Former Apple CEO John Sculley: “AI was not a special strength” of the tech giant

talking to luckDiane brady in Zeta Live Conference He warned in New York on Thursday that Apple faces its “first real competitor” in “many decades” in OpenAI.

“AI has not been a particular strength for them,” Sculley said of Apple.

Wall Street has Pressure mounts on Apple While it struggles to make the same advances in AI as Magnificent Seven and its private corporate counterparts. In the past decade, Apple has seemed to make smart moves in building momentum in the AI ​​space, launching Siri in 2011 and Poaching by John Gianandrea from Google In 2018 to be Head of Artificial Intelligence.

But the company faltered after OpenAI launched ChatGPT in 2022, when it finally announced “Apple intelligence” AI Strategy June 2024, Results I fell short. Apple said in June it was Delaying AI upgrades To Serie until 2026, Gianandrea has been sidelined from the project. The company was considering using Anthropic, or OpenAI, technology to run Siri on its internal models. Bloomberg reported In June.

Until the latest one Explosion profits It failed to allay investor concerns not only about AI adoption, but also the impact of higher tariffs that cost the company $800 million in the previous quarter.

For his part, Cook He told investors In Apple’s latest earnings call, the company is taking steps to restructure employees internally and acquire other companies to catch up in the AI ​​race.

He added: “We have a great team, and we will put all our energy behind it.”

Meanwhile, Apple’s stock is down about 1% so far this year, while the company has been a leader in artificial intelligence chips. Nvidia It’s up about 40% and the super AI metric is up Microsoftwhich is also a major investor in OpenAI, with a 22% stake.

Although Apple’s market capitalization increased from… $300 billion to $3.2 trillion Under Cook’s watch, some did He called on the CEO to step down Amidst the lackluster AI results.

Sculley, who served as Apple’s CEO from 1983 to 1993, acknowledged the possibility of Cook’s tenure coming to an end, saying Thursday that his successor should help shift the company from an app-centric approach to agentic artificial intelligence.

OpenAI takes a bite out of Apple

It’s this push toward agentic AI that makes Sculley believe OpenAI poses a real threat to Apple’s competitiveness. He said apps are no longer as efficient as a subscription model, which is how OpenAI runs ChatGPT.

“When apps were at the center of everything, it was selling gadgets and selling products,” Schooley said. “When you think about subscription, it’s about people paying for something for as long as they need it.”

OpenAI has also tapped the talent of Jony Ive, Apple’s former design chief. He joined Sam Altman’s thriving company as Part of IO’s $6.5 billion acquisitiona startup created by Yves. My nearly 30 years at Apple have seen the company’s technology line explode, starting with the iMac.

“He’s the one who actually designed and built the iMac, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad,” Scully said. “If there’s anyone who’s likely to be able to bring that dimension to LLM, in this case OpenAI, it’s probably Jony Ive, who works with Sam Altman.”

The designer was assigned to… Creating the first AI machines from OpenAIa hardware expansion resulting from its acquisition of IO.

“This momentum has led us to create 15 to 20 really compelling product ideas. The challenge is focus,” Ive told Altman at the company’s DevDay conference last week. “It would be easy if you knew there were three good things. That’s not the case. We design a range of products. We try to make sure we’re judicious and thoughtful about what we focus on and so we don’t get distracted.”