Apple CEO Tim Cook has expressed optimism about the future of artificial intelligence, describing it as life-changing with limitless possibilities – but stressed that the technology needs regulation and guardrails to prevent abuse.
“It can be life-changing in a good way,” Cook said in an interview with singer Dua Lipa on the At Your Service podcast. “Because it can do things like in the future, I don’t necessarily mean today, it can help diagnose a problem you have from a health perspective.”
Cook said that AI is present in all Apple products, although the company doesn’t label it as such.
“If you’re composing a message or an email on your phone, you’ll see predictive typing, which tries to predict your next word so I can quickly select the word. That’s AI,” Cook said.
Tech companies have invested heavily in generative AI since the launch of OpenAI’s flagship model, GPT-3, last year. Since then, billions have flowed into the AI industry, including more than $10 billion reportedly invested by Apple in AI development, $10 billion by Microsoft in OpenAI, $4 billion by Amazon in AI developer Athropic, and another $2 billion by Google, also in Athropic.
Despite his optimism, however, Cook sounded a note of caution.
“There are an infinite number of things that AI can do. Unfortunately, it can also do no good,” he said.
World leaders from the Vatican to the United Nations have sounded the alarm about the rise of AI-generated deepfakes. In October, the UK-based Internet Watch Foundation warned that AI-generated child abuse material was spreading rapidly on the dark web.
“What’s needed with this new form of AI, generative AI, is some rules of the road and some regulation around it,” Cook said. “I think a lot of governments around the world are now focused on that and focused on how to do that, and we’re trying to help with that. And we’re one of the first to say that this is necessary, that some regulation is necessary.”
Earlier this year, CEOs of leading AI developers signed a Biden administration pledge to develop AI responsibly. While Microsoft, Meta, OpenAI, Google, Amazon and others signed on, Apple did not.
In May, Apple joined rival smartphone maker Samsung in banning the use of ChatGPT in the workplace, citing fears of data leakage and loss of intellectual property. In July, Bloomberg reported that Apple was quietly developing an AI chatbot to compete with ChatGPT.
Apple, according to Cook, is taking a deliberate approach to artificial intelligence, saying the tech giant thinks deeply about how people will use its products and whether they can be used for nefarious purposes.
“I think most governments today are a little bit behind the curve. I think that’s kind of a fair assessment to make,” Cook said. “But I think they’re catching up fast.”
“I think the US, the UK, the EU and several countries in Asia are catching up quickly,” Cook said.
Earlier this month, 29 countries and the European Union committed to a unified approach to managing artificial intelligence. The Bletchley Declaration, named after the location of the UK’s AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park, called on global leaders to work together to ensure safety, transparency and collaboration around generative AI.
“I think there’s going to be some regulation of AI in the next 12 to 18 months, so I’m pretty confident that’s going to happen,” Cook said.
