Apple is set to announce its earnings report on August 3. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo wrote a preview of what to expect, and one of the most interesting tidbits about Apple’s third-quarter regards the company’s approach to Artificial Intelligence and how it could impact stock prices in the short term.
According to the analyst, “There is no sign that Apple will integrate AI edge computing and hardware products in 2024, so it is difficult to benefit the stock prices of Apple and its supply chain.” This means that Apple is still lagging behind the competition, as Microsoft and Google‘s generative AI Assistant launching soon.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman recently said Apple has been developing its own GPT. While the company’s engineers are using this chatbot, he believes it could eventually become a product or part of products, such as Xcode, Final Cut Pro, etc.
That said, while Kuo shows that Apple is apparently moving in the opposite direction of the Artificial Intelligence trend, it’s important to note that the company is actually using different terms to announce powerful features.
Some keywords Apple has been using for years are “machine learning” and “neural engine.” For example, with iOS 17, if you listen to an ABBA song and then check the Spotlight tab, you’ll see a recommendation to check web details about the band. This is Artificial Intelligence. With the new autocorrection language model, Apple also uses AI to predict what you will write or what you intend to say. This is also AI. The company uses AI for analyzing photos, and it will be even more interesting once that Journal app in iOS 17 is available later this year, as it will combine several pieces of information from your iPhone, but without them ever leaving your device.
Apple has been cautious about AI, as people also see this technology poorly. There are several stories about chatbots giving wrong information, being aggressive, weird, and even against minorities.
Siri, for example, can’t perform incredible tasks, but it also won’t give you wrong information or tell you to harm yourself or others. That said, Apple may be studying the best way to approach Artificial Intelligence in a way that helps users but also doesn’t fright them.
In the meantime, we’ll have to wait and see if not talking about AI is suitable for Apple or if it can hurt the business.