Apple Intelligence Security
Apple recently announced iOS 18 and introduced Apple Intelligence. This has been widely covered so I won't get into the details, but I do think there are a couple of important security aspects of it to take notice of.
On-Device Processing
As we know, Apple Intelligence will utilize Apple’s own AI models as well as ChatGPT for requests that need real-world knowledge, and it will ask for the user’s permission before using ChatGPT.
For the requests that it processes internally, as Tim Cook stated, Apple Intelligence will be “aware of your personal data without collecting your personal data.” It will handle these requests locally whenever possible. This is not only convenient but also excellent for privacy and security.
Additionally, their new “Private Cloud Compute” servers will manage requests that cannot be processed locally. And this is where things get really interesting.
Apple's Private Cloud Compute (PCC) architecture claims:
- Relevance: Only data relevant to your task will be sent to the PCC servers.
- Privacy: The data sent will never be stored or accessible to Apple.
- Verifiable transparency: Every production PCC software image will be published for independent binary inspection. And Apple incentivizes reporting security concerns through the Apple Security Bounty.
People love to have on Apple, but this is a major privacy victory. If this concept does end up becoming reality in fall, we might see other companies, like OpenAI, have to follow suit for users to feel as safe as with Apple.
Open Interpreter’s Local III is Out
I love what the Open Interpreter team is building.
And recently, they announced a new release with Local III, an "easy-to-use local model explorer, with deep integrations with inference engines like Ollama, and custom profiles for open models like Llama3, Moondream, and Codestral".
The announcement was made via a pretty cool video highlighting one of its new capabilities to locally train your own models.
I do feel in the near future all major operating systems will incorporate these capabilities natively, but for now, their innovations are impressive and I am definitely looking forward to playing a little bit more with OI.
Ilya Sutskever Announces SSI
SSI stands for Safe Superintelligence, and this is a new company by the ex-OpenAI chief scientist aiming to reach superintelligence safely and in "one-shot".
After all the controversy with Ilya Sutskever, Sam Altman, and OpenAI, this really came as no surprise.
Let's see if SSI can live up to its promise.
Situational Awareness
Paper by Leopold Aschenbrenner
Leopold, formerly with OpenAI, predicts AGI by 2027 and the societal upheavals it could bring. He left OpenAI under controversial circumstances, making his insights particularly intriguing.
Serious Wifi Windows Vulnerability
There's a critical Windows vulnerability, CVE-2024-30078. If you're on Windows, update NOW to stay safe.
Metasploit: Spyware Generator in a Pocket
A demo video shows how tools like Nethunter can be used directly on a smartphone to create and spread malware.
After watching the quick video, I could not help but imagine combining something like this with an automation app like Shortcuts in iOS and a multimodal LLM that creates personalized messages to distribute the malware across your phone contacts.
The future of security is getting interesting.
Flow Tip of the Week: Wake Up and Get Straight to Work
To be productive, start your day right. From Ryan Doris: wake up and get to work.
My Routine:
- Wash face and teeth
- Make a big cup of coffee
- Sit down and code
This routine has been a lifesaver. For the first time ever I've consistently worked on my long term goals almost every single day for over 3 weeks now. But here's the key tactic for this to actually work: no checking phone notifications until after your deep work session. Otherwise your mind starts planning for the day ahead and you're not able to concentrate properly.
Hope this helps you as much as it helped me!
PS: Don't literally get up and sit down at your desk, you will probably fall asleep in your chair. Trust me, I've been there.