Tim Cook teases Apple generative AI announcement for ‘later this year’

Apple boss Tim Cook has revealed the tech giant will make a big announcement about generative AI features on its devices “later this year”.

Mr Cook said the iPhone maker was spending a “tremendous amount of time and effort” on AI and would share more details of that work later in the year.

Many of Apple’s rivals have made a number of announcements around generative AI – Samsung and Google have made the technology key parts of recent phone announcements – while Google has also followed Microsoft and introduced a chatbot or virtual assistant to their computing platforms in the wake of the success of OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

In contrast, Apple has said little on the subject.

But speaking on a call following the announcement of the firm’s latest financial results, the Apple chief executive said he believed generative AI was a “huge opportunity” for the company.

“As we look ahead, we will continue to invest in these and other technologies that shape our future. That includes AI, where we continue to spend a tremendous amount of time and effort and we’re excited to share details of our ongoing work in that space later this year,” he said.

The Apple boss did not give any further details but did confirm he was speaking about generative AI.

“Let me just say that I think there’s a huge opportunity for Apple with generative AI and with AI, without getting into many more details or getting out ahead of myself.”

The hint of generative AI features to come follows reports from the US that the next version of Apple’s iPhone software – iOS 18 – which is due to be announced later this year, could be one of the biggest updates in the operating system’s history.

One of Apple’s biggest smartphone rivals, Samsung, released their latest flagship devices this week, complete with a wide range of generative AI-powered features, including translation and transcription tools, as well as new photo editing capabilities.

Google has made similar AI-powered tools a key selling point of its Pixel smartphone range in recent years.

In its latest financial results, Apple reported revenue of 119.58 billion dollars (£93.74 billion), up 2% on the same three-month period last year.