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Apple CEO Tim Cook (L); John Giannandrea (C), senior vice president of machine learning and AI strategy; and Craig Federighi (R), senior vice president of software engineering, speak during Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference in Cupertino, California, on June 10, 2024.

Nic Coury | AFP | Getty Images

Apple fully embraced artificial intelligence on Monday, as company executives explained the features and reasoning behind Apple Intelligence, the company’s new AI software suite.

But Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference launch event was carefully crafted to distinguish the iPhone maker from current AI leaders, such as Microsoft and Google, at a panel discussion Monday afternoon.

Software chief Craig Federighi and AI chief John Giannandrea said during the panel that Apple has a different approach to the technology than its Silicon Valley rivals. Unlike companies that are building AI for a broad range of products, Apple is instead focused only on the devices it sells and the personal data that AI could use.

Apple revealed a more limited approach that eschews future-focused thinking about the potential of the technology in favor of small tasks that can be done now without burning up battery life.

“We think AI’s role is not to replace our users but to empower them,” Federighi said.

Apple’s AI may be the first that its over 2 billion users interact with. If its AI features are favored over cloud-based competition from Microsoft or Google, it could change how billions of dollars in AI infrastructure per year is built and shift the direction of products that use the technology.

Much of the AI development that has captured investor and technological interest has focused on building or securing powerful supercomputers equipped with Nvidia chips to develop even more power-hungry AI models. In this scenario, users access the AI software by communicating with equally powerful servers over the web.

Apple’s AI is mostly on your device

Apple Intelligence was unveiled during Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in Cupertino, California, on June 10, 2024.

Source: Apple Inc.

Apple’s vision for AI isn’t about one big model — it’s a slew of smaller models that don’t require the same amount of computing power and memory, running on Apple’s devices and chips themselves. If the AI on the phone can’t do it, then Apple, or an app using Apple’s tools, reaches out to the cloud to access a larger AI model. Apple partnered with OpenAI, for example, to give users access to ChatGPT if Siri can’t provide an answer. These features come into play only if users allow it.

Apple executives don’t refer to this strategy as using one or multiple models. Instead, they package it as just “Apple Intelligence.”

“We think that the right approach to this is to have a series of different models and different sizes for different use cases,” Giannandrea said.

Giannandrea said the company worked to create a 3-billion parameter model as part of Apple Intelligence. ChatGPT’s GPT-3 model from 2020, in comparison, is much larger, at 175 billion parameters. The more parameters, the more memory and computing power needed to run the model.

Apple’s approach is faster than the cloud-based options and has privacy benefits. However, there can be issues when the models are too small to get anything done. Apple is betting that through a user’s iPhone, its AI can tap into personal data about appointments, location, and what the user is doing. One example provided by Federighi is that his phone knows who his daughter is.

Apple also says it’s making sure its small models work only on tasks they can excel at, rather than give users an open-ended chatbot interface.

“There’s a critical extra step, which is we’re not taking this teenager and telling him to go fly an airplane,” Federighi said.

Many AI features Apple announced on Monday are similar to products already announced this year. Apple’s AI can summarize and rewrite documents, generate small images, and translate conversations in real time. One notable feature will enable users to generate new emojis using AI without connecting to the internet. The new features will be released this fall in a beta version.

Apple’s approach to privacy

Private Cloud Compute unveiled during Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in Cupertino, California, on June 10, 2024.

Source: Apple Inc.

Privacy will be a challenge for Apple as it embraces AI. It has used privacy as one of its primary marketing tools for years, highlighting that Apple’s business model doesn’t require ad targeting and that it has the best interests of its users in mind versus data brokers and spammers.

Other AI companies collect user data and store it to improve their software, a practice that doesn’t fit Apple’s current privacy policies. Much of Apple’s presentation on Monday pointed to steps the company has taken to prevent the impression that it’s hoovering up user data to improve its AI.

“We’re not going to take that data and go send it to some cloud somewhere,” Giannandrea said. “Because we want everything to be very private, whether it’s running locally or on a cloud computing service, and that’s the way we want it so we can use your most personal data.”

Apple didn’t detail what data was used to train its AI models, beyond that it uses files scraped from the public web in addition to licensed data, such as news archives and stock photography.

Apple said it developed its own servers using its Apple chips, called Apple Private Cloud, to prevent user data sent back to an AI server from being stored or re-used. It will allow third parties to inspect the software, a notable move for a secrecy-focused company that usually doesn’t provide information about its infrastructure.

“Even if a company maybe makes a promise and says, ‘Well, hey, look, we’re not going to do anything with the data.’ You have no way to verify that,” Federighi said, explaining why Apple will allow inspection of its AI server software.

More AI to come

ChatGPT integration with Apple iOS 18 announced during Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in Cupertino, California, on June 10, 2024.

Source: Apple Inc.

At times, Apple officials seemed to downplay how big a shift this is in the company’s AI strategy, saying that it’s a continuation of the machine learning work the company has already done to edit photos or transcribe text, or to put AI-specific blocks on its chips.

“It’s only recently that others are starting to suddenly claim like there’s some new category there,” Federighi said. “But those are things we’ve been shipping for a long time.”

However, Apple didn’t bet it all on a single approach. It will offer ChatGPT built into its operating systems, allowing users to prompt OpenAI’s model for free and offering users a more powerful and larger AI model. However, OpenAI’s ChatGPT will be marked in Apple’s software, telling users that data will be sent to OpenAI servers, which run on Microsoft’s cloud. Answers will indicate that they were generated by ChatGPT, too, just in case they go off the rails.

Apple said it could offer different models in the future, signaling that Apple Intelligence is not the only AI system it expects its customers to use. Federighi said that one day some of its customers might want a medical AI system or legal AI model built into Apple products, for example. Or maybe one of Google’s models.

“We’re going to look forward to doing integrations with models like Google Gemini, for instance, in the future. I mean, nothing to announce right now,” Federighi said. “But that’s our direction.”

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AI is disrupting the advertising business in a big way — industry leaders explain how

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AI is disrupting the advertising business in a big way — industry leaders explain how

An AI assistant on display at Mobile World Congress 2024 in Barcelona.

Angel Garcia | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Artificial intelligence is shaking up the advertising business and “unnerving” investors, one industry leader told CNBC.

“I think this AI disruption … unnerving investors in every industry, and it’s totally disrupting our business,” Mark Read, the outgoing CEO of British advertising group WPP, told CNBC’s Karen Tso on Tuesday.

The advertising market is under threat from emerging generative AI tools that can be used to materialize pieces of content at rapid pace. The past couple of years has seen the rise of a number of AI image generators, including OpenAI’s DALL-E, Google’s Veo and Midjourney.

In his first interview since announcing he would step down as WPP boss, Read said that AI is “going to totally revolutionize our business.”

“AI is going to make all the world’s expertise available to everybody at extremely low cost,” he said at London Tech Week. “The best lawyer, the best psychologist, the best radiologist, the best accountant, and indeed, the best advertising creatives and marketing people often will be an AI, you know, will be driven by AI.”

Read said that 50,000 WPP employees now use WPP Open, the company’s own AI-powered marketing platform.

“That, I think, is my legacy in many ways,” he added.

Outgoing WPP CEO says AI will 'revolutionize' advertising business

Structural pressure on creative parts of the ad business are driving industry consolidation, Read also noted, adding that companies would need to “embrace” the way in which AI would impact everything from creating briefs and media plans to optimizing campaigns.

A report from Forrester released in June last year showed that more than 60% of U.S. ad agencies are already making use of generative AI, with a further 31% saying they’re exploring use cases for the technology.

‘Huge transformation’

Read is not alone in this view. Advertising is undergoing a “huge transformation” due to the disruptive effects of AI, French advertising giant Publicis Groupe’s CEO Maurice Levy told CNBC at the Viva Tech conference in Paris.

He noted that AI image and video generation tools are speeding up content production drastically, while automated messaging systems can now achieve “personalization at scale like never before.”

Read more CNBC tech news

However, the Publicis chief stressed that AI should only be considered a tool that people can use to augment their lives.

“We should not believe that AI is more than a tool,” he added.

And while AI is likely to impact some jobs, Levy ultimately thinks it will create more roles than it destroys.

“Will AI replace me, and will AI kill some jobs? I think that AI, yes, will destroy some jobs,” Levy conceded. However, he added that, “more importantly, AI will transform jobs and will create more jobs. So the net balance will be probably positive.”

This, he says, would be in keeping with the labor impacts of previous technological inventions like the internet and smartphones.

AI is moving from curiosity to action, Publicis' Maurice Levy says

“There will be more autonomous work,” Levy added.

Still, Nicole Denman Greene, analyst at Gartner, warns brands should be wary of causing a negative reaction from consumers who are skeptical of AI’s impact on human creativity.

According to a Gartner survey from September, 82% of consumers said firms using generative AI should prioritize preserving human jobs, even if it means lower profits.

“Pivot from what AI can do to what it should do in advertising,” Greene told CNBC.

“What it should do is help create groundbreaking insights, unique execution to reach diverse and niche audiences, push boundaries on what ‘marketing’ is and deliver more brand differentiated, helpful and relevant personalized experiences, including deliver on the promise of hyper-personalization.”

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Nvidia-mania took over Europe this week. Here’s what I learned from Jensen Huang

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Nvidia-mania took over Europe this week. Here's what I learned from Jensen Huang

Jensen Huang, co-founder and chief executive officer of Nvidia Corp., left, and Emmanuel Macron, France’s president at the 2025 VivaTech conference in Paris, France, on Wednesday, June 11, 2025.

Nathan Laine | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Nvidia boss Jensen Huang has been on a tour of Europe this week, bringing excitement and intrigue to everywhere he visited.

His message was clear — Nvidia is the company that can help Europe build its artificial intelligence infrastructure so the region can take control of its own destiny with the transformative technology.

I’ve been in London and Paris this week following Huang around as he met with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, journalists, fans, analysts and gave a keynote at Nvidia’s GTC event in the capital of France.

Here’s the what I saw and the key things I learned.

The draw of Huang is huge

Huang is truly the current rockstar of the tech world.

At London Tech Week, the lines were long and the auditorium packed to hear him speak.

The GTC event in Paris was full too. It was like going to a music concert or sporting event. There were GTC Paris T-shirts on the back of every chair and even a merchandise store.

Nvidia GTC in Paris on 11 June 2025

Arjun Kharpal

The aura of Huang really struck me when, after a question-and-answer session with him and a room full of attendees, most people lined up to take pictures or selfies with him.

Macron and Starmer both wanted to be seen on stage with him.

Nvidia positions itself as Europe’s AI hope

Nvidia’s key product is its graphics processing units (GPU) that are used to train and execute AI applications.

But Huang has positioned Nvidia as more than a chip company. During the week, he described Nvidia as an infrastructure firm. He also said AI should be seen as infrastructure like electricity.

His pitch to all countries was that Nvidia could be the company that will help countries build out that infrastructure.

“We believe that in order to compete, in order to build a meaningful ecosystem, Europe needs to come together and build capacity that is joint,” Huang said during a speech at the Viva Tech conference in Paris on Wednesday.

Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, speaks during the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, France, June 11, 2025.

Gonzalo Fuentes | Reuters

One of the most significant partnerships announced this week is between French startup Mistral and Nvidia to build a so-called AI cloud using the latter’s GPUs.

Huang spoke a lot during the week about “sovereign AI” — the concept of building data centers within a country’s borders that services its population rather than relying on servers located overseas. Among European policymakers and companies, this has been an important topic.

Huang also heaped praise on the U.K., France and Europe more broadly when it came to their potential in the AI industry.

China still behind but catching up

On Thursday, Huang decided to do a tour of Nvidia’s booth and I managed to catch him to get a few words on CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe.”

A key topic of that discussion was China. Nvidia has not been able to sell its most advanced chips to China because of U.S. export controls and even less sophisticated semiconductors are being blocked. In its last quarterly results, Nvidia took a $4.5 billion hit on unsold inventory.

I asked Huang about how China was progressing with AI chips, in particular referencing Huawei, the Chinese tech giant that is trying to make semiconductor products to rival Nvidia.

Huang said Huawei is a generation behind Nvidia. But because there is lots of energy in China, Huawei can just use more chips to get results.

Nvidia CEO: Huawei ‘has got China covered’ if the U.S. doesn’t participate

“If the United States doesn’t want to partake, participate in China, Huawei has got China covered, and Huawei has got everybody else covered,” Huang said.

In addition, Huang is concerned about the strategic importance of U.S. companies not having access to China.

“It’s even more important that the American technology stack is what AI developers around the world build on,” Huang said.

Just reading between the lines somewhat — Huang sees a world where Chinese AI tech advances. Some countries may decide to build their AI infrastructure with Chinese companies rather than American. That in turn could give Chinese companies a chance to be in the AI race.

Quantum, robotics and driverless is the future

Nvidia boss Jensen Huang delivers a speech on stage talking about robotics.

Arjun Kharpal | CNBC

During his keynote at GTC Paris on Wednesday, he also address quantum computing, saying the technology is reaching “an inflection point.”

Quantum computers are widely believed to be able to solve complex problems that classic computers can’t. This could include things like discovering new drugs or materials.

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Tesla faces protests in Austin over Musk’s robotaxi plans

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Tesla faces protests in Austin over Musk's robotaxi plans

In an aerial view, a Tesla showroom at 12845 N. US 183 Highway Service Road is seen after police were called for a suspicious device in Austin, Texas, on March 24, 2025.

Brandon Bell | Getty Images

With Elon Musk looking to June 22 as his tentative start date for Tesla’s pilot robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, protesters are voicing their opposition.

Public safety advocates and political protesters, upset with Musk’s work with the Trump administration, joined together in downtown Austin on Thursday to express their concerns about the robotaxi launch. Members of the Dawn Project, Tesla Takedown and Resist Austin say that Tesla’s partially automated driving systems have safety problems.

Tesla sells its cars with a standard Autopilot package, or a premium Full Self-Driving option (also known as FSD or FSD supervised), in the U.S. Automobiles with these systems, which include features like automatic lane keeping, steering and parking, have been involved in dozens of collisions, some fatal, according to data tracked by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Tesla’s robotaxis, which Musk showed off in a video clip on X earlier this week, are new versions of the company’s popular Model Y vehicles, equipped with a future release of Tesla’s FSD software. That “unsupervised” FSD, or robotaxi technology, is not yet available to the public.

Tesla critics with The Dawn Project, which calls itself a tech-safety and security education business, brought a version of Model Y with relatively recent FSD software (version 2025.14.9) to show residents of Austin how it works.

In their demonstration on Thursday, they showed how a Tesla with FSD engaged zoomed past a school bus with a stop sign held out and ran over a child-sized mannequin that they put in front of the vehicle.

Dawn Project CEO Dan O’Dowd also runs Green Hills Software, which sells technology to Tesla competitors, including Ford and Toyota.

Stephanie Gomez, who attended the demonstration, told CNBC that she didn’t like the role Musk had been playing in the government. Additionally, she said she has no confidence in Tesla’s safety standards and said there’s been a lack of transparency from Tesla regarding how its robotaxis will work.

Another protester, Silvia Revelis, said she also opposed Musk’s political activity, but that safety is the biggest concern.

“Citizens have not been able to get safety testing results,” she said. “Musk believes he’s above the law.”

Tesla didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

— Todd Wiseman contributed to this report.

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