Apple says AI is ‘virtually embedded in every product,’ dispelling concerns company is falling behind in tech race

Apple has been largely quiet this past year regarding its plans to integrate more artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities into its products, despite the technology being a trending topic with other industry competitors.

In an interview with CNBC on Thursday, Apple chief executive Tim Cook addressed whether the company is currently prioritizing developing AI and ML technologies.

Some industry analysts have expressed concern that Apple might be falling behind while its competitors, including Microsoft and Google, shift their focus to AI and ML development.

Cook dispelled those rumors last week, noting that Apple has been investing in generative AI models "for years."

The Apple executive told the outlet, "We view AI and ML as fundamental core technologies. And they are virtually embedded in every product that we build."

"On a research basis, we've been doing research on AI and machine learning, including generative AI, for years," he added.

While the company has not made any recent significant AI-related announcements, the Financial Times reported that Apple appears to be putting a greater priority on hiring machine learning experts.

According to the news outlet, Apple was recruiting dozens of professionals between April and July in its offices in California, Seattle, Paris, and Beijing. The job advertisement noted that the company was working on "ambitious long-term research projects that will impact the future of Apple, and our products."

The Financial Times claimed that the career advertisements suggest Apple is focused on bringing advanced language learning models to its mobile devices.

One job posting from Apple stated that it aims to bring "state of the art foundation models to the phone in your pocket, enabling the next generation of ML-based experiences in a privacy-preserving way," the outlet reported. Another job opening, seeking a senior software engineer, noted that it aspires to "implement features that compress and accelerate LLMs in our on-device inference engine."

Last week, Cook told investors that Apple's spending in the third quarter was $3.1 billion more than the previous year, partly due to generative AI investments, the outlet reported. He also noted that Apple will be "investing a lot" moving forward.

"We're going to continue investing and innovating and responsibly advancing our products with these technologies to help enrich people's lives," Cook stated, according to the Independent. "Obviously, we're investing a lot, and it is showing up in the R&D spending that you're looking at."

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