In the coming years, Apple is anticipated to invest roughly a billion dollars to develop and deploy its own generative AI system, a homegrown counterpart to ChatGPT, designed to run natively on Apple devices. This ambitious move, highlighted in the latest edition of Power On, is based on insights from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman and reflects Apple’s shift toward embedding advanced artificial intelligence directly into its hardware and software ecosystem. The project aims to bring sophisticated conversational capabilities and AI-assisted features to the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and wearables, potentially reshaping how users interact with devices on a daily basis.
Gurman notes that the AI initiative is spearheaded by a leadership trio that includes John Giannandrea, Craig Federighi, and Eddie Cue. Giannandrea, renowned for his work in AI and machine learning, is leading core AI research and is actively involved in modernizing Siri so it can interface more effectively with a neural network backend. Federighi oversees the integration of AI features into the next generation of iOS, ensuring that the user experience remains seamless and responsive as new capabilities emerge. Cue’s team is focused on embedding AI into native apps such as Apple Music, Pages, and Keynote, as well as other software offerings across Apple’s ecosystem. This collaborative effort signals a broad strategy to infuse AI across both system-level functions and third-party applications, creating a cohesive, AI-enabled user experience that remains tightly integrated with Apple’s hardware philosophy.
The discussion inside Apple centers on how best to deploy artificial intelligence across devices. Executives and engineers are weighing whether most AI processing should occur on-device, leveraging the processors in iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Apple Watches, or whether certain tasks should be handled in the cloud. A hybrid model is also on the table, where some operations run locally with optimized efficiency, while others are offloaded to remote servers when more complex computation or storage is required. This debate reflects a careful balancing act between performance, privacy, energy consumption, and user experience, with the aim of delivering fast, reliable AI responses without compromising device autonomy or battery life.
Bloomberg’s reporting also notes that Apple was somewhat caught by surprise by the rapid momentum of Microsoft with ChatGPT and Google with Bard. The company recognizes that failing to respond to this accelerating trend in a timely fashion would be a strategic misstep, potentially ceding ground to competitors that have already demonstrated how AI can transform consumer software and services. Apple appears determined to close the gap by accelerating its internal AI roadmap, preserving its emphasis on privacy, on-device intelligence, and a user-centric design philosophy that has defined the company for years.
Earlier discussions around Apple Watch developments show that the company continues to pursue innovations beyond its flagship products. After a period of limited activity in some areas, the watch category has seen renewed attention and investment, signaling Apple’s ongoing commitment to expanding its health, fitness, and connectivity features. This broader push toward a more capable, AI-assisted ecosystem suggests that Apple envisions a future where intelligent software enhances the way users manage daily tasks, enjoy media, and stay connected across a range of devices and experiences.