Apple GPT: Apple is reportedly working on its own version of ChatGPT; stock gains $60 billion in seconds

The AI chatbot landscape is becoming increasingly crowded, with numerous generative AI startups launching their own AI-powered chatbot tools since the debut of ChatGPT in November 2022. As the AI race heats up, many players including tech giants are vying for a significant presence in this space.

Just yesterday, we wrote about Meta after it released the commercial version of its latest open-source AI language model, called Llama 2. With Meta’s entry, the competition is getting even more intense, and all eyes are on the tech giant to see how it will impact the AI chatbot market.

Less than 24 hours later, Apple is joining the generative AI race. This evening, Bloomberg reported that Apple is quietly working on its own set of artificial intelligence tools that could potentially challenge industry giants like OpenAI Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google. While Apple has yet to reveal its strategy for releasing these AI-powered chatbots to consumers, the mere mention of their involvement caused quite a stir in the market. Shares of Apple surged 2%, adding more than $60 billion to its market cap in just a matter of seconds.

“Apple Inc. is quietly working on artificial intelligence tools that could challenge those of OpenAI Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google, and others, but the company has yet to devise a clear strategy for releasing the technology to consumers,” Bloomberg reported.

Here’s more from the report:

“The iPhone maker has built its own framework to create large language models — the AI-based systems at the heart of new offerings like ChatGPT and Google’s Bard — according to people with knowledge of the efforts. With that foundation, known as “Ajax,” Apple also has created a chatbot service that some engineers call “Apple GPT.”

In recent months, the AI push has become a major effort for Apple, with several teams collaborating on the project, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private. The work includes trying to address potential privacy concerns related to the technology. A spokesman for the Cupertino, California-based company declined to comment.”

While Apple is enjoying another $60 billion boost in market cap, what caught our attention about the report is what Bloomberg said some 14 paragraphs down in the story:

“Apple employees say the company’s tool essentially replicates Bard, ChatGPT and Bing AI, and doesn’t include any novel features or technology”

While it’s still unclear how long the party will last, investors continue to pour billions of dollars into generative AI space, hoping to find the next big winner. The atmosphere is filled with anticipation and speculation, with hopes high and the potential for significant returns on these investments. Only time will tell which of these startups will emerge as the true winners and shape the future of generative AI.

Last month, Apple’s market cap surpassed the $3 trillion mark, reaching the milestone for the first time on June 30, 2023. To put this astounding achievement into perspective, Apple’s $3 trillion market capitalization represents about 75 percent of the U.S. federal government’s revenue in 2020.