Apple partners with Anthropic to create an AI programming platform, Silicon Valley giants leverage external forces to accelerate the AI competition

Apple seeks external collaboration to develop an AI programming platform with Anthropic.

On May 3rd, Bloomberg reported that Apple is collaborating with AI startup Anthropic to develop a "vibe-coding" software platform. In this collaboration, Anthropic's Claude Sonnet model has been integrated into the new version of Apple's Xcode. This move indicates that Apple is no longer insisting on fully independent technology development in the field of artificial intelligence, but is beginning to seek cooperation with external companies.

Last year, Apple announced the launch of its own AI-driven coding tool, Swift Assist, but ultimately did not fulfill that promise. Reports indicate that internal engineers complained about the "hallucination" issues with the company's self-developed system, which could even slow down application development. The collaboration with Anthropic suggests that Apple may need some external assistance, although the two systems may ultimately be released together.

In the early stages of generative artificial intelligence (Generative AI) development, Apple has been cautious about applying AI technology to consumer software development. However, with the latest advancements in large language models, the tech giant is changing its strategy. So far, apart from the agreement with OpenAI's ChatGPT, Apple has hardly used third-party models.

AI programming tools may reshape the application development ecosystem

Among all major large language models, Anthropic's Claude is recognized as one of the leaders in the programming field.

According to Bloomberg, the new tool includes a chat interface where programmers can input code requests or modification instructions. It can also test user interfaces (a process that is usually very cumbersome when done manually) and help manage the process of finding and fixing bugs.

Reports indicate that Apple is gradually rolling out this new coding software to engineers in its operations department. If the internal promotion is ultimately successful, the company may release it to third-party application developers, who primarily rely on Xcode and the Swift programming language to publish applications for Apple devices.

Apple will hold its annual developer conference on June 9th, where further news may be announced.

Apple reorganizes AI team to catch up with industry leaders

As AI coding technology becomes increasingly popular, Apple is reorganizing its AI team.

Reports indicate that the AI-based code completion feature launched by GitHub Copilot two years ago made Apple executives realize that the company has fallen behind in the field of generative AI and needs to accelerate its catch-up efforts.

To get back on track, Apple recently transferred the responsibilities for Siri engineering and consumer product development from AI head John Giannandrea, and removed a robotics team from his command. These changes begin to break Apple's centralized AI development approach but also provide Giannandrea's team with more space to focus on foundational AI research.

During Thursday's second-quarter earnings call, CEO Tim Cook defended the company's AI strategy. He praised the method of processing on devices (AI models running locally) and the integration of features across its operating systems

We are very excited about the future and are satisfied with the progress we have made.

Cook stated that while Apple hopes to have "some of its own models," the company is also collaborating with other aspects.

I don't think this is an either-or choice