Apple’s Craig Federighi Was So Impressed With The GitHub Copilot Code That It Led The Company To Productize AI Features

Apple has taken a long time to join the AI bandwagon, and while it lags behind the competition at this stage, iOS 18 could make it a market leader if the company plays its cards right. We would not say that Apple was reluctant to explore AI, but a new report suggests that the company stepped into the category after Craig Federighi tested GitHub Copilot and changed the company's attitude towards the technology.

There was a conflict between Apple's software teams under Craig Fedirighi and John Giannandrea

We are currently only a few days away from the WWDC event, where Apple will take center stage to announce an AI-infused iOS 18 update for all iPhone models. While the features could vary between iPhone models, we presume that the advanced features will be reserved for devices with a more powerful Neural Engine, which includes the iPhone 15 Pro as the base variant. According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple changed its attitude to AI after the company's SVP Craig Federighi tested GitHub's Copilot code completion features during his Christmas break in 2022.

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The executive's interest in the Copilot code completion led him to introduce the technology to his team for exploration and re-purposing. He also asked his team to productize the AI technology as much as possible. The report also recalls the time when Federighi's OS software group and the AI team led by John Giannandrea had conflicts between them due to cultural issues and confusion regarding deadlines. This disallowed both teams to integrate their work for a potential product as each group was prioritizing its project with Giannandrea's work lagging behind due to lack of resources.

Take note that the conflicts have evaporated over the years, and the two teams have close ties in developing new LLM models, working for the better and taking new risks. The relationship between the two