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Tim Cook says Apple will weave AI into products as researchers work on solving bias

May 5, 2023 Coin Telegraph

The Apple CEO said the company would “continue weaving” AI into its products as internal research indicates an emphasis on building unbiased AI systems.

CEO Tim Cook gave a rare, if guarded, glimpse into Apple’s walled garden during the Q&A portion of a recent earnings call when asked his thoughts on generative artificial intelligence (AI) and where he “sees it going.”

Cook refrained from revealing Apple’s plans, stating upfront, “We don’t comment on product roadmaps.” However, he did intimate that the company was interested in the space:

“I do think it’s very important to be deliberate and thoughtful in how you approach these things. And there’s a number of issues that need to be sorted. … But the potential is certainly very interesting.”

The CEO later added the company views “AI as huge” and would “continue weaving it in our products on a very thoughtful basis.”

Cook’s comments on taking a “deliberate and thoughtful” approach could explain the company’s absence in the generative AI space. However, there are some indications that Apple is conducting its own research into related models.

A research paper scheduled to be published at the Interaction Design and Children conference this June details a novel system for combating bias in the development of machine learning datasets.

Bias — the tendency for an AI model to make unfair or inaccurate predictions based on incorrect or incomplete data — is oft-cited as one of the most pressing concerns for the safe and ethical development of generative AI models.

So glad OpenAI is keeping its bias in check. pic.twitter.com/y4a7FUochR
— Brooklin Nash (@realBrookNash) April 27, 2023

The paper, which can currently be read in preprint, details a system by which multiple users would contribute to developing an AI system’s dataset with equal input.

Status quo generative AI development doesn’t add in human feedback until later stages, when models have typically already gained training bias.

The new Apple research integrates human feedback at the very early stages of model development in order to essentially democratize the data selection process. The result, according to the researchers, is a system that employs a “hands-on, collaborative approach to introducing strategies for creating balanced datasets.”

It bears mention that this research study was designed as an educational paradigm to encourage novice interest in machine learning development.

It could prove difficult to scale the techniques described in the paper for use in training large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT and Google Bard. However, the research demonstrates an alternative approach to combating bias.

Ultimately, the creation of an LLM without unwanted bias could represent a landmark moment on the path to developing human-level AI systems.

Such systems stand to disrupt every aspect of the technology sector, especially the worlds of fintech, cryptocurrency trading and blockchain. Unbiased stock and crypto trading bots capable of human-level reasoning, for example, could shake up the global financial market by democratizing high-level trading knowledge.

Furthermore, demonstrating an unbiased LLM could go a long way toward satisfying government safety and ethical concerns for the generative AI industry.

This is especially noteworthy for Apple, as any generative AI product it develops or chooses to support would stand to benefit from the iPhone’s integrated AI chipset and its 1.5 billion user footprint.

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Apple to allow third-party app stores in windfall for NFTs and crypto

December 14, 2022 Coin Telegraph

App Store

In a win for crypto app developers, incoming EU laws will force Apple to permit alternative app stores and apps without the need to go through its App Store.

Tech giant Apple is gearing up to permit third-party app stores on its devices to comply with new anti-monopolistic requirements from the European Union (EU), which could be seen as a huge win for crypto and NFT app developers, at least in Europe.

Under the new rules, European customers would be able to download alternative app marketplaces outside of Apple’s proprietary App Store, thus allowing them to download apps that skirt Apple’s 30% commissions and app restrictions according to a Dec. 13 Bloomberg report citing those familiar with the matter.

Currently, Apple has stringent rules for NFT apps that practically force users to go through in-app purchases subject to Apple’s 30% commission, while apps are not permitted to support cryptocurrency payments.

Apple’s enforcement of its rule led to a block of Coinbase’s self-custody wallet app update on Dec. 1 as Apple wanted to “collect 30% of the gas fee” through in-app purchases, something that is “clearly not possible” according to Coinbase.

It then claimed Apple wanted the wallet to disable NFT transactions if they couldn’t be done through its in-app purchase system.

Alex Salnikov, co-founder of NFT marketplace Rarible tweeted on Dec. 13 in response to the news that a “crypto app store” could be built and would be a “great candidate” for a venture capital-backed startup.

Apple’s move to open its ecosystem is in response to the EU’s Digital Markets Act aiming to regulate so-called “gatekeepers” and ensure platforms behave fairly with part of the measures allowing “third parties to inter-operate with the gatekeeper’s own services.”

It will be applicable starting May 2023 with businesses needing to fully comply by 2024.

Apple hasn’t decided if it will comply with a part of the Act allowing developers to install alternative payment systems within apps that don’t involve Apple. if it does comply, it could open up payment systems that allow cryptocurrencies.

Under consideration by the tech giant is mandating security requirements for software outside of its store, such as verification from Apple, in a bid to protect users against unsafe apps.

The changes to Apple’s closed ecosystem would apply only within the EU, other regions would need to pass similar laws such as the proposed Open App Markets Act in the United States Congress from Senators Marsha Blackburn and Richard Blumenthal.

Warning: Smartphone text prediction guesses crypto hodler’s seed phrase

May 1, 2022 Coin Telegraph

android

Redditor Andre highlighted the ease with which hackers can use the text prediction feature to drain a user’s funds just by being able to first word out of the BIP 39 list.

Seed phrases, a random combination of words from the BIP 39 list of 2048 words, act as one of the primary layers of security against unauthorized access to a user’s crypto holdings. But what happens when your ‘smart’ phone’s predictive typing remembers and suggests the words next time you try to access your digital wallet?

Andre, a 33-year-old IT professional from Germany, recently posted on the r/CryptoCurrency subreddit after discovering his mobile phone’s ability to predict the entire recovery seed phrase as soon as he typed down the first word.

As a fair warning to fellow Redditors and crypto enthusiasts, Andre’s post highlighted the ease with which hackers can use the feature to drain a user’s funds just by being able to type the first word out of the BIP 39 list:

“This makes it easy to attack, get your hands on a phone, start any chat app, and start typing any words off the BIP39 list, and see what the phone suggests.”

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Andre, a.k.a. u/Divinux on Reddit, shared his shock when he first experienced his phone literally guessing the (12-24 word) seed phrase — “First I was stunned - the first couple words could be a coincidence, right?”

As a tech-savvy individual, the German crypto investor was able to reproduce the scenario wherein his mobile phone could accurately predict the seed phrases. After realizing the possible impact of this information if it went out to the wrong hands, “I thought I should tell people about it; I'm sure there are others who also have typed seeds into their phone.”

Andre’s experiments confirmed that Google’s GBoard was the least vulnerable as the software did not predict every word in the correct order. However, Microsoft’s Swiftkey keyboard was able to predict the seed phrase right out of the box. The Samsung keyboard, too, can predict the words if ‘Auto replace’ and ‘Suggest text corrections’ have been manually turned on.

Andre’s initial stint with crypto dates back to 2015, when he momentarily lost interest until he realized he could buy goods and services using Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies. His investment strategy involves purchasing and staking BTC and altcoins such as Terra (LUNA), Algorand (ALGO) and Tezos (XTZ) and “then dollar-cost averaging (DCA) out into BTC when/if they moon.” The IT professional also develops his own coins and tokens as a hobby.

A safety measure against possible hacks, according to Andre, is to store significant and long-term holdings in a hardware wallet. To Redditors across the world, OP’s advice includes — not your keys, not your coins, DYOR, don't FOMO, never invest more than you are willing to lose, always double-check the address you are sending to, always send a small amount beforehand, and disable your PMs in Settings, concluding:

“Do yourself a solid and prevent that from happening by clearing your predictive type cache.”

Blockchain security firm PeckShield warned the crypto community about a large number of phishing websites targeting users of the Web3 lifestyle app STEPN.

#PeckShieldAlert #phishing PeckShield has detected a bath of @Stepnofficial phishing sites. They insert a false Metamask browser extension leading to stealing your seed phrase or prompt you to connect your wallets or “Claim” giveaway. @Metamask @Coinbase @WalletConnect @phantom pic.twitter.com/cmWUcprMAN
— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) April 25, 2022

As Cointelegraph reported, based on PechShield’s findings, hackers insert a forged MetaMask browser plugin through which they can steal seed phrases from unsuspecting STEPN users.

Access to seed phrase guarantees complete control over the user’s crypto funds via the STEPN dashboard.