Apple is quietly ramping up its synthetic intelligence efforts with a hiring push for a brand new inner group known as the Solutions, Information, and Info (AKI) staff. Fashioned earlier this yr, the staff is engaged on constructing what’s being described as an “reply engine”, a system designed to offer extra useful, context-aware responses to person queries, very similar to ChatGPT.
The AKI team sits on the centre of Apple’s renewed deal with AI throughout its ecosystem, particularly inside Siri, Safari, and Highlight. It’s led by Robby Walker, a senior director who now experiences on to Apple’s AI chief, John Giannandrea. Walker beforehand headed Siri improvement however was moved to AKI after delays in rolling out extra superior AI options to the voice assistant. A number of different former Siri staff members have additionally joined AKI to assist push this new path ahead.
Job listings on Apple’s careers site present over a dozen open positions throughout the US and China for the AKI staff, signalling the imaginative and prescient to develop its AI capabilities.
Who can apply: Apple desires seasoned machine studying engineers
One of many headline roles is for a Workers Machine Studying Engineer, targeted on bettering Siri’s skill to reply private, user-specific questions utilizing info from non-public paperwork, with privateness safeguards inbuilt.
In keeping with the job description, this position entails designing and refining giant language fashions (LLMs), working experiments to check and enhance efficiency, and constructing the information pipelines to assist all of it. The staff is particularly on the lookout for somebody who can work on fine-tuning fashions utilizing reinforcement studying strategies.
To be thought-about, candidates ought to have:
- A minimum of eight years of expertise in machine studying or NLP
- Robust coding expertise in languages like Python, Go, or C/C++
- Arms-on expertise with instruments like PyTorch, TensorFlow, JAX, or XGBoost
- A bachelor’s diploma in Laptop Science
The job additionally entails working intently with different product and engineering groups to convey these AI options into Apple’s broader software program stack.
Whereas Apple has not mentioned a lot publicly about what the AKI staff is constructing, it’s clear the corporate is getting ready to convey extra clever and personalised AI experiences to its units, in its personal manner, and by itself timeline.
