WWDC 2023, one of the biggest events of Apple, will conclude today. During the event, the company made a series of announcements and revelations that fascinated developers and tech enthusiasts alike. The biggest would probably be the Vision Pro headset, but it also launched the 15-inch MacBook Air, the updated Mac Studio, iOS 17, and so much more.
Yet, did you notice that Apple did not mention artificial intelligence or AI in its keynote? Looks staged? It could be. But there might be a deeper reason behind this.
Keeping mum on AI
Not jumping into the bandwagon and hype, Apple made no mention of AI as it unveiled its latest products at WWDC 2023.
AI has recently been the talk of the town, especially in the tech world. In the industry, AI has become the biggest buzzword, more so after Microsoft-backed OpenAI launched the controversial yet trendy ChatGPT late last year, as well as competitors launching their own.
ChatGPT is an AI platform trained to promptly follow its users’ instructions, providing them with a detailed response. It can do things like answering various questions, assisting with different tasks, composing emails, and even coding, among many others.
Apple has chosen to lie low despite other companies like Microsoft and Google going crazy about sharing how generative AI will revolutionize their products, such as online search, image editing, and word processing.
The company decided to be discreet and never – even once – mentioned AI in its WWDC 2023 keynote.
Is Apple an enemy of AI?
Why
There are various speculations about why Apple did so. In its recent article, the technology magazine WIRED wrote on its headline, “Apple ghosts the generative AI revolution.”
Also, Matt Turck, an investor at FirstMark Capital, a New York-based venture capital firm that invests in several startups that use generative AI in their products, thought Apple making no mention of AI is its marketing choice. He said it further pushed its Vision Pro into the limelight.
“The reality is that Apple is a bit behind others like Microsoft and Google in generative AI, so it smartly chose to position itself as running its own race in AI, as opposed to trying to play catch-up with others,” Turck said.
Moreover, a renowned technology analyst, Rob Enderle, also shared his insights about this topic. He told news media, referring to Apple, “They haven’t put much effort into it. I think they just kind of felt that AI was off into the future and it wasn’t anything surprising.”
Apple’s chief executive officer, Tim Cook, has issued a statement regarding the company’s stand on AI. He recently told news outlets, “We do integrate it into our products [but] people don’t necessarily think about it as AI.”
The Cupertino-based technology company chooses instead to use the term “machine learning” instead of “AI.”
