Apple CEO Tim Cook says AI will eventually 'affect every product and service we have'

• Tim Cook said AI would be a "major focus" for Apple and affect every product and service.
• Recent AI products like ChatGPT and DALL-E 2 have caught the attention of the business community.

Recent advancements in artificial intelligence have caught much of the business community's attention, and Apple CEO Tim Cook is no exception.

On an earnings call with investors and reporters on Thursday afternoon, Cook said AI is a "major focus" at Apple, adding, "it's incredible in terms of how it can enrich customers' lives."

Cook pointed to some of Apple's services that already have integrated elements of artificial intelligence, including the iPhone and Apple Watch's new crash detection feature and Apple Watch's electrocardiogram feature that allows users to record their heartbeat and rhythm.

Apple's CEO said he plans to incorporate AI into the company further.

"We see enormous potential in this space to affect virtually everything we do... It will affect every product and every service that we have," Cook said.

Earlier this month, Apple released another consumer-facing product in the space: AI-powered book narrations.

Many predictions about artificial intelligence seemed like the stuff of science fiction until recently, when several consumer-facing AI products hit the market, including AI photo editors like Lensa AI and DALL-E 2, along with AI chatbot ChatGPT.

The image generators and ChatGPT have been met with both criticism and celebration for pushing the boundaries of AI technology.

DALL-E 2 and ChatGPT are products of OpenAI, of which another big tech giant, Microsoft, owns a sizeable stake. Google also has its own version of AI, LaMDA, though it's not publicly available.

Apple is ramping up staffing for its own AI efforts: it currently has more than 100 open job positions in machine learning and AI.