Opinion: Tim Cook’s three-word answer about Apple’s plans for AI was incredibly revealing
On Apple's most recent earnings call, CEO Tim Cook was asked about the company's plans for artificial intelligence (AI). Of course, Apple's employees almost never reveal anything about their plans about much of anything until they make an announcement. The closest we've ever gotten is when Cook made his famous "I think the wrist is interesting" a few years before the company launched the Apple Watch.

Ironically, and what most people forget, is that Cook's statement came in response to a question about whether Google Glass – or other headset computers – were likely to catch on. "I think from a mainstream point of view [glasses as wearable computing devices] are difficult to see," Cook said. "I think the wrist is interesting. The wrist is natural." Now, of course, the Vision Pro – a virtual reality headset with exceptional passthrough video – is Apple's bet on Spatial Computing.

But as Apple launches its first new computing platform since the Apple Watch, most companies are focused on AI. In fact, every single tech event I've been to over the past 12 months has included as many references to AI-powered features as tech companies can cram into a 90-minute keynote. Well, except Apple's.

There wasn't a single word about it mentioned at WWDC, Apple's annual developer conference. The same is true of the iPhone keynote in September. It wasn't until the launch of the M3 series of MacBook Pros that the company made mention of it in any substantive way.

It's not surprising that people would want to know what Apple is going to do. There have been plenty of reports and rumors that the company is working on a Large Language Model of its own, perhaps built into Siri.

It's not that Apple doesn't have many of the same features, they just don't call them AI. They use phrases like machine learning and talk about the Neural Engine built into Apple Silicon. For example, there is plenty of fancy computing happening in the Vision Pro to track where your eyes are looking, determine when your hands are pinching together to select items, and record spatial video.

Tim Cook talked about the AI features of Vision Pro in an interview with Michael Strahan on Good Morning America on Friday morning:

"We've been working on this for years. And to get the gestures down, there's a lot of artificial intelligence and machine learning, built into the product. To get hand gestures, to get room mapping – this stuff requires very deep machine learning."

But the thing everyone wants to know is when Apple is going to roll out features to compete with ChatGPT or Google's Bard. Cook was asked basically that, and his answer was incredibly revealing.

"As we look ahead, we will continue to invest in these and other technologies that will shape the future," said Cook. "That includes artificial intelligence, where we continue to spend a tremendous amount of time and effort, and we're excited to share the details of our ongoing work in that space later this year."

Honestly, the most revealing part of that entire paragraph is the last three words. Cook isn't the kind of executive who might say that in a dismissive way, hoping everyone will forget by the time "later this year" gets here. And I don't think it's reading too much into those three words to think that it's pretty clear he's talking about the iPhone 16 and iOS 18.

It would be astonishing if Apple isn't planning to include generative AI features in the next version of the iPhone. Every other smartphone maker has been racing to include everything from photo editing to live translation to improving their smart assistants. This, however, is the first time Apple has really given even a hint in public that it's working on any of it.

I mean, just the idea that Siri might get better at understanding and answering questions is enough to get excited about. But I think Apple has bigger plans. I don't pretend to know what they are, but I don't think Cook would tell people to look forward to more coming this year if he wasn't confident that Apple was ready to dive all the way in.

"Let me just say that I think there's a huge opportunity for Apple with Gen AI and AI, and without getting into more details and getting out in front of myself," Cook said.

I'm not surprised Cook doesn't have more to say right now, but the fact he said anything at all is both revealing and – if you care about this sort of thing – exciting. – Inc./Tribune News Service
AI,Gadgets,Technology
On Apple's most recent earnings call, CEO Tim Cook was asked about the company's plans for artificial intelligence (AI). Of course, Apple's employees almost never reveal anything about their plans about much of anything until they make an announcement. The closest we've ever gotten is when Cook made his famous "I think the wrist is interesting" a few years before the company launched the Apple Watch.