Apple Tim Cook’s chief executive said Deepseeek’s AI models represent the “innovation that leads to efficiency” during a profit call on Thursday, while recording questions from analysts about the IPhone AI ambitions.
“In general. I think the innovation that drives efficiency is good. And, you know, that’s what you see in this model,” Cook said, answering a analyst’s question about how Deepseek AI models would affect the Apple’s margins.
Cook continued to note that Apple is leveraging a hybrid model for its AI, in which it manages some simple local tasks – using its own AI models in its adjustable silicon chips. In the meantime, other, more complex tasks are performed in the cloud through collaborations with AI models.
Cook also said that Apple always has a “prudent and deliberate” approach to these types of expenditure.
Apple has only one AI partnership with Openai, which allows Chatgpt to answer complex questions from iPhone users in a private cloud.
Openai claimed this week have evidence that AI models were used to train Deepseek AI models through a process called distillation. If it is true, this would violate Openai’s use policies and undermine Deepseek’s achievements.
This did not prevent Apple’s CEO from flying a compliment to Deepseek.
Apple has stated that its partnership is not exclusive and can incorporate AI models of other iPhone companies in the future, such as Google’s Gemini or Claude. However, Cook did not reach the point where Apple has integrated Deepseek models.
In addition to Openai’s allegations of IP theft, several technology analysts suggested that Deepseek’s AI AI models were trained with significantly more GPUs and calculation costs than the company claims. This would mean that Deepseek’s AI models were not as effective as some suspects. Still, the AI Chinese laboratory sells access to its models at a sudden discount compared to what American Ai Labs charges.
Investors also brought Cook with questions about the success of Apple Intelligence.
The gradual launch of Apple’s AI features does not seem to have created immediate impetus to the iPhone sales that were foreseen. Instead, sales have been slightly reduced in the last quarter, compared to last year.
Hoping to turn the decline more favorably, Cook claimed that the company saw stronger sales in areas where Apple Intelligence had been released from areas where it did not.
Apple has addressed other issues with AI’s characteristics beyond the lack of availability. Recently it stopped the AI summaries of news news this month, as the feature produced misleading headlines. In one case, Apple Intelligence is paid and changed a BBC News leader To read the wrong read that Luigi Mangione, the man accused of killing the UnitedhehealthCare Brian Thompson CEO, had shooted himself, which was untrue.