Technologies
Google Flooded the Internet With AI News. Where’s Apple?
Apple hasn’t publicly entered the generative AI race yet. But there’s a good chance we’ll see the technology baked into its upcoming software.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard the term «generative AI» at least a handful of times now, perhaps thanks to the wildly popular ChatGPT service. The AI-powered chatbot’s success didn’t just shine a spotlight on OpenAI, the creator behind it, but it also catalyzed an AI arms race in the tech industry – a race from which Apple has been noticeably absent.
Earlier this month, Google made a flurry of AI-related announcements at its annual developer conference, including a new AI-infused version of search and Bard, its AI-powered chatbot, which is being rolled out across the world. It’s not just Google. Before that, Microsoft built generative AI into its suite of long-established productivity apps like Word, PowerPoint and Outlook in a move that’s changing how more than a billion people work. In February, Meta released its own sophisticated AI model, which has many of the same capabilities at ChatGPT and Bard, as open-source software for public use.
But what about Apple?
The short answer: Even though AI technology is hardly new to Apple, the iPhone maker still remains missing – at least publicly – from the current generative AI gold rush.
«We’re in the heart of the generative AI hype cycle, and there are major new developments weekly, » Avi Greengart, analyst at Techsponential, told CNET. «Apple can afford to be deliberate in how it applies new technologies to fit its ecosystem.»

OpenAI recently dropped a ChatGPT app for the iPhone. The new app, which is free, gives you a way to take OpenAI’s AI chatbot on the go.
Apple’s wait-and-see approach
Apple has typically adopted a wait-and-see approach around emerging technology, and that has often worked for the tech giant. For instance, the iPad wasn’t the first-ever tablet, but for many, including CNET editors, it is the best tablet. A more recent example on the hardware side is foldable phones. Apple is the only major holdout, with Google beating it to the punch. The search giant launched its inaugural foldable phone, the Pixel Fold, at its developer conference in May – and it hasn’t been making phones for as long as Apple. There are rumors, however, that a foldable iPhone, possibly known as the iPhone Flip, could go to market in 2025.
Based on remarks from CEO Tim Cook, it seems like Apple may be taking a similar approach with generative AI. «I do think it’s very important to be deliberate and thoughtful in how you approach these things,» Cook said in response to a question related to generative AI on Apple’s earnings call in May. «And there’s a number of issues that need to be sorted. … AI is being talked about in a number of different places. But the potential is certainly very interesting.»
However, with a fast-developing AI technology, Apple could risk falling far behind its rivals. For all Apple’s business success, it has lagged in specific categories. For instance, its HomePod smart speaker didn’t hit the market until years after the Amazon Echo and Google Home, which have a far higher market share than Apple in the smart speaker category.
When it comes to the topic of AI, Apple isn’t alone in adopting a cautious approach. It’s also coming from the technology’s own backers – including the founder and CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman, who has concerns ranging from election disinformation to mass jobs displacement.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman describes Microsoft’s AI partnership at a Bing search engine press event.
Last Tuesday, speaking before a Senate subcommittee, Altman said he’s «eager» for artificial intelligence to be regulated. He also spoke about the promise of artificial intelligence and discussed its potential harms. «If this technology goes wrong, it can go quite wrong,» he said.
Altman’s comments followed calls by a group of AI researchers and tech leaders, including Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak, to pause development of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4 over concerns about runaway risks without sufficient guardrails. Geoffrey Hinton, credited as the «godfather of AI,» resigned from Google in May so that he could freely share his concerns about the technology he helped create, which he says could cause the world serious harm.
Does generative AI fit into Apple’s business?
Although Apple hasn’t publicly entered the generative AI fight, a recent 9to5Mac report said that the iPhone maker is working on an upgrade to Siri, one that could improve the virtual assistant’s conversational abilities via ChatGPT-like AI concepts. Apple didn’t reply to a request for comment.
While Apple hasn’t publicly discussed any plans for generative AI-based products, Cook did discuss the company’s focus on AI during its May earnings call. He cited AI-powered features like fall and crash detection, which are both available on the latest iPhones and Apple Watches.
«We view AI as huge,» he said. «We’ll continue weaving it into our products on a very thoughtful basis.»
AI is far from a brand new concept to Apple. Siri, which was released 12 years ago, uses speech recognition and machine learning to understand a query and serve up an answer. In recent months, Apple debuted camera enhancements such as photographic styles and the ability to cut and paste a subject from an image, both of which depend on AI.
In addition, Apple’s Macs and MacBooks, which now run on Apple-designed M1 and M2 chips, have dedicated neural engines with 16 cores, which are aimed at AI and machine learning tasks. Apple says AI performance is 40% faster than with its old Intel chips.
«You can expect that AI performance will become more and more important as more developers figure it out,» wrote CNET’s Stephen Shankland in a January article detailing Apple’s M2 chipset.
But as Greengart highlights, it would make sense for Apple to bring the tech to certain products that extend beyond Siri as well as its current AI-powered offerings.
«Apple likes to position itself as being at the intersection of technology and liberal arts,» Greengart told CNET in an email. «Generative AI would fit nicely into tools and software that Apple provides for artistic and personal expression; that could include anything from GarageBand to photo editing to email across iPhones, iPads, and Mac.»
However, a chatbot in the vein of OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google’s Bard is likely not in the books for Apple. The underlying technology behind those chatbots, known as large language models, has a high resource requirement for development. That means significant investment in the form of computing resources, human talent and power, rendering it a possibility for huge enterprises with vast resources. While Apple presumably has those resources, it’ll have to be a worthwhile investment for the iPhone maker.
All eyes on WWDC
After Google devoted a considerable amount of air time to generative AI at its conference this month, all eyes are on Apple and what it might reveal at its Worldwide Developers Conference on June 5. Apple executives could offer more clues on how the iPhone maker views generative AI and how it fits into the broader business. At WWDC, Apple typically introduces new software for the iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad and so on, and it’s possible that Apple could bake more AI into those updates.
Ahead of the conference, Apple previewed a slew of accessibility software features expected to make their way to its upcoming iOS 17 mobile operating system. One of the noteworthy drops is called Personal Voice. It uses on-device machine learning to allow users at risk of speech loss to replicate a voice after about 15 minutes of training. The phone can then speak aloud typed-out phrases, and it’s compatible with FaceTime and phone calls in a feature that could be a form of generative AI for voice.
More likely to take center stage, however, is Apple’s highly anticipated mixed reality headset, which would mark the company’s first entry into a new hardware category since 2015. According to a January Bloomberg report, it’ll cost around $3,000, run on Apple’s latest M2 chipset, boast eye- and hand-tracking systems, and feature a digital crown that lets users switch between AR and VR modes. It’s also probable that Apple will take advantage of fast-developing AI technology for its latest device as well.
«We need to keep in mind that generative AI is not only about generating text but also other types of content like graphics,» Will Wong, of market researcher International Data, told CNET. «Thus, it will be an area that is favorable for Apple to look into, especially if there is an AR/VR headset that comes into its product portfolio.»
Technologies
Tariffs Explained: Latest on Trump’s Shifting Import Tax Plan, and What It Means
Technologies
Apple, I’m (Sky) Blue About Your iPhone 17 Air Color
Commentary: The rumored new hue of the iPhone 17 Air is more sky blah than sky blue.

I can’t help but feel blue about the latest rumor that Apple’s forthcoming iPhone 17 Air will take flight in a subtle, light-hued color called sky blue.
Sky blue isn’t a new color for Apple. It’s the featured shade of the current M4 MacBook Air, a shimmer of cerulean so subtle as to almost be missed. It’s silver left too close to an aquarium; silver that secretly likes to think it’s blue but doesn’t want everyone else to notice.
Do Apple employees get to go outside and see a real blue sky? It’s actually vivid, you can check for yourself. Perhaps the muted sky blue color reflects a Bay Area late winter/early spring frequent layer of clouds like we typically see here in Seattle.
«Who cares?» you might find yourself saying. «Everyone gets a case anyway.» I hear you and everyone else who’s told me that. But design-focused Apple is as obsessive about colors as they are about making their devices thinner. And I wonder if their heads are in the clouds about which hues adorn their pro products.
Making the case for a caseless color iPhone
I’m more invested in this conversation than most — I’m one of those freaks who doesn’t wrap my phone in a case. I find cases bulky and superfluous, and I like to be able to see Apple’s design work. Also, true story, I’ve broken my iPhone screen only twice: First when it was in a «bumper» that Apple sent free in response to the iPhone 4 you’re-holding-it-wrong Antennagate fiasco, and second when trying to take long exposure starry night photos using what I didn’t realize was a broken tripod mount. My one-week-old iPhone 13 Pro slipped sideways and landed screen-first on a pointy rock. A case wouldn’t have saved it.
My current model is an iPhone 16 Pro in black titanium — which I know seems like avoiding color entirely — but previously I’ve gone for colors like blue titanium and deep purple. I wanted to like deep purple the most but it came across as, in the words of Patrick Holland in his iPhone 14 Pro review, «a drab shade of gray or like Grimace purple,» depending on the light.
Pros can be bold, too
Maybe the issue is too many soft blues. Since the iPhone Pro age began with the iPhone 11 Pro, we’ve seen variations like blue titanium (iPhone 15 Pro), sierra blue (iPhone 13 Pro) and pacific blue (iPhone 12 Pro).
Pacific blue is the boldest of the bunch, if by bold you mean dark enough to discern from silver, but it’s also close enough to that year’s graphite color that seeing blue depends on the surrounding lighting. By comparison, the blue (just «blue») color of the iPhone 12 was unmistakably bright blue.
In fact, the non-Pro lines have embraced vibrant colors. It’s as if Apple is equating «pro» with «sophisticated,» as in «A real pro would never brandish something this garish.» I see this in the camera world all the time: If it’s not all-black, it’s not a «serious» camera.
And yet I know lots of pros who are not sophisticated — proudly so. People choose colors to express themselves, so forcing that idea of professionalism through color feels needlessly restrictive. A bright pink iPhone 16 might make you smile every time you pick it up but then frown because it doesn’t have a telephoto camera.
Color is also important because it can sway a purchase decision. «I would buy a sky blue iPhone yesterday,» my colleague Gael Cooper texted after the first rumor popped online. When each new generation of iPhones arrive, less technically different than the one before, a color you fall in love with can push you into trading in your perfectly-capable model for a new one.
And lest you think Apple should just stick with black and white for its professional phones: Do you mean black, jet black, space black, midnight black, black titanium, graphite or space gray? At least the lighter end of the spectrum has stuck to just white, white titanium and silver over the years.
Apple never got ahead by being beige
I’m sure Apple has reams of studies and customer feedback that support which colors make it to production each year. Like I said, Apple’s designers are obsessive (in a good way). And I must remind myself that a sky blue iPhone 17 Air is a rumored color on a rumored product so all the usual caveats apply.
But we’re talking about Apple here. The scrappy startup that spent more than any other company on business cards at the time because each one included the old six-color Apple logo. The company that not only shaped the first iMac like a tipped-over gumdrop, that not only made the case partially see-through but then made that cover brilliant Bondi blue.
Embrace the iPhone colors, Apple.
If that makes you nervous, don’t worry: Most people will put a case on it anyway.
Technologies
Astronomers Say There’s an Increased Possibility of Life on This Distant Planet
Using the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers are working to confirm potential evidence of life on a distant exoplanet dubbed K2-18b.

Astronomers are nearing a statistically significant finding that could confirm the potential signs of life detected on the distant exoplanet K2-18b are no accident.
The team of astronomers, led by the University of Cambridge, used data from the James Webb Space Telescope (which has only been in use since the end of 2021) to detect chemical traces of dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and/or dimethyl disulfide (DMDS), which they say can only be produced by life such as phytoplankton in the sea.
According to the university, «the results are the strongest evidence yet that life may exist on a planet outside our solar system.»
The findings were published this week in the Astrophysical Journal Letters and point to the possibility of an ocean on this planet’s surface, which scientists have been hoping to discover for years. In the abstract for the paper, the team says, «The possibility of hycean worlds, with planet-wide oceans and H2-rich atmospheres, significantly expands and accelerates the search for habitable environments elsewhere.»
Not everyone agrees, however, that what the team found proves there’s life on the exoplanet.
Science writer and OpenMind Magazine founder Corey S. Powell posted about the findings on Bluesky, writing, «The potential discovery of alien life is so enticing that it drags even reputable outlets into running naive or outright misleading stories.» He added, «Here we go again with planet K2-18b.Um….there’s strong evidence of non-biological sources of the molecule DMS.»
K2-18b is 124 light-years away and much larger than Earth (more than eight times our mass), but smaller than Neptune. The search for signs of even basic life on a planet like this increases the chances that there are more planets like Earth that may be inhabitable, with temperatures and atmospheres that could sustain human-like lifeforms. The team behind the paper hopes that more study with the James Webb Space Telescope will help confirm their initial findings.
More research to do on finding life on K2-18b
The exoplanet K2-18b is not the only place where scientists are exploring the possibility of life, and this research is still an early step in the process, said Christopher Glein, a geochemist, planetary researcher and lead scientist at San Antonio’s Southwest Research Institute. Excitement over the significance of the research, he said, should be tempered.
«We need to be careful here,» Glein said. «It appears that there is something in the data that can’t be explained, and DMS/DMDS can provide an explanation. But this detection is stretching the limits of JWST’s capabilities.»
Glein added, «Further work is needed to test whether these molecules are actually present. We also need complementary research assessing the abiotic background on K2-18b and similar planets. That is, the chemistry that can occur in the absence of life in this potentially exotic environment. We might be seeing evidence of some cool chemistry rather than life.»
The TRAPPIST-1 planets, he said, are being researched as potentially habitable, as is LHS 1140b, which he said «is another astrobiologically significant exoplanet, which might be a massive ocean world.»
As for K2-18b, Glein said many more tests need to be performed before there’s consensus on life existing on it.
«Finding evidence of life is like prosecuting a case in the courtroom,» Glein said. «Multiple independent lines of evidence are needed to convince the jury, in this case the worldwide scientific community.» He added, «If this finding holds up, then that’s Step 1.»
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