Technologies

How Apple Will Analyze Your Data to Train Its AI — While Protecting Your Privacy

The company said it’s testing AI improvements on opt-in devices without collecting user content.

Apple said it will begin analyzing on-device user data as part of a broader push to strengthen its AI platform.

In a blog post, the company outlined a new approach designed to expand its AI capabilities while safeguarding user privacy, especially as competitors like OpenAI and Google advance more quickly with fewer restrictions. Apple said it will train its AI models using synthetic data, known as information that mimics the format and characteristics of real-world messages without including any actual user-generated content.

«When creating synthetic data, our goal is to produce synthetic sentences or emails that are similar enough in topic or style to the real thing to help improve our models for summarization, but without Apple collecting emails from the device,» the company said in a blog post.

For Apple Intelligence features including summarization and writing tools that handle longer content, the company said its usual methods, like those used for short-form prompts in Genmoji, aren’t effective.

Instead, its new approach will generate a large set of synthetic emails on various topics – such as, «Want to play tennis tomorrow?» – without referencing any actual user data. Each message is converted into what Apple calls an «embedding,» a numerical summary capturing attributes including topic and length. The embeddings are sent only to opted-in devices, which then compare them to a small, private sample of recent user emails stored locally.

«This process allows us to improve the topics and language of our synthetic emails, which helps us train our models to create better text outputs in features like email summaries, while protecting privacy,» the company said.

Apple said it will start using this approach «soon» with users who opt in to sharing device analytics.

A «sophisticated» approach to privacy

Jason Hong, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University, said this type of «differential privacy» is a sophisticated approach for analyzing and using data aggregated from large numbers of people.

«Apple could have taken the easy approach of just taking everyone’s data and using it to build their AI models,» he said. «Instead, Apple chose to deploy these differential privacy approaches for Apple Intelligence, and they should be applauded for putting their customers’ privacy first.»

However, he said there will likely be tradeoffs, including the possibility that Apple Intelligence may not be as effective as some competitors because rivals will have more access to people’s data. He also said Apple’s models may likely be harder to debug and might take more battery power to deploy.

«It’s hard to say at this point,» he said.

Technologies

Apple Will Reportedly Give You a Discount on Accessories if You Recycle Your Old Electronics

The Earth Day promotion could net shoppers 10% off a suite of accessories for one month.

Apple is starting an in-store electronics recycling promotion for one month that can net consumers 10% off of Apple accessories, according to a post Tuesday by Mark Gurman of Bloomberg. The maximum discount offered will be $20, and it will be applicable to AirPods, AirTags, Apple Pencils, Apple Watch bands, and MacBook cases and peripherals.

While Apple customers generally benefit from trading in used electronics for store credit, many items are ineligible for this program. Typically, a single device can be traded in for credit toward a new one, and additional iPhones, iPads, Macs, Apple Watches and other Apple devices can be exchanged for an Apple gift card. Non-Apple electronics cannot be exchanged for store credit.

The new Earth Day promotion reportedly makes all used electronics — even the otherwise uncompensated non-Apple electronics — viable to trade-in for the $20 Apple accessory discount, which would make this a great time to bring in recyclable electronics you wouldn’t otherwise be rewarded for.

Apple’s trade-in program is offered in-store and online as a clean and easy way to recycle old electronics. While Apple doesn’t give store credit for every item, the company recycles them free of charge. If Apple is offering a discount on its peripherals for trading in non-Apple electronics, it could be using this promotion to bring new customers into its product ecosystem.

Apple rarely discounts its accessories outside of Black Friday events, making this a rare opportunity to score a peripheral for less cash. It is unclear whether this is a US-based promotion or if it will run in Apple Stores internationally. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Technologies

EV Sales Increased by More Than 10% in the US Despite Tesla Sales Dropping

The surge in electric-vehicle sales comes at the start of what experts predict will be a volatile year for the market.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for April 15, #408

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle No. 408 for April 15.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Todays NYT Strands puzzle might be tricky, but it has a fun topic. Get yourself a frosty beverage and solve away. If you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Draft picks

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Cheers!

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints, but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

MICE, POTS, STOP, TOTS, PORE, PORES, TORE, TOTE, TOUT, REGAL, RICE, SORE, RICES.

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you’ve got all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

BOCK, SOUR, LAGER, NITRO, STOUT, PILSNER

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is MICROBREWERY. To find it, start with the M that’s three letters up from the bottom on the far left row, and wind over and up.