Tim Cook wants Apple Intelligence to be ‘the best’

When it comes to AI, Apple CEO Tim Cook dismisses critics who claim Apple has come late to the party, even those inside his own company. Speaking to the Wall Street Journal he argues that what his company is doing when it comes to AI isn’t to be first, but to be “best”.

Cook speaks deliberately.

The Apple CEO knows the company has already lost the race to be first with Generative but doesn’t think that’s the end of the battle. It can still be the best. Given the choice between being first and being best, Cook said “If we can only do one, there’s no doubt around here. If you talk to 100 people, 100 of them would tell you: It’s about being the best.

First or best?

Cook also spoke up for Apple Intelligence, which is expected to sneak into reality next week. “We weren’t the first to do intelligence. But we’ve done it in a way that we think is the best for the customer.”

He says the tech makes for “profoundly different” user experiences, just as have other natural feeling but profound user interface evolutions to have emerged from the firm. “I think we’ll look back and it will be one of these air pockets that happened to get you on a different technology curve,” he said. He also observes that being best takes “a lot of iteration”.

Ultimately success is rarely an overnight sensation, Cook suggests “It doesn’t occur overnight,” he said. Take Vision Pro, for example, “At $3,500, it’s not a mass-market product,” Cook says. “Right now, it’s an early-adopter product. People who want to have tomorrow’s technology today—that’s who it’s for. Fortunately, there’s enough people who are in that camp that it’s exciting.”

But when it comes to Apple Intelligence, it looks very much like reports against its success will in future be seen as little more than a blip, if Cook has got it right.

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