Apple CEO Tim Cook told DeepSeek’s AI models represent “innovation that drives efficiency” during an earnings call Thursday. It was the answer to fielding questions from analysts about the iPhone maker’s AI initiatives.
Cook said while responding to an analyst’s question about how Deep Seek’s AI models impact Apple’s margin.
“In general, I think innovation that drives efficiency is a good thing. And, you know, that’s what you see in that model,”
Cook also went and noted that Apple leverages a hybrid model for its AI. This runs some of the simple tasks locally. They use their own AI models on it’s devices custom silicon chips. Meanwhile on the other hand this is going to be a more complicated task running in the cloud through partnerships with the AI models.
Cook also said Apple has always taken a “prudent and deliberate” practice to the expenditures.
There is presently only one AI relationship between Apple and OpenAI, which enables ChatGPT to respond to intricate inquiries from iPhone users in a private cloud.
This week, OpenAI asserted that it had proof that DeepSeek’s AI models were trained using its models using a procedure known as distillation. If accurate, that would go beyond OpenAI’s usage guidelines and call into question DeepSeek’s achievements.
That didn’t stop Apple’s CEO from tossing a compliment toward DeepSeek.
Apple also indicated its OpenAI partnership is not exclusive. It may incorporate other companies’ AI models into the iPhone in the future. It’s more like Google’s Gemini or Anthropic’s Claude. Cook did not go as far as to suggest Apple would integrate DeepSeek’s models.
Beyond OpenAI’s allegations of IP theft, many tech analysts suggest that DeepSeek’s AI models are also trained with significantly more GPUs and accounting costs than the company asserts. DeepSeek’s AI models were not prepared quite as efficiently as some imagined. Still, the Chinese AI lab sells credentials to its models at a steep value compared with what American AI labs set.
Cook was also inundated with inquiries from investors regarding Apple Intelligence’s performance.
Apple’s gradual rollout of AI features does not seem to have immediately increased iPhone sales as some had anticipated. Rather, compared to the previous year, revenues decreased little in the most recent quarter.
