Apple's ChatGPT rival could get a boost from UK hiring push

Apple CEO Tim Cook says that the company will continue to hire new AI talent in a « vibrant » UK tech economy, saying that the technology is key to a lot of what the company does.

Cook was speaking during a visit to a school near the company’s new Battersea HQ in London when he said that he expects investment in AI engineers to increase.

« It’s our third largest employee population around the world from a country point of view, » Cook said. « It’s also the leading developer community for Europe and it’s as vibrant as ever before, it’s dynamic »

‘AI is all over our products’

The Independent reports that Cook confirmed the AI hiring plans before adding that the technology goes deep into Apple’s products, perhaps in some ways we might not always realize.

“’AI is all over our products today – it’s behind the Fall Detection on the (Apple) Watch, it’s behind Crash Detection, it’s behind Afib (atrial fibrillation) detection, it’s behind the ECG, it’s predictive typing on iPhone… it’s literally everywhere on our products and of course we’re also researching generative AI as well, so yes we have a lot going on’,” he reportedly said.

This comes amid ongoing rumors that Apple is working on its own large language model technology, similar to that of ChatGPT. It’s hoped that it will, eventually, lead to Siri’s expansion beyond what it is currently capable of.

But for now, Cook was focused on the UK and Apple’s presence there. “It’s our third largest employee population around the world from a country point of view. It’s also the leading developer community for Europe and it’s as vibrant as ever before, it’s dynamic,” he reportedly said.

Apple has had a UK presence for 40 years at this point. But it’s looking forward with Cook noting that some UK developers are already working on Vision Pro apps ahead of next year’s release.