Apple CEO Tim Cook on AI: ‘We have an advantage because…’

Apple CEO

Almost every big tech company has made a splash when it comes to AI. Microsoft with its partnership with OpenAI, Copilot, Bing Search and Azure. Google has Gemini AI and many other AI projects in the works. Meta is bullish about Llama whereas Amazon is making the noises in enterprise AI. Apple has been relatively quiet and missing — at least from the headlines — from the AI space.

However, Apple CEO Tim Cook remains optimistic about Apple’s AI moves. During an investors’ call after the latest quarterly earnings, Cook said Apple is making “significant investments” in AI. “We continue to feel very bullish about our opportunity in generative AI,” Cook told investors during the call.

He also said Apple sees “generative AI as a very key opportunity across our products.”

Apple will host its annual developer conference — WWDC — on June 10 and the focus will be on AI-powered innovations Apple will announce. “We believe in the transformative power and promise of AI,” Cook told investors, before adding, “we believe we have advantages that will differentiate us in this new era, including Apple's unique combination of seamless hardware, software and services integration, groundbreaking Apple's silicon, with our industry-leading neural engines and our unwavering focus on privacy, which underpins everything we create.”

Luca Maestri, chief financial officer, Apple also weighed in with his views and said Apple has been investing heavily in innovation across the board. “We are obviously very excited about the opportunity with Gen AI. We obviously are pushing very hard on innovation on every front and we've been doing that for many, many years,” he said.

WWDC has always been important for Apple in terms of showcasing its software innovation. 2024 has an extra edge to it as all eyes will be on Apple to see what the company has in store in the rapidly evolving AI landscape.

Also read: Apple’s market share drops, global smartphone sales rise