Topline
Shares of Apple fell in premarket trading Tuesday after the company debuted “Apple Intelligence” to much fanfare at its annual WWDC event, a highly anticipated insight into the tech giant’s vision for artificial intelligence that includes a long-rumored partnership with ChatGPT maker OpenAI confirms and wrath of Tesla billionaire Elon Musk.
Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke at Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference … [+]
Key facts
Apple shares fell 0.83% to $191.51 in premarket trading Tuesday morning.
The decline continues the downward trend from the day before, when Apple shares fell nearly 2% to $193.12 in regular trading.
The lukewarm response from Wall Street comes after CEO Tim Cook unveiled the company’s long-awaited strategy to integrate generative AI into its products at its annual developer conference, Apple Worldwide Developers Conference 2024 (WWDC 2024).
The company, by all accounts a Silicon Valley titan that is often at the forefront of technology, was widely seen as lagging behind rivals like Google and Microsoft in the race to develop and deploy generative AI tools like ChatGPT. The company’s shares have been relatively flat this year compared to the rising values of some of its rivals benefiting from the AI boom.
The fall wiped out some of the gains Apple had made in the run-up to the event, where it was widely expected to finally announce its approach to AI, with shares up around 14% ahead of early May.
In addition to announcing plans to roll out artificial intelligence on its flagship devices, commonly referred to as ‘Apple Intelligence’, which will integrate OpenAI’s popular chatbot ChatGPT into products, Apple has also announced software updates for the iPhone that will bring greater customizations and enable upgrades to its Vision Pro mixed platform. – reality headset.
What to pay attention to
Apple’s decision to partner with ChatGPT maker OpenAI to boost products like voice assistant Siri is a long-awaited development in Silicon Valley. Media reports and analyst speculation surrounding an upcoming deal to bring ChatGPT on iPhones between Apple and OpenAI had been circulating for weeks before the event. It’s a development that has clearly angered Tesla billionaire Elon Musk, who labeled the partnership an “unacceptable security breach” and vowed to ban Apple devices from his companies if Apple integrated OpenAI at the operating system level. In a series of fiery social media posts, Musk claimed that Apple had little idea of what it was doing in terms of security, and expressed concerns about the privacy of user information if ChatGPT were to be integrated. “They sell you along the river,” he said.
Chief critic
Musk’s threat to ban Apple devices from his companies’ campuses also applies to visitors. Those who frequent Musk’s companies – including social media platform X, Tesla, xAI, Neuralink, Boring Co. and SpaceX – will have to check their Apple products at the door if Apple goes ahead with its plans, the billionaire warned. “Visitors will have to check their Apple devices at the door, where they will be stored in a Faraday cage.”
Tangent
Musk recently raised $6 billion in a funding round for his AI startup xAI, which reportedly brought its valuation to $24 billion. Musk, who originally co-founded OpenAI but has since had a spectacular falling out with the company and management over its approach to profits and AI risk, started the company with the intention of competing with OpenAI.
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What we don’t know
Apple has not announced when it will make the new features announced at WWDC 2024 available to consumers.
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