AI is “huge”, but with caution

• AI is “huge,” but Apple will continue to be wary of incorporating it into its products, CEO Tim Cook said Thursday.
• Apple is already incorporating AI technology into some products, Cook said.
• His reticence stands in contrast to recent AI-focused earnings calls from some tech competitors.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said AI wave sweeping technology is “huge” but cautioned about how the technology will be deployed at his company.

“It’s very important to be cautious and thoughtful about how we approach these things,” Cook said on Thursday’s earnings call.

Cook’s relatively restrained view of the technology suggests that competitors Microsoft and Google have launched chats such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft’s Bing (which uses OpenAI’s technology under a partnership), and Google’s Bard. That’s because we’re leaning toward generative AI in large-scale and topical ways, such as the emergence of bots. .

He said Apple is already incorporating machine learning and AI into several products, and acknowledged that the potential to go further is “huge.”

It touted the company’s use of existing AI, mentioning features like “fall detection” found in some Apple Watch models and “collision detection” found in certain Apple devices.

“These are not only great features, they’re saving people’s lives,” Cook says. “We see AI as huge and we weave it very carefully into our products.”

The remark echoes his comments on Apple’s last earnings call in February, where Cook similarly affirmed AI’s “huge potential” but kept things broad. .

Still, Cook said Apple has not commented on its future product roadmap, and has said little on the subject compared to its technical competitors. In past earnings calls, Meta, Alphabet, Microsoft and Amazon have mentioned AI a total of 168 times. Month.

Cook, meanwhile, answered exactly one question about AI during a nearly hour-long conference call with Wall Street analysts.

Meanwhile, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman himself is among those in the field who have expressed concerns about the potential directions that generative AI technology could take. In March, technology researcher Rex Fridman said on a podcast, for example, that he was nervous about the technology’s potential to spread misinformation.