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Apple CEO Tim Cook saidDeepSeek ’s AI modelsrepresent “ innovation that drive efficiency ” during an earnings call Thursday while field questions from analysts about the iPhone maker ’s AI ambitions .

“ In general , I think innovation that drives efficiency is a skilful thing . And , you know , that ’s what you see in that manikin , ” enunciate Cook , respond to an psychoanalyst ’s question about how DeepSeek ’s AI model would affect Apple ’s margins .

Cook went on to take note that Apple leverage a intercrossed model for its AI , in which it runs some simple tasks locally — using its own AI models on its machine ’s custom atomic number 14 chips . Meanwhile , other , more complicated tasks run in the swarm through partnerships with AI model provider .

Cook also tell Apple has always taken a “ prudent and measured ” approaching to these type of expenditure .

Apple presently only has one AI partnership , with OpenAI , which allow ChatGPT to answer complex questions from iPhone users in a secret swarm .

OpenAI lay claim this week tohave evidence that its AI example were used to train DeepSeek ’s AI modelsthrough a process called distillation . If true , that would dishonor OpenAI ’s usage insurance policy and undermine DeepSeek ’s accomplishments .

That did n’t quit Apple ’s CEO from thresh a compliment toward DeepSeek .

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Apple has indicated its OpenAI partnership is not single , and it may integrate other companies ’ AI models into the iPhone in the future , such as Google ’s Gemini or Anthropic ’s Claude . Cook did not go as far as to suggest Apple would incorporate DeepSeek ’s models , however .

Beyond OpenAI ’s allegations of IP theft , several tech analyst have suggested that DeepSeek ’s AI modelswere trained with significantly more GPUs and computation coststhan the party claims . That would mean DeepSeek ’s AI framework were not trained quite as efficiently as some suspected . Still , the Chinese AI lab trade admission to its mannequin at a steep discount compared with what American AI labs load .

Investors also peppered Cook with head about the success of Apple Intelligence .

The phased launching of Apple ’s AI feature does not appear to have make the quick boost to iPhone sales that some portend . Instead , sale slenderly refuse in the last quarter , compared to last yr .

hop to spin around the decline more favourably , Cook claimed the company saw stronger sale in area where Apple Intelligence had rolled out than regions where it had not .

Apple has present other issue with its AI features , beyond their deficiency of availability . It recentlypaused its AI summaries of news articles this monthafter the feature produced misleading headlines . In one case , Apple Intelligence hallucinated andchanged a BBC intelligence headlineto wrong understand that Luigi Mangione , the man charged in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson , had pip himself , which was untrue .