Apple overtakes Microsoft as it becomes the largest business in the world based on stock price on Wednesday. Following its unveiling of AI features at its annual developers conference on Monday, the iPhone giant is on a roll on Wall Street.
Apple lost its top rank in January as investors praised Microsoft for its unapologetic release of new generative AI products under its Copilot brand. Apple has taken the time to develop its AI strategy.
Apple’s market value was $3.33 trillion at 15:30 GMT, while Microsoft’s was $3.26 trillion. The New York-based Nasdaq market is where both shares are traded.
Apple has announced Apple Intelligence, a new AI platform that will be rolled out over time in an update to the iOS 18 operating system.
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Only Apple’s most expensive gear will support the technology, so interested parties will have to shell out more money to take advantage of the AI.
Although initially indifferent, analysts now believe that the iPhone’s enhanced capabilities will encourage the company’s 1.5 billion users to update their devices to utilise the AI capabilities.
According to senior analyst Daniel Ives of Wedbush Securities, “the delayed positive reaction from the Street on the Apple Intelligence news was investors starting to fully digest that the AI revolution will come through the consumer with an Apple device over the coming year.”
The launch of Apple Intelligence
To catch up to competitors embracing cutting-edge technology faster than Apple, the company launched “Apple Intelligence” on Monday, a suite of new AI features for its highly sought-after gadgets, along with a collaboration with OpenAI.
After Microsoft and Google released devices one after the other in quick succession, Apple has been under pressure for months to convince many who have doubted its AI approach.
Chief Executive Tim Cook stated that this most recent action will “take the experience of Apple products to new heights” when he launched the yearly Worldwide Developers Conference at the tech giant’s headquarters in Cupertino, California, a Silicon Valley metropolis.
The collaboration of Apple and OpenAI
Apple and OpenAI collaborated to achieve this goal, and the release of ChatGPT in 2022 marked the beginning of a new age for generative artificial intelligence.
“We are thrilled to be working with Apple to incorporate ChatGPT into their products later this year,” stated OpenAI. I think you’re going to love it,” the company’s CEO, Sam Altman, wrote on social media.
A new iteration of the iOS 18 operating system, which was also revealed on Monday during the week-long conference, would also have Apple Intelligence.
Privacy concerns resolved
Apple officials emphasised that Apple Intelligence had privacy controls in place to enhance the functionality of its Siri digital assistant and other products without stealing customer data.
Analysts claim that Apple’s main problem has been integrating ChatGPT-style AI, which ravenously consumes data, into its products without undermining the company’s strongly emphasised customer privacy and security.
“It uses your unique context to provide you with the most relevant and helpful intelligence and safeguards your privacy at every turn.”
Elon Musk’s concerns
Elon Musk, the billionaire behind SpaceX and Tesla, aimed at the collaboration, declaring that he will forbid iPhone use at his companies due to data security risks.
“Once Apple gives your data to OpenAI, they have no idea what’s really happening.” They’re letting you down, Musk wrote in a social media post.
In addition to developing xAI, his competitor to OpenAI, Musk, is suing the firm he co-founded in 2015.
How Apple Intelligence Works
With Apple Intelligence, which is limited to the company’s proprietary technologies, customers will be able to make custom emojis by describing objects in common language or write concise email summaries directly from their mailbox.
According to Apple, the AI-enhanced Siri voice assistant will also get an update, showing up as a pulsating light on the edge of your home screen.
Since its introduction more than a decade ago, GPT-4o, the newest assistant from OpenAI, has eclipsed Siri, making it a feature of the past.
According to Federighi, users can opt to employ ChatGPT to improve Siri’s response to specific requests as part of the OpenAI agreement.
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Techsponential analyst Avi Greengart remarked, “It sounds like Apple, then it offers it to you if it needs ChatGPT.” “What makes this special is how it is implemented.”
The collaboration with OpenAI was non-exclusive, in contrast to Apple’s historic search alliance with Google, which has come under regulatory investigation for antitrust. Since the beginning of the ChatGPT-sparked craze, the firm Steve Jobs founded has been highly silent about AI, with Apple first shunning the phrase entirely.
However, the pressure got to be too much, as Wall Street helped Microsoft surpass Apple to become the largest corporation in the world by stock price, primarily as a result of the Windows maker’s open use of AI. The AI revelations did not exactly thrill Wall Street investors, as evidenced by Apple’s share price falling by about two per cent by Monday’s close.