Apple experienced a substantial surge in its stock price on Wednesday, jumping as much as 2.3% in a single day to a record high following a report on the company’s artificial intelligence (AI) ambitions.
Earlier in the day, Bloomberg had reported that Apple was making significant strides in the AI sector, which led to a temporary increase of $71 billion in the company’s market valuation, bringing the total market capitalization to a record-breaking $3.12 trillion.
The one-day gain of $71 billion is significant in itself, as it is equivalent to the entire market valuation of major companies like Micron and Waste Management, and exceeds the combined valuation of 390 other companies listed on the S&P 500.
Apple has been relatively discreet about its AI endeavors compared to its tech rivals such as Microsoft and Alphabet, who have outlined their plans to capitalize on the AI market opportunity. To compete with OpenAI’s successful ChatGPT, Apple is currently developing generative AI tools under the codename “Ajax.” This project includes the creation of a chatbot service referred to by some engineers as “Apple GPT.”
To reinforce its AI capabilities, Apple is actively recruiting engineers skilled in various AI-related domains. As of now, the company has 179 job openings for positions that focus on machine learning infrastructure, deep learning, reinforcement learning, natural language processing, and speech technologies.
While the AI push at Apple has gained momentum in recent months, the company is carefully considering potential privacy concerns associated with AI technology. Apple is known for its strict privacy rules and aims to address these issues as it progresses with the AI project “Ajax.”
During a May conference call, Apple CEO Tim Cook acknowledged the need to resolve certain issues concerning AI technology before implementing it into the company’s products. “We view AI as huge and we’ll continue weaving it in our products on a very thoughtful basis,” CEO Cook added.
While Apple has made some improvements to search capabilities for photos, Apple Maps, and Siri, it still lacks a definitive strategy for delivering AI technologies to consumers.
Currently, Apple’s focus appears to be on enhancing its underlying large language models, which serve as the foundation for its AI ambitions. The company’s AI chatbot, reportedly akin to OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Alphabet’s Bard, remains in a stripped-down design and is not intended for public use at present.
Currently, Apple’s focus seems to be on enhancing its underlying large language models, which form the bedrock of its AI ambitions.
