Why Apple is negotiating to put Google’s AI on the iPhone – 03/19/2024 – Market

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Apple wants to use Google’s AI on iPhone

Apple is in talks to use Google’s generative AI (artificial intelligence), Gemini, in iPhone tools.

The information published this Monday by Bloomberg, citing sources, caused the shares of the company known by the search engine to close up 4.4%.

Apple shares rose 0.6%.

Bloomberg states that an agreement has not yet been signed and is not expected to be announced until June, when Apple’s developer conference takes place. The manufacturer also approached OpenAI, according to the agency.

The idea Apple’s company is to use Google’s system to create images and texts, while it would adopt AI tools developed in-house for other features of the device.

What would each gain from the agreement:

↳ Apple could close the gap on its competitors in the AI ​​race, a reason for criticism from the company’s investors and analysts.

• Samsung, its main smartphone rival, launched the Galaxy S24 with tools powered by Gemini.

↳ Google would have its technology inserted into 2.2 billion iPhones, generating scale and – mainly – information to train its AI.

This wouldn’t be the first significant agreement between the two companies. Google pays Apple billions of dollars every year to be the default search engine for Safari and the iPhone.

Yes but… A new partnership between the two big techs could face obstacles with regulatory bodies, just as the current agreement between them is the target of American and European authorities.

Last month, Google disabled the Gemini image generation tool after it delivered representations with historical inaccuracies, such as those of Nazi soldiers or US founders with different ethnicities.

Sundar Pichai, the company’s CEO, said in a memo to employees that the responses generated by the tool were “problematic” and “unacceptable.”

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‘AI washing’

The SEC (the American CVM) is on a crusade to end “AI washing” (AI washing, in the literal translation).

Understand: The term refers to “greenwashing”, the name given to misleading advertising by companies and governments about actions aimed at sustainability.

↳ If the ESG wave of recent years has subsided, now it is the AI ​​fever that makes companies rush to announce the adoption of the tool – which sometimes doesn’t even exist.

This is what the SEC claims happened to two American companies.

• According to authorities, Delphia made false statements about how it was using machine learning in its investment process from 2019 to 2023.

• Global Predictions also made misleading claims, claiming it was the first regulated financial advisor using AI, according to the regulator.

Neither company admitted or denied the SEC’s allegations in reaching settlements in their cases. Delphia agreed to pay US$225,000 and Global Predictions agreed to pay US$175,000.

This is all that is said: more than 40% of companies in the S&P 500 (an index that brings together the 500 largest American companies) cited the use of AI in their balance sheets, according to a survey by Bloomberg.

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Dollar returns to R$5

The dollar closed again above R$5 this Monday, in a week surrounded by market expectations about what signals will be issued by the central banks of Brazil and the USA on Wednesday (20).

It is the first time that the American currency has closed above R$5 since October. It closed this Monday’s trading session at R$5.02.

Which explains: The current rise in the currency has more to do with the international context than the local one. So much so that currencies from other emerging countries also devalued this Monday.

What the market expects from BCs:

Here… There is a consensus that the Copom will cut interest rates by 0.50 points. The doubt is whether he will maintain the part in his statement that foresees new cuts of the same size “in the next meetings” – thus, in the plural.

• This would mean that the BC would commit to at least two more cuts of 0.5 points, leaving the Selic at a single-digit level (9.75%) in the middle of the year.

• A change in the statement would indicate a worsening in the BC’s balance of risks, with an eye on the inflationary effects of services and food, affected by El Niño.

… She: interest rates should remain unchanged, but analysts will be keeping an eye on the statement from the president of the Fed (Federal Reserve), Jerome Powell.

If at the beginning of the year the bets were for the first interest rate drop to happen in March, now they have already moved to June, and could be for the second half of the year depending on what is communicated by the Fed.

Any delay in cutting rates in the US could have an impact on the financial market, with a decline in stock exchanges and a rise in the dollar – as the level of Brazilian interest rates would approach that of the United States, reducing the attractiveness to foreign investors.

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‘Shopping tourism’ is no longer attractive in Argentina

The wave of Brazilians crossing the border with Argentina to do their monthly shopping, a common scene until the end of last year, has become rarer under the new government of Javier Milei.

Which explains: the new reality is one of the effects of the measures presented by the ultraliberal to try to correct prices, balance public accounts, stop issuing money and contain historic inflation in the country.

The main explanation for the end of “promotions” to Brazilians is the strong devaluation of the local currency combined with the cut in subsidies. The combination mainly increased the prices of supermarket items, such as drinks, hygiene items and gasoline.

In numbers:

• 3 thousand pesos (R$ 15 at the current parallel rate) was the average price of wines during the government of Peronist Alberto Fernández; now he is from 7 thousand pesos (R$35).

• 80% it was the rise in fuel prices, which were heavily subsidized; the price today is similar to that of neighboring countries.

• 2.4 million of land and river crossings lasting less than a day to Argentina were made in 2023, compared to 1.5 million in the previous year.

The Milei government, which turns one hundred days old today (19), celebrated its second consecutive month of surplus in February. On the other hand, he saw poverty rise to 57% of the population, as the measures caused prices to explode far above wages.