We are one step closer to knowing what Apple is developing on the generative AI front.
Tim Cook, Apple CEO, has said before that the company’s policy is to hold off on announcing new products until they come to market, but in a conference call with analysts and investors on Thursday, Feb. 1, he promised that some generative AI news will come out later this year.
In terms of generative AI, which, I’d guess, is your focus, we have a lot of work going on internally as I’ve alluded to before. Our MO, if you will, has always been to do work and then talk about work and not to get out in front of ourselves. And so, we’re going to hold that to this as well. But we’ve got some things that we are incredibly excited about that we’ll be talking about later this year.
When asked about how Apple’s smartphones and devices fit in the AI landscape, Cook added:
Let me just say that, I think there’s a huge opportunity for Apple with GenAI and AI.
In the past year, Google, Microsoft and other tech giants have made a flurry of announcements about generative AI products, from AI chatbots that can translate your voice to multiple languages to AI assistants that write up your emails. Why? In part because they need real-time feedback to improve their products.
As Quartz previously reported, Apple may be quiet about AI, but it’s been the biggest buyer of AI companies since at least 2017, gobbling nearly double the number that Microsoft and Meta have purchased. Acquisitions include providers of self-driving technology, AI voice assistant tools, and AI models for music.