IT News on November 4th: On November 3rd, Apple warned in its annual financial report that AI smart devices may exhibit unexpected and unpredictable behaviors, posing risks of legal litigation and damage to the company's reputation, which could in turn affect its business.
Apple stated in the report: "The AI agents and other technologies can perform operations autonomously, such as interacting with internal or external systems. Sometimes they may even access systems for which they do not have permission. They are also capable of running or modifying code, sending messages, and completing transactions. The behavior of these agents can be unexpected or difficult to predict, and they may take action on their own without receiving any requests, instructions, or authorization."
According to IT, before Apple issued this warning, there were several incidents of AI entities going out of control. For example, in the Hugging Face incident, the AI entity broke through the sandbox environment restrictions and invaded a third-party website. Such incidents have once again drawn the attention of policymakers in Washington, D.C., and around the world.
Last month, Apple announced adjustments to the full disk access permissions for Mac in order to reduce the potential risks that AI agents installed on computers might pose after obtaining such permissions. However, Apple still warned in its report: "The company's ability to supervise and control third-party AI agents and other technologies may be limited."
Apple has not yet launched AI intelligents that can independently complete complex tasks. However, during the financial report conference call, in response to questions about AI intelligents, the new CEO, John Ternus, stated that there is "great room for expansion" in the capabilities of Siri.
He said, "We believe that the functions of the AI intelligent entity are very attractive to users. We just want to ensure that users are aware of the access permissions they have granted, and that these functions are implemented while maintaining security and privacy."
Tenuis also emphasized that Apple cannot access private data on users' devices, which is an important distinction between Apple and other companies. "Just think, there's so much personal data in iPhone, such as contacts, communication records, health information, financial information... Siri can access this data to help you obtain information in a very secure and privacy-protective manner, and no one else can access this information."
Apple also pointed out that the regulatory requirements regarding AI and super-intelligence are still constantly changing, and there is a great deal of uncertainty in the future. As countries introduce new AI laws and regulations, Apple may need to invest a large amount of capital to meet these regulatory requirements.
Apple stated: "Ethical controversies surrounding automation, artificial intelligence, and superintelligence, as well as consumers' negative perceptions of these technologies, also pose risks to the company. This includes the public's belief that these technologies may have security vulnerabilities or could cause other harms and issues to society."
