18 beta
• Where does Apple Intelligence come from?
• Will Apple stop at Messages via Satellite?