Apple to spend $1 billion on AI in catch-up move: report

Apple Inc. was reportedly caught off guard by the rise of generative artificial intelligence tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT last year, and it is now committing $1 billion toward an effort to catch up.

That’s according to Bloomberg’s “Power On” newsletter, which reported over the weekend on Apple’s purported scramble, citing a source familiar. The outlet said an effort is underway at the iPhone maker to bring generative AI technology across all its products, led by Apple senior vice presidents John Giannandrea and Craig Federighi.

“Now, Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook says that Apple has been working on generative AI technology for years,” the newsletter reads. “But I can tell you in no uncertain terms that Apple executives were caught off guard by the industry’s sudden AI fever and have been scrambling since late last year to make up for lost time.”

FOX Business has reached out to Apple for comment on the report.

WHAT IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)?

While other tech titans, including Microsoft, Google and Amazon, have stormed forward with major AI initiatives over the past year, Apple has been largely quiet amid the frenzy over the advanced technology.

During a visit to Capitol Hill last month, Cook told FOX News Digital that AI presents a “huge opportunity” for humanity. He was notably not an attendee of the Senate’s bipartisan AI Insight Forum going on the same day, which featured other tech CEOs that included Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and SpaceX founder Elon Musk.

WHAT IS CHATGPT?

Apple was also noticeably not included in a White House meeting over the summer that included several major tech firms as part of the Biden administration’s efforts to encourage responsible growth of generative AI.

The July gathering was attended by executives from Amazon Web Services, Anthropic, Google, Inflection, Meta, Microsoft and OpenAI. Each of the companies signed a pledge with the administration for voluntary commitments to place limits on AI technology.

FOX Business’ Elizabeth Elkind and Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report.