During today’s earnings call for the second fiscal quarter of 2024, Apple CEO Tim Cook reiterated the company’s focus on generative AI. He stated that Apple has “advantages” that would “differentiate” the company in the AI era and that customers will soon learn about some “quite interesting stuff.”
“We remain highly optimistic about our opportunities in generative AI. We are making substantial investments and look forward to sharing great news with our customers soon.
We believe in AI’s transformative power and promise and have advantages that will set us apart in this new era. These include Apple’s unique combination of seamless hardware, software, and services integration, groundbreaking Apple silicon with our industry-leading neural engines, and our unwavering commitment to privacy, which underpins everything we do.”
Rumors say that Apple’s first AI features will function on-device rather than connecting to a cloud service, making Apple’s AI significantly more private and safe than an online AI alternative. Apple’s ambition to have generative AI on-device will necessitate enormous CPU and GPU power, and Apple intends to focus on AI with the next M4 processor.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman said this weekend that Apple may introduce the M4 chip in new iPad Pro versions as early as next week.