Earlier this year, Apple added dozens of new jobs focused on engineers and scientists working with artificial intelligence. To spice things up further, the company recently added a new job opening to its website – this time specifically looking for software engineers with knowledge of generative AI and mixed reality environments.

Apple wants engineers to work with Generative AI

As noted by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the new position explicitly says that the engineer needs to have experience in Machine Learning and an interest in Conversational and Generative AI. Such technologies are behind tools like ChatGPT, which have become quite popular recently.

In a recent call with investors, Apple CEO Tim Cook agreed that generative AI is “more than the topic of the day” and said that such technology “is certainly very interesting.” But at the same time, Cook warned that such AIs have “issues that need to be sorted.”

The New York Times reported earlier this year that Apple engineers are testing “language-generating concepts” for Siri. 9to5Mac found references to corroborate this report in the tvOS 16.4 code, the software that powers both Apple TV and Apple’s smart speaker HomePod. Still, everything is very experimental at this point and it’s unclear when we’ll see this new AI-based Siri in real life.

The mixed reality headset

But while Apple working with AI is not exactly a surprise, this new job opening corroborates another rumor – that the company is about to announce its first mixed reality headset. The job description says that the engineer “will be leveraging innovative models to build applications on top of Apple’s most advanced technologies, while developing your expertise in Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR).”

Apple’s first Reality Pro headset is expected to be an ultra-premium product priced at around $3,000. It will feature top-of-the-line specifications, including an “innovative three-display configuration” with two 4K Micro-LED panels. The Reality Pro headset will allow users to switch between AR and VR modes, a feature that will be integral to the xrOS software.

Back in January, The Information reported that Apple wants people to be able to create their own apps on the headset using Siri. Having a generative AI would make this possible. While the headset is expected to be introduced next week at WWDC 2023, a new version of Siri based on AI models may take a little longer to see the light of day.

 

 

Source - 9to5Mac