Tim Cook stated that Apple is developing software-generated artificial intelligence capabilities that should be available to customers later this year.
These statements align with reports from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, who previously said that iOS 18 could be the biggest update in the operating system's history.
Cook's multiple mentions of generative AI seem to confirm that we're on track for a big release in the fall.
“As we look to the future, we will continue to invest in these and other technologies that are shaping the future,” Apple CEO said in prepared remarks.
“This includes artificial intelligence, an area in which we continue to invest a lot of time and energy, and we look forward to sharing details of our ongoing work in this area later this year,” Cook added.
From advanced image processing to text processing improvements, the capabilities of generative AI software have been a major selling point for Google and Samsung smartphones in recent months.
Apple rarely announces upcoming initiatives, so you can think of this as the company's ambitious plan to integrate AI into its iOS, iPadOS, and macOS software platforms later this year.
“I think there's a huge opportunity for Apple, without getting into details or moving forward, with artificial intelligence and generative artificial intelligence,” Cook said.
Cook's statement did not include many details, although she said Apple hopes to compete with Microsoft, Google, Amazon, OpenAI and other technology companies that are developing advanced artificial intelligence models capable of reading text and images to generate them.
Since OpenAI launched ChatGPT AI chatbot and an improved image generation model in 2022, generative AI has attracted significant interest from technology companies and investors.
Apple did not announce an advanced AI model last year, although the company has long invested in similar machine learning technologies in its chips and software that can recognize people or pets in photos.
Last year, the company announced a language model-based iPhone keyboard autocorrection feature that shares the same underlying technology as GPT, though Apple did not use the term “artificial intelligence” in the demo, preferring the academic term “machine learning.”