Tim Cook tells Apple staff AI is “as big as the internet”

Apple CEO Tim Cook held an urgent company-wide meeting at Apple Park’s Steve Jobs Theater, telling employees that the AI revolution is “as big or bigger” than the internet and smartphones while promising significant investment to catch up in artificial intelligence. The rare all-hands gathering signals Apple’s mounting pressure to address its AI lag amid high-profile employee defections to competitors and internal strategic confusion.

What you should know: Cook used the hourlong meeting to rally Apple’s workforce around AI development, drawing parallels to the company’s history of being late to markets but ultimately defining them.

• “Apple must do this. Apple will do this. This is sort of ours to grab,” Cook told employees, according to people aware of the meeting. “We will make the investment to do it.”
• The meeting marked a departure from Apple’s typical small town hall-style gatherings, indicating the company felt compelled to take control of its AI narrative.

Why this matters: Apple faces mounting challenges in AI development, including talent drain to Meta’s Superintelligence Labs and internal team setbacks that have delayed critical projects like Siri’s AI overhaul.

• The Siri team was reportedly blindsided by delays and surprised to learn Apple was pursuing partnerships with OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, and Anthropic, another AI company, rather than continuing in-house development.
• Internal discussions about acquiring AI search startup Perplexity were also referenced during the company’s recent earnings call.

What they’re saying: Cook leaned on Apple’s historical pattern of entering markets late but defining categories, while software chief Craig Federighi addressed specific technical challenges.

• “We’ve rarely been first,” Cook told staffers. “There was a PC before the Mac; there was a smartphone before the iPhone; there were many tablets before the iPad; there was an MP3 player before iPod.”
• Federighi explained Siri’s delays: “We initially wanted to do a hybrid architecture, but we realized that approach wasn’t going to get us to Apple quality.”

In plain English: Apple tried to upgrade Siri by combining two different systems—one for basic tasks like setting timers and another powered by advanced AI technology. This hybrid approach proved too complex to meet Apple’s quality standards.

The big picture: Cook also addressed broader company matters including COO Jeff Williams’ upcoming retirement, health initiative investments, and regulatory scrutiny facing Big Tech.

• “The reality is that Big Tech is under a lot of scrutiny around the world,” Cook said. “We need to continue to push on the intention of the regulation and get them to offer that up, instead of these things that destroy the user experience and user privacy and security.”