Tech giant Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), in an AI push, is hiring engineers and researchers across the board in a bid to compress large language models (LLMs) so that they can run efficiently on its iPhones and iPads, according to the Financial Times. The company is hiring for roles in California, Seattle, Paris, and Beijing for its Machine Intelligence and Neural Design (MIND) group.
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The hirings are directed at gaining an edge in the fast-paced generative artificial intelligence (AI) world. Apple seeks to be one of the first to develop AI software that can run effectively on mobile phones and devices instead of on the cloud. This will enable greater privacy protection and speed up app performance as the data will not have to be routed via the cloud.
Apple’s Ambitious AI Desires
The report also cited some of Apple’s job ads. According to one of the advertisements, the company wants to bring “state-of-the-art foundation models to the phone in your pocket, enabling the next generation of ML-based experiences in a privacy-preserving way.” Another advertisement is looking for engineers to “implement features that compress and accelerate LLMs in our on-device inference engine.” Additionally, Apple is also said to be poaching engineers from rivals, including Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META).
Apple has been deploying more dollars in AI research and development, and it will continue to do so. CEO Tim Cook said in the Q3FY23 earnings call that “we view AI and machine learning as core fundamental technologies that are integral to virtually every product that we build.” In the nine months ending July 1, 2023, Apple spent $22.61 billion in research and development, representing a 16% jump over the same period last year.
Is Apple Stock Expected to Rise?
On TipRanks, out of the 23 top analysts who recently rated Apple stock, 16 have given it a Buy rating and seven have given it a Hold. Top Wall Street analysts are those awarded higher stars by TipRanks’ Star Ranking System. This is based on an analyst’s success rate, average return per rating, and statistical significance (number of ratings).
Based on these top analyst ratings, AAPL has a Moderate Buy consensus rating. The average Apple price forecast of $208.21 implies 14.4% upside potential from current levels. Meanwhile, AAPL stock has gained 45.9% so far this year thanks to the AI buzz.
