Apple CEO Tim Cook sends clear message about AI to Wall Street

AUBURN, ALABAMA – NOVEMBER 25: Auburn Tigers alumni and Apple CEO Tim Cook prior to their game against the Alabama Crimson Tide at Jordan-Hare Stadium on November 25, 2023 in Auburn, Alabama. (Photo by Michael Chang/Getty Images)

A few weeks after launching Vision Pro and a day after reportedly canceling “Project Titan,” Apple  (AAPL) CEO Tim Cook – sending a clear message to consumers and Wall Street alike – shared a little more information about the company’s ambitions around artificial intelligence.

At Apple’s annual shareholder meeting Wednesday, Cook said that Apple sees “incredible breakthrough potential for generative AI, which is why we’re currently investing significantly in this area.”

He went on to say that the technology would “unlock transformative opportunities” for productivity and problem-solving, claims that many other AI companies have been touting for the past year or so.

The kicker, though, was a confirmation from Cook that Apple will soon be ready to speak about its work.

“Later this year, I look forward to sharing with you the ways we will break new ground in generative AI, another technology we believe can redefine the future,” Cook said.

Though the bulk of the Big Tech sector has already beaten Apple to the generative AI punch — Microsoft, Meta, Nvidia, Samsung and Google, for example, have all made generative AI products available — Apple’s entry into the field is expected to be revealed at its annual World Wide Developer Conference, which historically occurs in the first half of June.

It’s worth noting that a proposal on AI and ethics was voted down at the annual shareholder meeting. If this were approved, Apple would have had to share if it’s been working on AI. This doesn’t align with the company’s generally secretive approach to unveiling new products or hinting that it might enter a market before it formally does.

What could Apple’s AI rollout look like? Well, we already know Apple’s using a bit of generative AI with predictive text as part of the keyboard in iOS 17. Still, we’d expect to see elements of AI integrated into a wide array of software and services. It’ll likely be a focus of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, watchOS 11, the next macOS, and tvOS 10, which should all be unveiled at Apple’s conference.

Wall Street is ready for Apple’s generative AI push

With the rest of Apple’s Big Tech peers spending the past year or so diving deeper and deeper into generative AI — experiencing blossoming market valuations as a result — Apple has taken a notably different path.

A quieter path.

The iPhone has “never been the best phone. It’s always been the phone that works best. I think that’s exactly what they’re going to do” with AI. — Deepwater Management’s Gene Munster

Bloomberg reported last year that the tech giant, which until recently, avoided even saying the phrase “AI” in public, was developing an LLM called Ajax. The report revealed that Apple was on track to spend around $1 billion annually on generative AI products.

And though Deepwater Management’s Gene Munster doesn’t think Apple’s model will blow the competition out of the water, he told TheStreet in January that he expects the usability of that model to be such that it will be difficult for the rest of the sector to compete with.

With ChatGPT clocking around 100 million users a week compared to Apple’s active device ecosystem of 2.2 billion, Munster contended that a generative AI-enabled Siri, for example, would be a “huge advantage.”

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“The average consumer doesn’t care that this is copying out to GPT-3.5 when GPT-4’s out. They care if can they hit a button and get what they want,” Munster said, adding that he expects Apple’s work in the AI sector to mimic its work with the iPhone, which has “never been the best phone. It’s always been the phone that works best. I think that’s exactly what they’re going to do.”

Munster said in a recent post that focusing in on generative AI is the “right decision for Apple.”

Apple’s work in the space comes as AI regulation still has yet to materialize, and as ethical questions concerning the creation and use of the technology — socioeconomic inequity, copyright infringement, algorithmic discrimination, environmental impact, enhanced disinformation, political instability and enhanced fraud — abound.

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