Apple CEO says DeepSeek shows ‘innovation that drives efficiency’

Apple CEO Tim Cook dinner stated DeepSeek’s AI fashions characterize “innovation that drives effectivity” throughout an earnings name Thursday whereas fielding questions from analysts concerning the iPhone maker’s AI ambitions.

“Usually, I believe innovation that drives effectivity is an efficient factor. And, , that’s what you see in that mannequin,” stated Cook dinner, responding to an analyst’s query about how DeepSeek’s AI fashions would affect Apple’s margins.

Cook dinner went on to notice that Apple leverages a hybrid mannequin for its AI, through which it runs some easy duties domestically — utilizing its personal AI fashions on its gadget’s customized silicon chips. In the meantime, different, extra difficult duties run within the cloud by way of partnerships with AI mannequin suppliers.

Cook dinner additionally stated Apple has at all times taken a “prudent and deliberate” strategy to these kind of expenditures.

Apple at present solely has one AI partnership, with OpenAI, which permits ChatGPT to reply advanced questions from iPhone customers in a personal cloud.

OpenAI claimed this week to have proof that its AI fashions had been used to coach DeepSeek’s AI fashions by way of a course of referred to as distillation. If true, that might violate OpenAI’s utilization insurance policies and undermine DeepSeek’s accomplishments.

That didn’t cease Apple’s CEO from tossing a praise towards DeepSeek.

Apple has indicated its OpenAI partnership isn’t unique, and it could combine different firms’ AI fashions into the iPhone sooner or later, equivalent to Google’s Gemini or Anthropic’s Claude. Cook dinner didn’t go so far as to recommend Apple would combine DeepSeek’s fashions, nonetheless.

Past OpenAI’s allegations of IP theft, a number of tech analysts have prompt that DeepSeek’s AI fashions had been educated with considerably extra GPUs and computation prices than the corporate claims. That may imply DeepSeek’s AI fashions weren’t educated fairly as effectively as some suspected. Nonetheless, the Chinese language AI lab sells entry to its fashions at a steep low cost in contrast with what American AI labs cost.

Buyers additionally peppered Cook dinner with questions concerning the success of Apple Intelligence.

The phased launch of Apple’s AI options doesn’t seem to have created the speedy increase to iPhone gross sales that some predicted. As a substitute, gross sales barely declined within the final quarter, in comparison with final yr.

Hoping to spin the decline extra favorably, Cook dinner claimed the corporate noticed stronger gross sales in areas the place Apple Intelligence had rolled out than areas the place it had not.

Apple has confronted different points with its AI options, past their lack of availability. It not too long ago paused its AI summaries of reports articles this month after the characteristic produced deceptive headlines. In a single case, Apple Intelligence hallucinated and altered a BBC information headline to incorrectly learn that Luigi Mangione, the person charged within the homicide of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, had shot himself, which was unfaithful.