Apple to Announce AI Strategy at WWDC, Utilize Confidential Computing

TapTechNews May 29th news, Apple is about to announce its artificial intelligence strategy at the WWDC conference, which will be released as part of the iOS18 and other operating system updates. TapTechNews noted that previously, Bloomberg reported that Apple plans to adopt a hybrid approach that combines on-device processing and server-side processing to implement artificial intelligence functions.

However, transferring user data processing to Apple's servers has also raised privacy concerns, especially considering that Apple has been vigorously promoting on-device processing for many years. According to The Information, Apple seems to have found a solution that can provide powerful AI processing capabilities in its cloud while maintaining strict privacy standards.

The Information's report said that Apple plans to adopt the confidential computing technology to achieve black box processing. Usually, cloud services only encrypt data when it is stored on the disk. But to process or convert data on the server, the data needs to be decrypted into memory.

The Information claims that Apple has found a way to always maintain the privacy of user data throughout the processing. This method is conceptually similar to confidential computing, an industry term, that is, the so-called trusted computing, meaning that the data remains confidential throughout the processing.

It is reported that in the past three years, Apple has been conducting a secret project. This project is internally called Apple Data Center Chip (ACDC), and this AI chip can help Apple achieve the black box computing method.

The Information pointed out that if a hacker can physically access Apple's server hardware, there are still potential weaknesses. But all in all, this method is much safer than the approach of other tech giants in the field of artificial intelligence. The system is so secure that when Apple encounters a subpoena from law enforcement or a government investigation, it can frankly admit that it cannot access the relevant information and cannot provide any user data.

However, it is still unclear how this technology specifically operates. The Information said that it is not clear how Apple will maintain the validity of the security model when processing requests from many users simultaneously on a single chip within a data center.