Apple’s Plan B for AI is actually pretty great

WHEN all the top tech companies seem to moving in a pack towards artificial intelligence (AI), Apple has stood startlingly apart.

Its infrastructure investments haven’t ballooned. The presence of AI in its products is, comparatively speaking, minimal. And when Mark Zuckerberg came knocking with huge pay cheques for Apple’s talent, Tim Cook didn’t do all he could to retain it.

There are two ways to look at this state of affairs. One is that Apple is in disarray, its AI products don’t work because it has been caught napping on the next great tech revolution and is haemorrhaging talent as a result. Another is that Cook is exercising restraint as others in Silicon Valley lose their heads.